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~ Voodoo Priestess Estate ~  ©

3 1/16" LiDiex Glassworks, 1959 New Orleans, Alchemic Mercury, Smokey Quartz Glass Skull

A Main Healing Altar Find 

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This is another of our very long listings with an abundant text and 7 photographs, so please be patient and give them time to load.  If you have come this far we feel that you will find it was worth the wait.  

Twenty-three years have now passed since we were called to do the estate that had been closed up for seventeen years.

The Voodoo Estate   

This type of call usually gets us excited as they are a treasure trove.  Located here in Florida, there was no electricity or running water so we rigged our own lighting and in we went.  If you have ever seen the Adams Family you will have some idea as to what we were greeted with.  Then the attorney handling the liquidation gave us some background.  The estate had belonged to an alleged powerful Voodoo Priestess/JooJoo Exorcist (it said so on her business card!), grand daughter of a Marie Laveau, and favored daughter of a Marie Glapion.

These names meant nothing to us, but the late night talk of Voodoo and exorcism in the old mansion was enough for us to spend the night in a hotel and return in the morning to assess the estate.  The rest is history.

Our research has shown that this woman was what she claimed and was indeed descended from a long line of well known Vodoun family originating in New Orleans in the early 1800's.  We were pretty unnerved by this until we discovered they were also devout Catholics!  Although I have to admit this was unlike any Catholic home we have ever been in and some of the items found inside were a little more than disturbing.

There was no feeling of dread or unwelcome in the mansion, however there was quite a bit of contraband and other items we can or will not sell here.

This is one of a few pieces from this estate we will be listing this week, so check our other postings.

We will, upon the new guardian's request, issue a named Letter of Authenticity with each lot from this estate, complying with the terms set forth to us by the estate's attorney.

The Main Altar of Healing 

This is one of sixteen similar skulls found shelved or in boxes at her, "Main Altar of Healing."  This Main Altar of Healing was what amounted to a small infirmary...of sorts.  Located in an east facing porched hall on the first floor it contained many unusual artifacts with alleged healing attributes. 

She does indeed record some dramatic, if not always successful treatments that she performed.  Although, we must add, her record of successful treatment, although bizarre to many, had better than a 90% cure ratio, which, if true, is rather impressive.

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Some Back Story

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3 1/6" LiDiex, 1959 New Orleans, Alchemic Mercury, Smokey Quartz Glass Skull

Twenty-three of these glass skulls were recovered from throughout this estate, placed singularly here and there, with this group of sixteen being the vast majority of them and the only grouping.  Her journals and inventory tell us they were meant to go to Mardi Gras in 1959 and were inadvertently left behind, then packed away in a storage closet and forgotten until 1963.  She unpacked them and used this lot in her healing practices described as warming then in sunlight and placing them on affected areas being careful not to burn the patient.

  As with many of these artifacts, this group was well inventoried and indexed for use, which would seem by her journal entries that these items would be, "prescribed" to her patients along with certain, "healing mantra to cure their malady."  What she prescribed is a mixture of Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Native American, Hoodoo, Hebrew, Muslim, (and a host of other), but assuredly a set of traditional religious healing practices that originated from the African diaspora.

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Her journals tell us they were custom made for the 1959 Mardi Gras by The LiDiex Glassworks.

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1898 LiDiex 

The research involved in this estate provides continuous fascination.  The founder of the LiDiex Glass Works is known to us as the 1898 LiDiex, but to most, he was known only as "LiDiex."  A 5th. generation descendant of the original Man Known Only as "LiDiex" the first to these shores, who came here as a survivor and saboteur of the slave Ship Henrietta Marie in 1701.  He next found his way to New Orleans to meet with the parents of the then infant grandmother of our priestess, Marie Laveau. 

That LiDiex was a wood carver and furniture maker as were most of his descendants.  This is another case of the multi-generational relationships we have encountered with this family as the LiDiex all had a strong association with these women.  Although a close practitioner and believed to be father to one of her children, he was most noted for his glassmaking after his return to New Orleans from an extended stay in Europe where he studied the glass making techniques of Bohemia and Murano.  He continued making glass for her and her followers up to the time of his demise in 1968. 

Late journals show him to be one of her chief enforcers, a "Zuvembie" leader, and refer to him as, “a skilled sorcerer, tactician, warrior and artist," who was deeply involved in her works.       

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Their glass works provided an additional source of income to this estate and a primary source of income for numerous staff members.  Their Glassworks is attributed with their, “alchemic glass,” which we have noted as being a consistent source of unexplained paranormal activity as those of you who follow the listings from this estate already know.  

