British folk amulets (Lovett collection)

Folk Luck & Everyday Charms: the tradition

Modern Europe and America kept a rich tradition of everyday luck charms long after learned magic faded: horseshoes over doors, rabbit's feet, four-leaf clovers, lucky pigs at New Year, charm bracelets. In London, the collector Edward Lovett (1852–1933) bought amulets from working people, costers and sailors, proving that protective magic was alive in the modern city, and his collection is now in the Wellcome Collection, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Cuming Museum. Archaeologists keep finding concealed objects in old houses: shoes, witch bottles, dried cats and ritual marks at doors, windows and chimneys.