Thomas Hardwick, an Egyptologist, holds his lucky stone with ancient leather wrapped around it, which he found in shop in Luxor. It was tradition to wrap lucky stones in rare leathers hundreds of years ago. Now Thomas carries it with him everywhere. “When I brought it to the UK I showed it to a friend of mine who is collector and dealer in antiquities and ethnographic stuff. And we looked at it and agreed that it had been in someone’s pocket for a very long time. It has this patina. And then she looked closely at the leather and said, ‘I wonder what animal it came from? I can tell you it’s not human.'”