For some antiquers and collectors, the more disturbing the find, the better. There is a market for antique funerary items, post mortem photographs, vampire kits, electric chairs and medical oddities. Some of these items fetch huge sums due their rarity and the competition to buy them. As shown by TV shows like Discovery channel's, Oddities, which features the daily workings of New York antique shop, Obscura, the interest and market for these items is ever increasing.
Electric Chairs on the Market
In 2001, Sarasota, Florida resident, Eddie Clawson purchased a circa 1896 electric chair from an antique dealer in north Florida. The chair sat in Clawson's home for a decade, but the failing economy forced him to resell it. When Treasure Hunter's Roadshow rolled into Tampa in March, 2011, he packed the chair into the back of his truck and sold it at the show for an undisclosed amount. David Morgan, advertising director for the Treasure Hunters Roadshow believes the chair was originally made in Ohio, circa 1896.
Owning a piece of execution history isn't just a 21st century compulsion. For centuries, the hangmen of London's Tyburn made a tidy income selling bits of the rope used to hang the poor souls who died on the "Deadly Nevergreen."
Interest in antique torture and execution devices puts valuations very high for some items.
Transylvania Vampire Killing Kits
There are thousands of reproduction vampire kits found in the marketplace, and even Sothebys has been fooled into thinking they are original to the time and place. Many people still purchase them as a novelty but still pay one thousand dollars or more for them They are very good reproductions, easy to duplicate by finding an old wooden box, filling it with other old things like glass vials, beeswax candles, an antique crucifix, spikes, mallet and whatever else is needed to make it look legitimate – and possibly with a great deal of luck, kill a vampire.
There have been numerous auctions and sales of these kits and it's difficult to know whether or not they originated in 19th century Transylvania or were made elsewhere for people planning a visit to Eastern Europe. Collectors purchase them because they're interesting and still worth the purchase price due to the antique objects of interest in the box.
Memento Mori
The most popular collectible memento mori is Victorian Jewelry and objet d'art. The jewelry is usually in the form of brooches, pendants and rings. Each piece has a special symbolic meaning. Memento mori pieces might be engraved with the dead persons name, have designs of coffins or an angel hovering over a grave. Lockets might include a lock of the dead persons hair. The objet d'art might be a framed hair wreath – hair the dead person collected throughout her life. Death was a constant in the lives of 19th century families and what we see as distasteful, they saw as part of their everyday lives. They had a strong religious connection with death.
Victorian Post Mortem Photographs
Another morbid collectible comes from typical 19th century culture and that connection to death – posed photos of a loved one taken after the person's death. This was part of popular culture. It was expensive to have one's photograph taken and when it came to children, the parents may have missed their opportunity when the child was alive.
The corpse, usually and sadly a child, was propped and tied into a chair, and posed with siblings or parents holding its hand. They are spooky pictures, but valuable in terms of historical information, as well as investments. Online prices begin at $20. To view Victorian post mortem photos online, go to Antique Photo Album.
Funerary Collectibles
The hearse may be the most visible funerary item and they are highly sought after. The horse-drawn hearses of the 19th century are rare and can cost a fortune, but it's possible to find an old 50s Cadallac hearse for under $5K.
Other popular funerary items include old coffins, urns and flower baskets. Antique gravestones, markers, monuments and ornaments often show up at auctions and they are snapped up.
Medical Instruments
Antique medical instruments represent early methods of torture, archaic practices and quackery. Consider a 19th century lancet used for bleeding the patient. The most sought after are those that come in a kit or small box. Prices begin at $100 for the better kits. Other instruments used for bloodletting include the scarificator, bleeding bowl, leech cupping set and fleam.
Urological instruments are also very scary, especially considering they were in use in the days before general anesthetic was available. These instruments are very collectible.
In general, the more uncomfortable the medical procedure, the more competition to buy the instruments that were used to perform them.
Although not disturbing, apothecary jars are also very collectible medical antiques.
Dead Things and Oddities
It could be said some taxidermists have a warped sense of humor. Collectors of taxidermy are happy to find stuffed animals created from multiple species, forming them into creatures that never really existed. But the most sought after taxidermy oddities are legitimate, animals with two heads or three legs for example. If they are in good condition, there is a market for them. Taxidermy in general has always been popular. And it does serve a valuable purpose in science as more and more species become extinct.
There is a huge market for medical oddities. Jars filled with preserving liquid hold all sorts of strange things from human hearts to rodents. The most scientifically valuable collections are found in museums. The Mutter Museum of Medical Oddities in Philadelphia displays the Skeletons of Siamese twins and the brains of executed murderers. An online search will show more results of medical museums with collections of this nature.
Disturbing Antiques
Not everyone would want a used electric chair as extra seating for company or a jar of human eyeballs staring at them from it's place on the bookshelf. Collectors drawn to these genre are not necessarily odd or disturbing people. They collect disturbing antiques because the items are interesting and have some value to them, whether scientific or historical. Disturbing antique collections offer a fascinating look into the past as well as today's culture.
Lorraine Syratt - Lorraine Syratt is a freelance writer, gardener and part-time antique dealer. Please see her full profile for more information.
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