Is it true that the pictures from social networks depict real kits of a vampire hunter?

In social networks, you can often find photos of suitcases with devices that were allegedly used in the 19th century against vampires. We checked the authenticity of these images.

In popular publics in "VKontakte" And Facebook You can find numerous publications telling subscribers about vampire hunter sets. Although the suitcases are decorated in different ways, their contents are generally similar: crucifixion, gun (you must think, with silver bullets), aspen stake, a set of bottles with an incomprehensible (but probably magical) contents, sometimes candles and garlic head. Pictures were quite actively published in other social networks - for example, in Twitter, Livejournal And on Pikabu.

Since there are a lot of photos with sets of vampires on vampires on the Internet, we will separately analyze the several most popular. Let's start with four pictures that usually publish together. This selection can be found, for example, in popular public "How did I meet tetanus" And "Funny sociopath" in VKontakte, as well as in Twitter.

In the first photo (left above), a suitcase upholstered with red cloth is depicted, which certainly appeared not in the 19th century. In 2005 it made American Jason McKittric, who five years later published a picture of his work on the Deviantart website. In the signature for that publication, he clarified that he made a set for the exhibition about vampires and werewolves, and only a few of the objects inside the set are genuine old things, the majority is a remake created by McKittrica himself. When later this picture began to be published as a photograph of a real set of vampire hunter, McKittrica was not lazy write In the comments that this is not at all.

The second set (right at the top) in 2014 was Sold At the auction in the United States, the price of trading began at $ 4000. The entire description of the work consists of two sentences: “A set of a Central European Tampire Hunter of the 19th century in a manually painted wooden box. The set contains wooden stakes, silver crucifixes and other objects. ” It should be noted that the seller does not indicate the exact date and place of manufacture of this set, as well as its pro -implements, that is, the history of the transition from one owner to another. This is often serves A serious basis for doubts about the authenticity of the product.

We failed to establish the origin of the set depicted in the third photo (left below). This item is not presented in either museum collections or on the sites of auction houses.

The last, fourth set (right below) for the first time Showed In 2010, in the AUCTION KINGS program on Discovery. Then the seller of the product said that it was made in the 19th century, and eventually helped out $ 12,000 for it. At the same time, in 2018, when the same set Sold At the auction for $ 3500, it was represented as "made at the beginning of the 20th century." Moreover, shortly after the show on Discovery, some viewers began tellHow, without much difficulty, collecting at home the same sets of items purchased on ebay.

Photos of another set can be found, in particular, in public "Weapons of mankind" And "This is interesting!" On VKontakte, he was also published on Pikabu. This suitcase Sold At the auction in the USA in 2012. As in the case of one of the sets presented above, the seller did not describe the history of the subject and its previous owners, limiting himself to the transfer of the contents.

Another set, supposedly used by a vampire hunter, appeared in public not only in "VKontakte"but also in Facebook. It is not pointless to talk about his authenticity. Suitcase and its contents made In 2013, the Rag N Bone Emporium store, which for several years Sold ETSY products on ETSY - a popular marketplace with handmade goods and vintage items. In addition to it right away several The sets of vampire hunter, Rag N Bone Emporium traded the letters of Jack the Ripper, the Biglitous Man's teeth, tickets for the Titanic, the werewolf fangs and other homemade curves.

In 2020, the attention of large media from around the world was attracted by the sale of the next set of vampire hunter. They wrote about this event BBC, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail And many others. In Russia, notes were released, in particular, on Lenta.ru and in "Rossiya newspaper". At the same time, the price of the lot, as well as an unknown origin, is not much distinguished from this set from the previously sold. In his authenticity I was not sure Even the head of the auction house who sold the product. He assumed that this could be the theatrical props of the mid -20th century, and called the secret of origin the secret of the “charm” of the set. Experts also did not see historical value in the lot.

The examples disassembled above are part of a very common cultural tradition, arising In the second half of the XX century. Then, in the wake of the popularity of films and other works of mass culture about vampires and other undead, the demand for thematic souvenirs appeared, and their manufacturers began to strive for authenticity. Moreover, historians Emphasizethat usually this authenticity is achieved at the expense of one or two genuine objects, and the rest of the set of the kit is aged specifically. 

Although the historical value of such sets is at least low, they, according to specialists, are of interest as an independent cultural phenomenon. In 2012, the British Royal Armory Museum bought At the auction, one of such suitcases is precisely as an object reflecting the place of vampires in mass culture. Museum Keeper Jonathan Ferguson Explainedthat many of the objects contained in the set were not related to vampires until the second half of the 20th century, respectively, and the set itself was made at least after 1970. At the same time, the author was inspired rather than films, and not the “Dracula” of Bram Stoker and other Gothic first-oriented novels.

Thus, the numerous sets of vampire hunter, the photographs of which are represented in social networks, were not used either in the XIX or at the beginning of the 20th century. In fact, these are souvenirs, the tradition of manufacturing which originated relatively recently. Often, in such a set, the overwhelming minority of objects were indeed created more than a hundred years ago. Nevertheless, skillfully executed suitcases are highly appreciated and sold at auctions for several thousand dollars. At the same time, serious auction houses like Christie’s right warnthat "the contents of the suitcase were collected together in the second half of the 20th century."

Photo on the cover: A case with a set for killing a vampire (around 1970) from the collection Royal arms museum (Lids, Great Britain)

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Royal Armouries. The ‘Vampire Killing Kit’
2. The New York Times. How to Kill a vampire: not with this kit, apparently
3. Snopes. Is this a vampire hunting kit from the Early 19th Century?
4. Atlas Obscura. DOES Its Eveng Matter if the Vintage Vampire-Killing Kits Are Real?