According to her journal entries these glass skulls were made from what they referred to as "Alchemic Mercury and Smokey Quartz Silicate Glass."  This is said to have been a secret formula using mercury and mineral silicate sands. 

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The Skull 

It is a heavy mercury, smokey quartz silicate glass skull that measures approximately 3 1/16" x 2 1/2" x 2 9/16". 

Alchemic Mercury Alloys

Many of those associated with this estate were no strangers to alloys containing mercury.  One regional alchemic alloy called Mekapat had already been brought to the estate from Thailand and Cambodia.  This is an ancient recipe for material used to make sacred objects.  It was made by alloying lead, LekLai, copper, cave minerals, herbs, mercury, silver, gold, etc. or any combination thereof.  It is said to be holy material that once hardened into its permanent shape begins a maturing process of supernatural power.  Already powerful at birth, it becomes stronger with age and these amulets are well known to protect one from bodily harm or mishaps.

It did not take them long to incorporate some of these techniques to their glassmaking.

Mercury Glass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, for the most part...

Mercury glass (or silvered glass) is glass that was blown double walled, then silvered between the layers with a liquid silvering solution, and sealed. Although mercury was originally used to provide the reflective coating for mirrors, elemental mercury was never used to create tableware.  Silvered glass was free-blown, then silvered with a solution containing silver nitrate and grape sugar in solution, heated, then closed.  Sealing methods include metal discs covered with a glass round or a cork inserted into the unpolished pontil scar. "Mercury" silvered glass was produced originally around 1840 until at least 1930 in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Germany and was also manufactured in England from 1849 to 1855. 

Edward Varnish and Frederick Hale Thomson patented the technique for silvering glass vessels in 1849. The double walled blanks were furnished by James Powell.  The English examples were often cased with a layer of colored glass in jewel tones of ruby red, cobalt blue, amethyst purple and emerald green then cut to silver.  English signatures on silvered glass include E. Varnish & Co. London, Thomson, London and Thomas Lund. 

Blown glass is made utilizing a long metal blowpipe by the glass blower who shapes and heats the object. The piece is attached to a long, flat-topped iron called a pontil to the end of the piece, with a small piece of molten glass, and the blowpipe is now cracked off.  The workman completes the object and then, the pontil rod or "punty" is cracked off leaving the familiar rough pontil scar. 

Companies in the United States, including the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, New England Glass Company, Union Glass Co., and the Boston Silver Glass Company, made silvered glass from about 1852–1880.  The New England Glass Company displayed a variety of silvered glass articles including copper wheel engraved goblets, vases and other tableware at the 1853 New Crystal Palace Exhibition. 

Silvered mercury glass from Bohemia was also decorated with a variety of techniques including painting, enameling, etching, and surface engraving. 

Silvered "mercury" glass is considered one of the first true "art glass" types, that is, glass that was made for display and for its inherent artistic value rather than for utilitarian use.

Authentic antique silvered glass pieces are still available in a wide range of decorative items and usually sold as mercury glass.

There are many reproductions currently marketed as "mercury glass" in table form, ornaments and other objects.  New "mercury glass" can be distinguished from antique silvered glass in several ways, including lack of a double wall, and solid bottoms that are different from true antique silvered glass.

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These skulls fit that category as they are solid castings that have been extensively polished.  There are eleven of them left and these are the last of the smokey quartz ones.

Each is marked, "LiDiex New Orleans 1959" and weigh 10 oz., (280 grams).

 It is in excellent overall condition with no signs of damage or repair.

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We have been contacted and visited by a number of people who were interested in the items from this estate since our first batch was listed.  Among the buyers have been known psychics and practitioners.  More than one, after adorning themselves or handling their purchase, stated "this is a woman of power!"  Many of our customers, after receiving items from this estate have reported dream contacts and other unexplained phenomenon.

Unusual, authentic Voodoo Priestess Estate piece and at a bargain price!

International Buyer's, please contact us for correct or combined shipping quotes.

Payment is due at listing end.

Check our other posting's and sign up for our newsletter as new items are usually listed daily.

©Text and Photos Copyright 2001-2025 bushidobuce, all rights reserved.

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Photographer's Note;

Once again, the photo sessions of items with reflective surfaces has provided some interesting and in my humble opinion, unnerving results.  It follows a similar pattern of many of the other sessions in that the lights appeared to dance beneath the surface of the glass, not as in a reflection however.  It is very hard for me to describe.  More like a remastered vintage video newsreel.  A few times the images seemed to converge into a reflective humanoid figure.

The other thing that weirded me out with this one was I felt that the glass skull seemed to keep changing expressions!  Kind of unnerving here alone at night during a photo session.

In any event I have tried to capture these things on camera. 

Love
Jess' 

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