Antique French mercury glass bauble 6"

From a private collection in Paris, this fabulous nineteenth-century mercury glass ball is a rare collectors item which would make the perfect addition to any holiday table decorations. Very good condition with a nice patination and small spots of age indicating the passage of time. Hand-blown and silvered, there is a lovely foxing to the mercury glass. The term "Witcher's Ball" comes from an association with numerous superstitions. Some would place them hanging in shop windows in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to ward off evil spirits.