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Vampire Slaying / Vampire Killing Kits (Alleged Antiques)

ProfessorF

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1800s Vampire Killing Kit Nabs $14,850 At Stevens Auction
Nov 11th, 2008



A complete and authentic vampire killing kit, circa 1800 and housed in a walnut case, achieved $14,850.
NATCHEZ, MISS.:A complete and authentic vampire killing kit — made around 1800 and complete with stakes, mirrors, a gun with silver bullets, crosses, a Bible, holy water, candles and even garlic, all housed in a American walnut case with a carved cross on top — attained $14,850 in the Jimmy Pippen estate sale by Stevens October 3–4 in the new Natchez Convention Center.
The sale comprised the contents of Pippen's stores (Pippen Antiques and Pippen Interiors), items from his personal residence (which he considered a perfect creation and called "Paradise"), the contents of another home (a three-story, 1850s townhouse called "The Orchard" that he restored with fine appointments and rented out) and treasures from several warehouses.

Source via neatorama.com
 
Aren't silver bullets for werewolves? And wasn't their inclusion in folklore introduced in the forties Hollywood werewolf movies?

And would the garlic have been preserved that long? It all sounds a bit twentieth century rather than circa 1800.
 
Hmm. All seems a bit Van Helsing. If it really is authentic, I suspect it was originally produced as a novelty item, rather than as a bona fide tool for fearless vampire (and werewolf) hunters.
 
And it's wreathes of garlic flowers, not bulb garlic, that are said to repel vampires. I find the whole kit highly suspect. It definitely seems to owe more to film lore, than anything truly folkloric, or even anything related to the original 19th century fictional literature.
 
It's a fake that someone's put together possibly using a few antique items like the gun. It owes a lot to Bram Stoker, and even more to the old Universal Horror movies.

Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of, and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect...
..."The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it, a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead, and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace, or the cut off head that giveth rest.

Bram Stoker, Dracula

IIRC there's been a few of these around, they're novelty items late 20th, early 21st centuray
 
Vampire Killing Kit

The accoutrements for the destruction of the Vampire

This box contains the items considered necessary for the protection of persons who travel into certain little known countries in Easter Europe where the populace are plagued with a peculiar manifestation of evil, known as Vampires... Professor Ernst Blomberg respectfully requests that the purchaser of this kit carefully studies his book. Should evil manifestations become apparent, he is then equiped to deal with them efficiently... Professor Blomberg wishes to announce his grateful thanks to that well known gunmaker of Liege, Nicholas Plombeur, whose help in compiling of the special items, the silver bullets,etc., has been most efficient. The items enclosed are as follows...

1. An efficient pistol with its usual accoutrements
2. A quantity of bullets of the finest silver
3. Powdered flowers of garlic (one phial)
4. Flour of Brimstone (one phial)
5. Wooden stake (Oak)
6. Ivory crucifix
7. Holy Water (one phial)
8. Professer Blomberg's New Serum

Source for above text:
http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontent ... nter_.html
.....more links & info:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2003/11 ... re-hot.htm
 
Re: 1800s Vampire Killing Kit Nabs $14,850 At Stevens Auctio

ProfessorF said:
1800s Vampire Killing Kit Nabs $14,850 At Stevens Auction
Nov 11th, 2008



A complete and authentic vampire killing kit, circa 1800 and housed in a walnut case, achieved $14,850.
NATCHEZ, MISS.:A complete and authentic vampire killing kit — made around 1800 and complete with stakes, mirrors, a gun with silver bullets, crosses, a Bible, holy water, candles and even garlic, all housed in a American walnut case with a carved cross on top — attained $14,850 in the Jimmy Pippen estate sale by Stevens October 3–4 in the new Natchez Convention Center.
The sale comprised the contents of Pippen's stores (Pippen Antiques and Pippen Interiors), items from his personal residence (which he considered a perfect creation and called "Paradise"), the contents of another home (a three-story, 1850s townhouse called "The Orchard" that he restored with fine appointments and rented out) and treasures from several warehouses.

as much as i love the legends and stories of vampires that seems abit too good to be real!

is there any way the contents and the box can be anaylised to find the rough age?
 
He who ought not be named once had a lot of pictures of a similar case-bound kit. Unfortunately, his discussion group has moved around a lot and he is rather fastidious about photo copyright.
 
Victorian vampire-slaying kit up for auction
Victorian vampire-slaying kit up for auction in Yorkshire The box contains a prayer book and vampire-slaying equipment
A Victorian vampire-slaying kit is expected to fetch £2,000 at an auction in North Yorkshire.

