charm wands

A name sometimes given to ornamental glass objects shaped as rolling-pins or small walking-sticks, in which either the glass itself has a multicoloured twisting pattern, or the object is filled with beads, threads, or coloured seeds; it implies they were intended as protection against a witch's evil eye. They were also sometimes said to draw infections to themselves, thus protecting people in the house from sickness if they were wiped daily (Radford, Radford, and Hole, 1961: 94-5). They date from the late 18th and 19th centuries, and are now collected as antiques.