Would the Book of Abraham (the supposed Alchemic Text that Nicholas Flamel used to become both exceedingly wealthy and immortal) be an option? I'm thinking someone who's exceeded and average human lifespan, but is still seemingly in his 30's-40's due to using the Book to create the Elixir of Life on a regular (i.e. monthly) basis, but he can also use the Book to create the Philosopher's Stone to turn base metal into pure gold or ordinary rocks into precious gems.

Color me interested

I rather liked the Unseen Library in the Discworld series where magic books are chained to the shelves - not to keep them from being stolen, but to prevent them from escaping.

Another series, wizards were being pursued by another, so to hide themselves, they whittled their staves into wands to better conceal them. One of them used theirs as the central pole in their parasol and worked as a governess.

Perhaps some of the artifacts are newer, strange technological devices that when you open them up are just full of rocks - or a magic circle that's doing something....

@Expendable That's such a cool idea! Zeus' Lightning Bolt powering a supercomputer which is hosting a superintelligence that uses probability to predict the future.

@FatPrincess wondering about if Lovecraft counts, also wondering about things like werecats/werewolves