The 19th Century box contains a crucifix, pistol, wooden stakes and mallet, as well as glass bottles containing holy water, holy earth and garlic paste.

The box was left to a Yorkshire woman in her uncle's will.

Oonagh Drage of Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, said she had not seen anything like it before.

Ms Drage said the kit was probably made in the late 1800s and was possibly inspired by the popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

"It's probably a novelty thing. It's playing to people's superstitions."

As well as the weaponry, the box holds a copy of the Book of Common Prayer from 1851 and a handwritten extract from the Bible which quotes Luke 19:27.

It reads: "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

The box goes on auction later this month.

Source BBC News


It looks fantastic, in fact so good, I'm almost tempted to think someone has cobbled some genuine victoriana together into a "Vampire Hunters Kitbox" But if it is genuine, then it is really amazing bit of history!

Mr P
 
FT288 has a piece by Jonathan Ferguson investigating these kits, which have been showing up at auction houses.

Let's just say they are as authentic as they look!

image here:

4lpkik6q8CESrs4PVdeGkTuTyPIUE1MVIWFfGH4PNFBXgWVrV2qmoqOOlEqDm6A196cFTVETp5MF1ksDXfP-G9T7YKZcD...jpeg

Source:
http://otherkin.livejournal.com/569295.html

:D
 
The one you've posted looks too ornate to my eyes, James. It looks like a film prop: the late-twentieth, early twenty-first century stereotype of Victorian design; it's a caricature.

The one in the BBC article at least appears satisfyingly functional enough to make me think, 'maybe'.
 
The FT article pretty much said that they're all fakes seeing as how none have ever been recorded before the c.1980s, and are more to do with the movies than "real" vampires. It was a bit of a spoilsport article, but acknowledged they can be a very handsome artefact, however recently manufactured they are.
 
Victorian vampire-slaying kit sells for £7,500 at auction
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-yo ... e-18555832

The box contains a prayer book and vampire-slaying equipment

Related Stories

Vampire-slaying kit up for sale

A Victorian vampire-slaying kit has sold for £7,500 to an unknown buyer at an auction in North Yorkshire.

The 19th Century box contains a crucifix, pistol, wooden stakes and mallet, as well as glass bottles containing holy water, holy earth and garlic paste.

The box was left to a Yorkshire woman in her uncle's will.

Nigel Smith, from Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, said it had received "a lot of interest".

"We had been expecting something between £1,500 and £2,000 and it went for £7,500. We had six telephones on it and there was a lot of bidding.

"It's an extremely interesting thing," said Mr Smith.

Valuer Oonagh Drage said the kit was probably made in the late 1800s and was possibly inspired by the popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

Ms Drage said she had not seen anything like it before.

"It's probably a novelty thing. It's playing to people's superstitions."

As well as the weaponry, the box holds a copy of the Book of Common Prayer from 1851 and a handwritten extract from the Bible which quotes Luke 19:27.

It reads: "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
 
Anything so curious would have left traces before now, I am sure. I suppose it all comes down to the description in the auctioneers' catalogue. Those will be sure to be nice and slippery! I don't think the FT article, which I have since read, set out to debunk the things so much as to weigh the evidence. As no early evidence was forthcoming, the conclusion was inevitable.

As the accompanying "How to . . ." page makes clear, there is a fair amount of skill involved in assembling the period ingredients and bringing them together in the right way. A nice arty-crafty industry quietly taking the pee out of the well-heeled telly-vampire-fan drones who compete against each other to get them. Enterprising! :)
 
I was browsing a glossy illustrated book last night before sleep. It had sat on my shelves for a long while. The author was Francis (X.) King, who cropped up in the old Unexplained part-work as a specialist in sex-magic among other things. Anyway, the work in question was The Encyclopedia of Mind, Magic & Mysteries, a large-format work that was typical of the bright-eyed and busy visual style of Dorling Kindersley who always made use of every tool in the desktop-publishing cupboard to make everything look fit for an eight-year-old. Maybe it's the Kinder in the name that suggests it, but they are essentially not books for readers so much as products aimed at gift-buyers for non-readers. I digress.

Leafing idly through the pages - I think King was on auto-pilot too - I reached pages 114 - 15. In a chapter entitled Creatures of the Night, King deals with vampires. I doubt if the photo captions were part of his text, mosty likely editorial but much of the layout is summed up under a blurb entitled "Anti-Vampire Kit" The left hand page shows some silver bullets and a sprig of wolfbane; the right page juxtaposes a rope of garlic, a hand-mirror and a crucifix. More arty-crafty than wetty-panty.

