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Three Roman boners
What are they?
Bronze and marble penises with legs… and bits dangling from them.
Right. Good. Anything else you can tell me?
They’re ancient phallic amulets – prime examples of Roman boners culture.
And what are they doing in London?

They belong to the Wellcome Collection, and will be on display at a new exhibition, ‘The Institute of Sexology’, opening this month.
What’s ‘sexology’?
Unsurprisingly, it’s the study of sex. The show looks back at the men and women who’ve delved into our bedrooms – in an academic way, of course – including the Collection’s founder, Henry Wellcome.
And the willies were his?
Indeed. Businessman Wellcome was an avid collector of sex objects in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These amulets were lucky charms, of a sort, and were displayed in the home (the Roman home, not Wellcome’s).
Honor Beddard, curator of 'The Institute of Sexology', pictured with three ancient phallic amulets

‘The Institute of Sexology’ is at the Wellcome Collection, Nov 20 - Sep 20 2015.
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