VAMPIRE HUNTING KITS

These strange collectors’ curios are said to be from the 19th century and fetch thousands at auction

These vampire hunting kits first came to light in 1986 when one particular example was offered for sale in the United States. Supposedly dating from the 19th century, the kit contained a pocket pistol, a combined cross and stake, and two silver bullets. A note provided with the item was attributed to a Professor Ernst Blomberg, who was reportedly also the maker of several other kits. Reports of the price of these kits varies, but one purportedly sold for around £9,000. While there never seemed much likelihood that the kits were for actual use against real ‘vampires’, opinion was divided on whether they were handsomely produced curios for Victorian travellers to Eastern Europe, or fakes. Jonathan Ferguson, keeper of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries (which owns a kit of its own) believes that the kits, “could not have existed until the era of Hammer horror films in the 1950s-1970s.”