The slightly skittish text does not suggest for a moment that such a kit existed or was known to the writer or editor. But I wonder if the term Anti Vampire Kit had ever been actually used before this? The date was 1991 and this was the first edition. Was there ever a second? Could this glossy volume have inspired someone to have a go at creating such a kit for real or can they be really be traced back into the eighties, as suggested above? 8)
 
Indeed and going back to the Hammer movies, most of the Vampire killer figures carry a gladstone or carpet bag with their Vampire killing bits in it.

Would be interesting to see how far back one could trace the concept of a 'Georgian' or 'Victorian' custom made kit though. Presumably if all the items are the correct vintage and the box is the correct vintage, unless there is an advert for such a kit contemporaneously it's impossible to say.
 
I see the current issue of FT features the kit and another allegedly Victorian example. Synchronicity at work, since I had not seen it when I posted the above!

Yes, I'm sure Peter Cushing and the rest carried cases of vampire-slaying stuff around in the movies, as if they were doctors or something but what is the first mention of such a thing on the market? The brief paragraph in the latest FT gives 1986 as the first date for that. I can't recall if the original article gave the full reference but the writer seemed to know his stuff. If that stands up, we have gone back five years from the Dork article but no further. :)
 
That was a genuine article?

I thought it was an overlong ad for the guy making and selling these.
 
The box for this surgeons kit could easily be used for a vampire hunting set.

Kit for 19th-century healthcare cuts set to go under hammer
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 17381.html
MICHAEL PARSONS
Mon, Oct 08, 2012

1224325017381_1.jpg


A GRUESOME 19th-century Irish surgeon’s amputation set has unexpectedly turned up in an auction saleroom. The brass-bound mahogany box, lined with funereal-purple velvet, contains two handsaws, five surgical steel knives in various sizes and a brass-mounted clamp strap.

In the era prior to general anaesthesia, surgical amputation was inevitably grim and, understandably, involved restraint of the patient. The mortality rate was high and the chance of a successful outcome required the surgeon to work at great speed with the sharpest possible tools.

This ultimate toolkit for healthcare cuts is to go under the hammer at a Mealy’s “fine and decorative arts” sale next week, on Tuesday, October 17th.

Auctioneer George Mealy said the amputation set was “quite rare and they only turn up once in a blue moon”. Victorian surgical instruments were, he explained, much sought-after by specialist collectors who are “mainly medical people”.

Despite being over 130 years old, the ebony-handled saws and knives are in remarkably good condition and the highly polished steel blades are still razor-sharp. Due to their potential lethality, the implements will be made available for close inspection on a “request-only” basis during next weekend’s auction viewing – in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny – with no children under 12 admitted.

The amputation set was made by a Dublin company, Thompson and O’Neill of 7, Henry Street, who advertised as “razor and surgical instrument makers and cutlers to Her Majesty and the Lord Lieutenant”. A brass cartouche on the lid of the box is inscribed with the name “Dr Jackman” and is dated 1881.

The grisly heirloom, being sold by a member of a medical family “going back generations”, has a pre-auction estimate of €300- €400. The auctioneer also expects medical collectors will be interested in another 19th-century lot: a mahogany-cased “brass enema and stomach pump” with a pair of “ivory nozzles that were used to insert into the patient’s body”. The estimate is €180-€250.
 
An interesting connection. Though rare, I seem to recall seeing such a thing many years ago on The Antiques Roadshow. :)
 
That's right; there is a handgun intended for those of us who hunt the un-dead. It is an engraved, silver-plated Colt Detective Special Complete with a case that looks like a European coffin, it has the requistie silver bullets (although I think they might have the folklore mixed-up). It is at the National Firearms Museum.

For your perusal:

 
That's right; there is a handgun intended for those of us who hunt the un-dead. It is an engraved, silver-plated Colt Detective Special Complete with a case that looks like a European coffin, it has the requistie silver bullets (although I think they might have the folklore mixed-up). It is at the National Firearms Museum.

For your perusal:


Maybe it should be silver bullets with a wooden core to be on the safe side.
 
Serious money in firearms? Who would have believed it! :eek:
Yes, quite so. Their value really escalates so some of mine are worth some serious money. I might add particularly for those firearms that are not in production anymore.
 
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