- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Amulet, pendant in the shape of a hand known as 'mano fica', made of bone, carved, incised and perforated for suspension. [ACA 19/04/2012]
- Person
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Wellcome Institute
- PRM source Wellcome Historical Medical Museum
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1931
- Date collected
- By 1931
- Acquisition information
- Transferred: 1985
- Materials and processes
- Material Bone, Process Carved, Process Incised, Process Perforated
- Dimensions
- Height: max 32 mm, Width: max 15 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1985.52.932 Other numbers: 1828 1739 R 13998/ 1936
- Associated publications
- Illustrated in colour in the pamphlet accompanying the Reading Room displays at the Welcome Collection with the caption “Clenched fist Bone France RRa0151/1985.52.932 Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. A clenched fist with the thumb protruding between two finger is known as a ‘fig hand’.” Illustrated in colour on page 202 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, alongside 1985.50.1215 with the caption “Blue glass and bone ‘fig hands’ France and Italy RRa0212, RRa0151/1985,50,1215, 1985.52.932 Pitt Rivers Museum Common in France, Italy and Spain, these ‘fig hands’ are also known as mano ficas or higas. They have been used since Roman and Phoenician times as protection against the ‘evil eye’. In the Muslim world, open palms known as ‘hands of Fatima’ (named after Muhammad’s daughter) serve the same purpose. In fifteenth-century Spain, they were sewn onto the shoulders of children’s clothing.”
Search terms: Religion, Figure, Ornament, Amulet, Pendant, Neck Ornament