An extremely interesting French Gothic revival cabinet with carved monks on the outside, likely French in origin, late 19th Century, filled with an exotic array of mounted equipment and items to repel and kill vampires. The door with two larger and two smaller stakes and wooden mallet, all hand-carved and period and a large steel bifurcated instrument with carved wooden saint handle. The interior fitted with a large clever with matching hand-carved Gothic inspired handle measuring 24”, a steel clawed hammer of sorts also with matching gothic inspired handle, a large circular metal disc embossed with the face of Jesus wearing the crown of thorns with sharp steel triangular blades emanating from it and with matching carved Gothic inspired handle, a small antique lantern, old glass bottles with cross shaped wooden stoppers filled with what appears to be holy water and salt and another glass bottle with carved wooden stopper filled with what appears to be garlic. There are daggers on either side of the interior with carved wooden saint handles, and also a wooden crucifix, hand-carved in wonderful detail, even showing the detail of the ribs and face of Jesus, as well as a French bible surmounted with a brass or bronze crucifix on the cover and gold-leaf edged pages, filled with numerous etchings. Beneath the cabinet door is a drawer with two additional crucifixes with brass or bronze mount of Jesus and a central cross.

The cabinet measures 79” tall, 35” wide, 18” deep and is in overall very good condition showing some wear from age and use. The glass bottle filled with salt has a portion broken and is covered with clear tape. All other items appear to be in very good condition except for the bible which has some foxing of the pages.

Antique vampire killing kits were known to exist in carrying case made for tourists traveling to Eastern Europe subsequent to the publishing of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897. Some of these kits were made in the Northeastern US, specifically in Philadelphia. This is the only cabinet that I have ever seen filled with this type of equipment and may have come from a church, cathedral or monastery, likely in France due to the cabinet and bible in French.