This is the second one I've seen for sale this year. Was there ever a real demand for these things ?

[eppur_se_muova]

Home Collectibles > Sporting, Fishing & Hunting > Collectibles > Sporting Knives

Lot 1146: 19TH CENTURY VAMPIRE SLAYER KIT IN VIOLIN CASE

Item Overview
Description

Customized fitted case houses a bronze crucifix, 2 wooden stakes, a 15 inch knife that has a tusk grip, sterling pommel and bolster, and nickel crossguard, a flintlock pistol that has an engraved barrel and stock that is functioning, a brass powder horn in the style of a fish, a mallet for the stakes, a brass container, a wooden container, a glass holy water bottle with no seam lines, and finally, a small bible that has mother of pearl inlay. Lot is in very good condition. Measurements range 2 1/2 - 17 1/8 inches. No international shipping. This lot has a reserve.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/_FEF49DA84A?

And is this really in the right category ?

[Effete Snob]

1. Sporting knives?

Depends on your state. Where I live, you can take vampires with knives on every other Saturday until the end of January.

I know in some states, it’s pretty much all winter.

[fierywoman]

2. FWIW, among violinists, 19th c. violin cases are called "coffin cases" ...

(they are black and the one handle is on the top, not the side like nowadays...)

[TlalocW]

3. I just did a Google search

If people were actually wandering about the 19th century calling themselves vampire hunters, whoever owned the one from your link was a minimalist compared to some of the kits I found.

[Hekate]

4. Sounds more like cosplay. Yikes. Does it come with a maiden in an underwire nightie?

[Marthe48]

5. a Pawn Stars episode discussed this

A guy brought in one that dated back to around the time Dracula was written, and was probably a vanity item, I think. I don't remember the value, but Rick thought it was cool.

I read in Smithsonian years ago, that even before Dracula, people believed in the undead. There was a burial (maybe more than one) in New England that indicated whoever did the burying thought they were burying a vampire.

[2naSalit]

6. Growing up...

In New England my brother, our friends and I were interested in witches' graves and vampire stories because there were so many tales about them in our locale. I have seen some of the graves, stumbled on a couple.

One grave that stood out to me, not sure if it's really a thing but it had visible alleged evidence. It was a gravestone in a cemetery, odd because witches were usually buried outside sacred ground of a cemetery, it was a kind o ornate obelisk shaped headstone that had a distinct form of a woman's leg imprinted in the stone on the side. You could see it clearly from the street. The story, what I recall of it, was that a woman was accused of witchcraft of some sort and was punished by removing her leg (somehow she had lost her leg) and when she was dispatched by the community, she issued a curse on the town and somehow this leg shape appears on her gravestone. I was told it had been replaced more than once yet the leg comes back.

I wonder if it's still there and if the story has real merit.

[Marthe48]

7. That's a great story!

Maybe someone is pulling a leg

[2naSalit]

8. When I saw it...

I was under ten so that was before things like Dremel tools or small grinders. It was etched into the stone. Looked like a woman's leg silhouette. It didn't look like any kind of prank. The image was at least life sized.

[Marthe48]

9. I couldn't resist the pun

Did you ever read those paperbacks? I think they were called The Unexplained. I think my older brother bought several of them. There were short stories about odd, eerie things that happened, everything from The Bermuda Triangle to sponateous combustion. One of the stories told about a man standing in front of his window and getting struck by lightning. After that, at certain angles, you could see a faint image of the man. I was around 10 y.o. when I read them, great way to learn about so many of the odd things that happen. As I got older, I read newer material about people trying to come up with a rational explanation for some of the things. Trying, not succeeding.

Wonder if the witch's curse will expire, like Tecumseh's curse seems to have?

[2naSalit]

11. Yes!

We read those. And there was a paperback that came out in the late 60s titled "Strangely Enough!" and that was a big hit as some of the stories were about things in towns we lived in or near.

Yankee Magazine used to have stories of that sort as well.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Yes. Lots in Romania.

[frogmarch]

12. The latest bid

is $2400. A steal if the bounty on vampires is still twice that.