Sipping from the witch bottle
On the perennial programme Antiques Roadshow this week, one of the experts glugged port from a blackened bottle. Only, it wasn't port, was it? It was 180-year-old urine, with rusty nails, hair and a cockle-like beast submerged in its foisty waters. In almost sinister glee Fiona Bruce, the presenter, revealed to the expert, who had now turned a rather sallow shade, that this was a witch bottle. A show that usually has its experts running their seasoned peepers over a Lalique dish or a suspect early Lowry had suddenly turned into something more eldritch.
Witch bottles are most often discovered in the hearth, thresholds or snugly nestled within the foundations of mid seventeenth century homes. They were apotropaic items – objects that were used to deter evil spirits and witchcraft from entering the home. Iron pins or nails were the most common ingredient placed within the bottle, some of which were Bellarmine stoneware bottles, and a quarter of those discovered had traces of urine inside. Other occult garnishes included bone fragments, teeth, bits of wood and thorns. The bodily essences would magically link the reagents to the owner, while the sharp objects would be the sympathetic items that cause pain. If all these pieces are in the right place and the receptacle thusly buried, any witch who would crawl into one's abode on a stormy night would find themselves in pain and unable to move any further.
People were largely turning to folk magic due to the law's handling of witchcraft at the time. Around two-thirds of every witch on trial in England were acquitted. It's possible that people saw this as leniency towards the black arts and took it upon themselves to craft their own deterrents. There was a clear desperation here – digging up the hearth or foundation in order to place a magical charm would have been no mean feat. People would have been deadly serious about keeping themselves and their loved ones safe. After all, according to lore uncorking or breaking the bottle would break the spell.
If one should find a witch bottle, MOLA has some advice for what to do next.
One thing that you shouldn't do it what our hapless expert, our Jamesian scholar, did and open the bottle and drink from it. There are still forces at work in this land, centuries-old magic buried beneath its skin. The cursed arteries still channel their rotten blood through the foundations of this kingdom. Please handle with care.