During the Museum's photography volunteering project, some of our recent acquisitions have been photographed. One particularly interesting donation can be seen here. They were donated by Judith Noble and came with the following text:
"These three poppets were found by caretakers over the weekend of 6th-7th June 2015 on a fire escape at the Arts University Bournemouth. There was no indication as to who had made them or why, but a pentagram had been scratched onto the wall next to where they were left. It is unlikely they were made by students as term time had finished some time previously and the students had left for the summer.
The people who found the poppets (which they referred to as "Voodoo Dolls") were very disturbed by them, as were the people who occupied the office next to the fire escape; they needed reassurance that the dolls were not intended to be images of them. One person even suggested that the police should be called.
It is unlikely that we will ever find out more about the origin of these poppets, but they (and the reaction they evoked) are a very interesting demonstration of continuing belief in the power of image magic, and, at the very least, the continuing hold witchcraft has over the popular imagination."
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