M0000013: Two pouches containing an amulet and a charm

Previous title, replaced May 2020: No info available about this object

Image of two pouches. Left: a leather amulet purchased in Cairo and accessioned by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1914 (accession number R173). Right: a protective charm worn by women during pregnancy and transferred to the child after birth. It consists of a red cotton bag containing the head or claw of a snake (possible actually a dog's tooth), different coloured silk threads, seven pins, peppercorns, salt, grains of coffee and four passages from the Qur'an. Purchased by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1927 (accession number 28924) from a collector who acquired it in Egypt. The items are not held by Wellcome Collection.

03 June 1929

1 photograph glass plate negative; 12 x 16.5 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession register and index card which provide entries for the item on the right: acc. number 28924 (image 92) and object number 60811 (image 492).

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2020.

Please consult the digitised version as this item is fragile. Email library@wellcomecollection.org to request access to the physical item.