Social media has been flooded with stories and photos of antique vampire hunting kits, often fancy wooden boxes with all sorts of tools needed to kill vampires, all with their own neat little compartment.
They’re regularly sold by renowned auction houses, called genuine in television reality antique shows, often make it into the news and are a popular subject for social media.
There’s only one problem; they’re all modern fakes.
The main giveaway is that there’s no trace of these kits anywhere before the 1950s, no adverts, no pictures, no stories, no mention of them in books or magazines, nothing.
The 1950s was when the Hammer horror films became extremely popular, one after the other vampire film, story and comic book came out, the perfect moment for someone smart, creative and talented to start making something people would spend good money on…
And although the vampire craze (re)started in the 1950s, I am being very generous here because I think the kits were made later, probably since the late 1970s.
I can understand people wanting them to be real, they’re awesome.
And I would love to own one myself, I only object to people claiming they’re genuine antiques.
We don’t know exactly when it happened or who started it, but one day someone created a vampire hunting kit by buying a nice antique box, adding a bunch of old bits and bobs, by sharpening a few stakes and putting it all together.
So yes, the vampire kit is partially antique.
The box, the items, they’re often genuine.
But putting it all together and creating this kit, claiming it’s a genuine antique set, is dishonest.
And I think the auction houses are also being unfair by not clearly mentioning that the complete item is not old, it seems like they’re being vague on purpose in the way they describe them without actually telling the truth.
Time for the debunking.
First lets try logic:
Many of the kits contain a lot of stuff you don’t really need when hunting vampires, look at the content and think about which of the items you really need and why you’d bother carrying all the other tat around.
Also look at what 19th century people thought about fighting vampires, before the films, comics & tv shows were made; the general consensus was that all you needed to do was put a stake through the heart and/or decapitate the blood sucker.
In the original Bram Stoker book Dracula was killed by being stabbed through the heart with a Bowie Knife!
You don’t need a whole kit for a hammer, stakes or a knife, these were generally items you could easily obtain, improvise or find around your average 19th century house, farm or castle.
We need to go kill a vampire… so do we have a fancy box designed filled with all sorts of stuff and then carry it around everywhere, or do we just rush into the shed and grab a scythe or shovel to do the deed with?
And silver bullets?
They were generally not known to be effective against vampires till Montague Summers mentioned them being used in his 1920s book.
The content of most kits tell us that their creators were not inspired by the original vampire folklore but by 20th century books and 1950-70s films.
Besides, how many professional vampire hunters do you think there were back then?
There sure are a LOT of them on Ebay and Etsy…
A more rational explanation is that they were not vampire hunting kits but a self defence kit that was sold to gullible tourists, this story makes more sense but there’s still no evidence of these being made/sold anywhere before the 1950s.
I hereby challenge anyone who owns or is selling an “antique” vampire hunting kit to have it scientifically tested and authenticated by dating the fabric and glue used for the making of the box.
After all if all the separately bought items have perfectly fitting compartments these must have been made specifically for these objects and the fabric lining and glue should be at least as old as the objects in them.
The Mercer museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania USA, did just that.
They were having doubts about their vampire kit so they had it scientifically tested.
And you’ve guessed it, parts of the kit were found to be modern.
Chemicals used in the manufacturing process of the paper were not used till 1945, the glue was modern, etc.
In short the objects were antique, but the details that brought them all together and made the kit a vampire hunting kit were modern.
And until one is found where this is not the case, I’m going to keep saying they’re all modern fakes.
On a side note, the Mercer museum kept the kit in their collection but updated the information card explaining it is an 20th century fake.
The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds also has a kit in their collection that they tell the visitors is an 1970s fake.
Top hat off to these museums, well done!
I reckon that even as a fake it is still an interesting fun object to have in a collection.
So vampire hunting or defence kits are all modern (1970s-today) creations.
Honest sellers are clear about this, dishonest ones are vague or lie about their age.
Now follows a list of vampire kits I’ve encountered online with the claim that they’re authentic antiques, I’ve added debunking information.
The list will be updated when I find another one.
If you see a kit being advertised/sold/shared with the claim that it was made before the 1950s that is not yet on this list, let me know.
 | French Vampyr Hunting Case No. 3 Made by Aex CF in 2008. Alex CF blog |
 | Made by Etsy seller The Rag N Bone Emporium in 2013 and sold to Barbara in 2014, she was very happy with it and gave it 5/5 stars. Facebook post |
 | The Mercer museum fake, see text above. Scientific research results: Treasures on trial |
 | Made by Mr. Jason McKittrick of Cryptocurium around 2010 or earlier. Sold on Ebay in 2010 |
 | In the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. Dated to 1970. |
 | Made in 2017 and sold on Etsy by Shadow Alley Curiosity Shop for £293.23. Etsy |
 | Made by Tommy Riddell of ”Lost Lenore Antiques’ which started trading in 2020. Etsy 4th in list of images here |
 | Made by Tommy Riddell of ”Lost Lenore Antiques’ which started trading in 2020. Etsy 9th in list of images here |
 | Made by Patrick Reilly in 2011. Source here |
Sources & references:
- The ‘vampire killing kit’, by Jonathan Ferguson of the Royal Armouries
- Tracking the man-beasts : Sasquatch, vampires, zombies, and more, by Joe Nickell
- ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not!’ Vampire killing essentials
- Scientific analysis of the Mercer Museum vampire kit
- The BS historian
- Skepticblog
- Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist
- Vamped
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