- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Amulet, ex-voto in the shape of a pair of eyes, cast in white metal and perforated for suspension. [ACA 12/03/2012]
- Person
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Wellcome Institute
- PRM source Wellcome Historical Medical Museum
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1890
- Date collected
- 1890
- Acquisition information
- Transferred: 1985
- Materials and processes
- Material White Metal, Process Cast, Process Perforated
- Dimensions
- Height: max 17 mm, Width: max 27 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1985.52.393 Other numbers: 785
- Associated publications
- This amulet was selected for the Small Blessings project website [http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/amulets], online text as follows: These Roman Catholic ex-voto eyes were acquired in Saumur, France in 1890. Votive offerings are symbols of devotion and gratitude and can take many different forms, such as placing lit candles, placing flowers, pictures or notes before icons, or hanging little tokens like these eyes at a shrine. They can be homemade, specially commissioned, or bought from religious vendors, and are made from many different materials, including paper, wax, bone, wood, silver, tin, copper, bronze, and gold. These eyes are made from a white metal, and would have been hammered into shape over a mould by a silversmith. Ex-votos are offered when miracles are sought and also given in thanks for recovery. They commonly take the shape of human body parts, hearts and animals, and are made to represent the part or creature affected by illness or healed by divine intervention. Eyes represent ocular diseases and blindness, ears are offered for deafness and infections, and limbs are given for broken bones, gangrene and paralysis. [CB 29/08/2012] Illustrated in colour in the pamphlet accompanying the Reading Room displays at the Welcome Collection with the caption “Votive eyes white metal France RRa0140/1985.52.393 Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. This votive offering may have been used to request or give thanks for a cure for blindness.” Illustrated in colour on page 191 in ‘Reading Room Companion consisting of a rare and valuable collection of diverse curiosities acquired by and for Henry Wellcome with a great variety of books’ Written and compiled by Anna Faherty published in 2014 by the Wellcome collection, London. Illustrated alongside 1985.52.275, .1670 and .584 with the caption “Votive charms These body parts were hung around shrines to wish for a cure relating to the part of the body they represent. They might also be offered as a token of thanks after recovery.”
Search terms: Religion, Figure, Ornament, Amulet, Religious Object, Religious Offering, Pendant