Mid 20th Century French Green Mercury Glass Witches Ball

Mid 20th Century French Glass Witches Ball * French circa 1940’s * Superb example of Large size mirrored glass Witches Ball(1) * Lustrous Green Mercury Glass * When hung it reflects the entire room (see photo) * The hanging loop and gallery original to the piece * Beautiful all-over patination * Excellent condition and displays beautifully * Best description comes from the photos This ethereal and lustrous emerald green mercury glass witches ball, of large size, dating from the 1940s is hand blown and still has the original hanging loop and gallery attachment. It has survived many past decades and is in excellent condition, showing a beautiful all-over patination. When hung it reflects the entire room as can be seen from the photograph; if you have any questions please contact us. It is traditional that the first object to be created in a new Glass Studio is a Witch Ball. It has been noted that within social history stories from Germany that in 1933 the daughters of the a Gasthof (guest house) owner in Boppard, were known to have been hanging witch balls on their Christmas tree, which suggests a link to our love of modern baubles when festooning our trees with their various decorations and ornaments. (1) Witches Balls have a really interesting and mysterious history and several theories have been put forward as to their main use. The Witches Ball continues to hold great superstition with regard to warding off evil spirits in the English counties of East Sussex and West Sussex and is still used extensively to this day. Examples of the Witches Ball in use can be seen in the windows of homes throughout the counties anywhere from small rural villages to coastal towns and cities. Although frequently seen in shop windows as well, they are often not for sale as they are so highly prized. The tradition of Witch Balls was also taken to overseas British colonies, such as the former British colonies of New England, and remains popular in coastal regions. Superstitious European sailors valued the talismanic powers of the witch balls in protecting their homes. Witch Balls appeared in America in the 19th century and larger, more opaque variations are often found in gardens under the name gazing ball. This name derives from their being used for divination and scrying where a person gazes into them dreamily to try to see future events or to see the answers to questions. However, gazing balls contain no strands within their interior. According to folk tales, Witch Balls were hung in windows, preferably those facing East, or placed on top of a vase or suspended by a cord (as from the mantelpiece or rafters); they may also be have been placed on sticks in windows or hung in rooms where inhabitants wanted protection. Their purpose was to ward off or entice evil spirits and witches with their bright colours and the strands inside the ball would then capture these spirits and prevent them from escaping. Another tradition holds that witch balls or spherical mirrors prevented a witch from being in a room, because witches supposedly did not have a reflection or could not bear to see their own reflection as it was also believed that witches could be entrapped by their own reflection. Yet another variation contends that Witch Balls were used to avert the evil eye, by attracting the gaze of the eye and preventing harm to the house and its inhabitants. Other theories include the objects being used as an early form of burglar alarm with the large surfaces reflecting intruders to ones attention; this is actually rather effective as can be seen in the photograph. History tells us glass houses in England began producing witch balls in about 1690 and Pedlars sold these bottles at country fairs and from door to door. The word witch ball may be a corruption of watch bottle or watch ball because it was used to ward off and guard against evil spirits. Historically a witch ball was called a ‘watch bottle’ or ‘witch bottle’ and was made from either stone or glass. It was designed to contain holy water or salt supporting the folk tale relating them and the supposed magic associated with them; both salt and holy water have been associated with their ability to repel evil spirits or break a witches’ power over her victim. Balls containing salt were hung up in the chimney to keep the salt dry as salt was a precious commodity; breaking the bottle was considered to bring very bad luck.