Story:
The Incredible Vampire Hunting Kit from the 1800’s
Other Versions
1. Vampire Hunting Kit from the Early 19th Century
2. Early 19th century French vampire hunting kit
Fact Check:
A picture message in wide circulation online purports to show an incredible Vampire Hunting Kit from France used in the early 1800s. It shows a wooden box containing holy Bible, Cross, some liquids, pistol, hammer and knife among others. Although it looks old, what you see in the photograph is not a real Vampire hunting kit from early 1800s.
Not Vampire Hunting Kit
The photograph in question appeared as Vampire Killing Kit on Deviant Art page The Rag N Bone Emporium – carrying tags Visual Art, Original Work and Artisan Crafts. The item was put for sale on Etsy at the time of its publication in 2013. Moreover, the artist shares many such Vampire Killing Kits on his Instagram page, along with others like a Mummified Yeti Hand. Hence, the ‘Vampire Killing Kit’ is a modern art based on the old idea of Vampires.
About Vampire Slaying Kits
Vampire hunting/slaying kits came to light in European regions after classic ‘Hammer’ horror movies of Vampire and Dracula became popular in 20th century. Businessmen then exploited the idea of selling such ‘antique’ Vampire killing kits. Further, they surfaced at auctions, pricing high and reaching tens of thousands of dollars for each. The wooden box used to contain pistols, wooden stakes, Bibles, crucifixes and rosaries, in addition to bottles of garlic powder, holy water and herbal potions. Some of them also made into Museum collections. However, investigations revealed most of the antique boxes and contents were modern, novelty items or stage, screen or magician’s props.
Royal Armouries museum in Leeds acquired one such vampire-killing kit in 2012. They knew it was probably cobbled together in the 1970s or 80s. British weaponry expert and curator of firearms at the Royal Armouries, Jonathan Ferguson described the vampire-killing kit as “inspired by the movies, not Victorian stories and folklore.”
For your information, Vampire became a popular figure of Gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori’s The Vampyre in 1819. On the other hand, Dracula is in fact an 1897 Gothic horror novel from Irish author Bram Stoker. It introduced the character of Count Dracula, subsequently establishing many conventions of vampire fantasy.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
References:
Does it Even Matter if These Vintage Vampire-Killing Kits Are Real?
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