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In England, a 19th century box containing all the equipment of a vampire hunter has been sold at auction.
Here is a set of objects not often seen at auction: a wooden box containing pistols, a gothic bible, candlesticks, crucifixes of different sizes, a mirror, a flask of holy water and… a stake, part of which can be hidden in a secret compartment. In short, the panoply of the perfect little vampire hunter priced at Hensons at more than 15,000 euros. This baroque paraphernalia, however, did not belong to Van Helsing, nemesis of Dracula, but to a certain Lord Hailey, an English baron born in 1872, governor of Punjab between 1924 and 1928, and died in 1969, at the advanced age of 97. year.
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Several of the items in the briefcase bear his initials. Why did this aristocrat, with no outward sign of mental imbalance, hold this box? Charles Hanson, head of the Hansons Auctioneers, recalls the context of the time: “The publication of John Polidori’s ‘Vampire’ in 1819 had a major impact, further amplified by Bram Stoker’s classic ‘Dracula’ in 1897. However , belief in vampires and related superstitions goes back even further and persists to this day. The task of killing a vampire was an extremely serious one, and historical accounts suggested the need for special methods and tools,” he told the BBC. However, it is difficult to answer the essential question: did Lord Hailey believe in vampires to the point of bringing together all the objects necessary to defend himself from them? Or was it just a collector’s fancy? The baron is unfortunately dead with his secret.