Beautiful! That lamp is really very cool.

I should mention that we are moving the Surnateum Collection to a new and larger location. We need room. The Surnateum will be a private museum opened for private evenings/lectures/shows. The main exhibition will be about vampires(History of the Vampire Craze during the XVIIIth century, the Dracula collection, the Rhesus case, Benandanti and vampire killers, Gypsy Dhampires). We are in plan to do temporary exhibitions too. The Library section will be devoted to Ghosts and Spirits (from table turning to ghost hunting) and Hauntiques (Haunted Artifacts). The Library will be a place to study magic and allied arts (we have more or less 1000 books about magic). Serious students may also have the possibility to study our "precious collection" of grimoire and rare books about witchcraft, demonology, and so on.

Nice!

Speaking about vampire killing kit, a traditional gypsy dhampire girl and witch (drabardi) should use material like this.
The doll is linked to the ancient tradition of Benandanti, the dreamers who fought evil doers while sleeping.
The locket (who contains a XVIIIth century witches grimoire and rosary) has been transmitted from one witch to the other during 200 years.
The locker contains everything needed by a traditional rom gypsy to deal with fairies, vampires, and other monsters.






The "doll" represent Ana (St Anna), the queen of fairies. She's in the position of the dreamer, a bit like ... sleeping beauty.

A dried Kermit, the witches grimoire and the rosary.

Very very touching and unique photos . I wish I could get my hands on some of these type of things.

A closer look at:
The "grimoire" (in French and full of vegetal poisons)



The Witches rosary



The Hausmess



When I look at the locker's contain, I've the impression to be in a Brothers Grimm Tale...

Where can I find more information about things like this? Are there any good books or sites ?

"Gypsy sorcery and fortune telling" by Charles Godfrey Leland is IMHO a good start.
Otherwise there are a lot of various sites about Rom tradition.
You should also check books and information about benandanti (not specifically gypsy but very interesting).
This locker is unique and Gypsy artifacts are extremely difficult to find.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/gsft/index.htm
http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_mythology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benandanti

Thank you very much for all those links and suggestions Curator.

More vampire artifacts from our collection.

The microscope and a vampire upper jaw.





Various XIXth century silver medals from Holy Virgin that will be melted to cast silver bullets. Then, the bullets will be rubbed by Holy Oil. The "standind medal" behind the others is a XVIth century pilgrim medal. The Beast of Gevaudan was killed by blessed bullets made from such medals by Jean Chastel.

Don't forget that all those "props" lead to various vampire shows and effects. They're far less "innocent" that they look like. It's the material I use on a professional basis...

And one more: a XVIIIth century silver enameled Byzantine cross.
No vampire hunter should leave home without one...

Great and interesting photos!

A 19th C Vampire Killing Kit was auctioned off the other night on the new Discovery channel show 'Auction Kings'.

The pre auction estimate was $7,500. The winning bid was $12,000.

It was very cool. Instead of a pistol, it had small crossbow.

A crossbow is a heresy in a XIXth century vampire Killing Kit (so, the kit is a fake).
But if the maker wins 12000$, why not...

You may be correct. There is a possibility it was a wonderful 19th piece of folk art,and collection of real artifacts. However....

They did have experts look at it before it was put up for auction,and being a collector of antiquities myself,I do know that legit auction houses do not put things up for auction without good confirmation....for obvious reasons

Furthermore, I do not understand how one can emphatically say something is a 'fake' without even seeing it.

I am aware of the many modern made replica's that are passed off as real, and some that are very cool reproductions...and sold as such.

Because no one used crossbow to kill vampires during the XIXth century. It's a modern invention created for Buffy (1997) and John Carpenter's Vampires (1998). That's the reason why I don't need to see the kit, even if I've seen photos of a crossbow in a VKK (nicely made but fake)*. Believe me, I study vampire killing kits and vampire lore for a very long time, before I give my opinion. Plus a stake was usually a very long iron nail to fix the vampire in his tomb. An red hot iron stake is mentioned in Paul Feval's Les Tribunaux Secrets (1851) with imho the first illustration of a vampire staked in litterature.



On the other side, silver bullets are mentioned in the XVIIIth century litterature (Silver bullets were shot in the clouds to kill witches).
When I give an opinion, be sure that I have all the original editions of the books in my library, where those facts are mentioned.
Usually fakers don't even know why silver (and blessed) bullets are used against witches, vampires and werewolves. That's why they commit so many stupid mistakes.
Another thing is that a prayer book or a Bible isn't really useful in a vampire killing kit. But a Rituale Romanum, blessed salt and holy water are.

*If someone tells me that Cleopatra smoked Marlboro cigarettes, I won't believe it either.

*"If someone tells me that Cleopatra smoked Marlboro cigarettes, I won't believe it either".

My sources say Cleopatra smoked Camel cigarettes.

More vampire props ?
A self-portrait of French actress Sarah Bernhardt as a vampire/demon (Bronze end of XIXth century). I don't tell you the price, you don't wanna know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt

More ?
In 1851, the Chapel of Castle Tergnee (Farciennes, Belgium) was destroyed. Five tombs were found with 5 bodies (2 adults and 3 children) pierced with long iron nails. The bodies were those of the members of family Batthyany (linked to ... Dracula). The nails mysteriously vanished when brought to the museum of Charleroi.
Other objects were also found in the Chapel (dedicated to Saint Jacques) and kept by one of the construction workers.
The Castle nickname is Castle of the vampires.

Here they are.