{"id":180,"date":"2021-12-13T15:30:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T14:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2021-12-13T16:46:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T15:46:12","slug":"what-are-witch-balls-and-how-can-you-buy-them","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/what-are-witch-balls-and-how-can-you-buy-them\/","title":{"rendered":"What are witch balls, and how can you buy them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Luke Honey\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 13 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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What are witch balls?<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re in the habit of rummaging around junk shops, there\u2019s a chance that you may have come across a \u2018witch ball\u2019.<\/p>\n

Witch balls are large or medium glass balls, highly decorative, often silvered, green or red, with a lustrous mirrored surface. It should have a metal loop on the top through which you can attach a chain to hang it from the ceiling.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I bought a splendid green 19th-century ball from a dealer in St Leonards, and it\u2019s now hanging up in our drawing room. The dealer told me it\u2019s likely to have been made by the glassmakers of Nailsea, near Bristol.<\/p>\n

What is the history of witch balls?<\/h2>\n

As with so many other antiques, there\u2019s a romantic (if not always strictly factual) story lurking somewhere. It\u2019s a bit like\u00a0\u2018cock fighting chairs<\/a>\u2019\u00a0that were not used for cock fighting,\u00a0\u2018cricket tables<\/a>\u2019\u00a0which have nothing to do with cricket, or\u00a0\u2018armada chests<\/a>\u2019, which have no connection whatsoever with the Spanish Armada.<\/p>\n

In popular imagination, \u2018witch balls\u2019 were hung up in 18th and 19th-century windows to ward off evil spirits. It was believed that witches could be entrapped by their own reflection. If you hang up a witch ball you will see that it reflects the entire room, creating a fascinating optical effect.<\/p>\n

I also came across another theory that the balls were originally used to dry salt in front of the fire and, as salt was considered a useful talisman against the \u2018evil eye\u2019, the association stuck.<\/p>\n

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Image: Katya de Grunwald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

An expert at the\u00a0Wheaton Museum of American Glass<\/a>\u00a0suggested that they were more properly \u2018watch\u2019\u00a0<\/em>balls \u2013 a primitive form of burglar alarm. Placed near a picket fence, they would reflect whoever was walking up your garden path.<\/p>\n

Certainly, glass balls were popular decorative ornaments in Germany as symbols of hospitality and, later, during the 19th and 20th centuries in America. They were also popular ornaments in the homes of English glass blowers.<\/p>\n

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