A Victorian vampire slaying kit is heading to auction at Hansons with an estimate of £2,000 - £3,000.
The lockable wooden box contains crucifixes, a matching pair of pistols, a brass powder flask, holy water, a Gothic bible, wooden mallet, stake, brass candelsticks, rosary beads and of course garlic.
All one would need to ward off those pesky blood thirsty vampires.
The provenance states the original owner of the vampire slaying box to be Lord William Malcolm Hailey, a British peer, and the contents of the box are stamped with his initials.
Lord Hailey was Governor of the Punjab region of India at the height of the Victorian Empire.
The Victorians were well-known for their obsession with the supernatural, with stories of vampires and ghosts proving hugely popular, and the items of religious significance, such as crucifixes and Bibles, included in the box were said to repel blood thirsty vampires.
These boxes are not uncommon at auction; Tennents Auction House sold one for £7,500 in 2012 against a £1,500 - £2,000 estimate; that box also contained an extract from the Bible, from Luke: "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
Hansons themselves sold a similar vampire slaying kit, which also contained shark's teeth, for £2,500 at auction in July 2020.
In February 2021 another example was purchased on the US TV show 'Pawn Stars' for $16,000 before being resold for $24,995, althought that one was considered rather special as it was purported to contain a letter written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Full details at Hansons Auctioneers.
Update: the vampire slaying box sold for £13,000.