Popular Superstitions: The falling of a picture (colour litho)

The falling of a picture. The superstition which says that the fall of a picture predicts death is a very old one, and, as in the case of a man himself stumbling or falling, the omens attached to it have a natural basis in thought. A fall or stumble of any sort seems to foreshadow a catastrophe to come. Shortly before the disastrous events which finally resulted in his trial and execution, Archbishop Laud one day found his portrait lying on the floor of his study. The string which had held it fastened to the wall was broken. Every picture was hanging in its place except his, and this sight struck the prelate with such an awful foreboding of his probable fate, that he never again enjoyed a moment's peace. Illustration for one of a set of 25 cigarette cards on the subject of Popular Superstitions issued by Godfrey Phillips in 1930.