# Vampire Hunting Kits: An In-thing in the 18th Century, I'm Sure **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 20, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901 "2018-08-20T04:08:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sloe\_Moe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sloe\_Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloe_Moe)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/1 "2018-08-20T04:08:13Z")
But it was popular enough going into the 20th century that updated kits include Colt 1911 45’s and even a Barnett Crossbow. Specimens of 18th century kits are quite plentiful, but bloggers warn people to beware of fakes. There’s a debate as to whether or not they were produced commercially, or bespoke for rich travelers journeying to the heart of Europe. Google image alone shows these: [![](https://vamped.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/30803916_1_x.jpg) ](https://vamped.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/30803916_1_x.jpg) [![](https://cdn.thisiswhyimbroke.com/images/vampire-hunting-kit1-640x533.jpg) ](https://cdn.thisiswhyimbroke.com/images/vampire-hunting-kit1-640x533.jpg) [![](http://draculahistoryandmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/vampire_hunting_kit1.gif) ](http://draculahistoryandmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/vampire_hunting_kit1.gif) [![](http://vampireslayerkits.com/wp-content/gallery/vampire-killing-kit-us-army-1917/vampaire-killing-kit-box-open.jpg) ](http://vampireslayerkits.com/wp-content/gallery/vampire-killing-kit-us-army-1917/vampaire-killing-kit-box-open.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/2 "2018-08-20T05:33:06Z")
The knife in the first/second image (first link appears broken) looks like some modern mall ninja shit. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/3 "2018-08-20T05:37:40Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > The knife in the first/second image (first link appears broken) looks like some modern mall ninja shit. Not to mention the terribly modern-looking automatic pistol in the last image. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/4 "2018-08-20T06:52:32Z")
Well, 107 years old modern. ---
**Author:** ![Sloe\_Moe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sloe\_Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloe_Moe)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/5 "2018-08-20T06:59:41Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Not to mention the terribly modern-looking automatic pistol in the last image. Must have been a 1915 US Army Vampire kit. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/6 "2018-08-20T07:12:17Z")
I would assume that they’re all fake. I doubt there has been a thing like a “vampire hunting kit” before the 20th century vampire passion. Any evidence that such things have existed? ---
**Author:** ![Sloe\_Moe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sloe\_Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloe_Moe)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/7 "2018-08-20T07:45:59Z")
Yes, there are many who say that. But many of the items, such as the firearms, date to the 1850s; long before the Bram Stoker novel of 1897. And really, how many New Yorkers and Bostonians (where many of the kits were built) regularly go to Romania or any country near or at the Carpathian mountains? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/8 "2018-08-20T10:47:48Z")
> [@Sloe\_Moe](#): > > Yes, there are many who say that. But many of the items, such as the firearms, date to the 1850s; And? Is it impossible to include real antique components in an otherwise-modern fake? The kits are not authentic artefacts, and that’s a [well](https://vamped.org/2014/10/31/6-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-buy-an-antique-vampire-killing-kit/)-[known](https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-true-story-behind-those-antique-vampire-hunting-1658820382) fact. And also bleedingly obvious to anyone who knows anything about fonts. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/9 "2018-08-20T14:20:47Z")
> [@Sloe\_Moe](#): > > Must have been a 1915 US Army Vampire kit. They didn’t send Our Boys off to Europe unprepared in 1918. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/10 "2018-08-20T19:14:59Z")
I seriously doubt that you’d find an _eighteenth century_. That’d be the 1700s, and vampires didn’t really get popular in western culture until the 19th century (which is what I think you meant). Even then, many of the ideas we have about vampires hadn’t solidified into well-known memes until Stoker published them in _Dracula_. He actually invented many of them. Vampires not visible in a mirror? Stoker’s invention. Vampires put off by garlic? Stoker’s idea. I don’t recall Holy Water or the Holy Wafer being used against vampires until Stoker. I think he even cane up with the idea of using the crucifix to drive the vampire back. That all pretty much guarantees, if anything was needed, that those “vampire-killing kits” date from after 1897. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/11 "2018-08-20T19:29:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …Even then, many of the ideas we have about vampires hadn’t solidified into well-known memes until Stoker published them in _Dracula_. He actually invented many of them. Vampires not visible in a mirror? Stoker’s invention. Vampires put off by garlic? Stoker’s idea. I don’t recall Holy Water or the Holy Wafer being used against vampires until Stoker. I think he even cane up with the idea of using the crucifix to drive the vampire back… We are surely fortunate that Herr Stoker discovered these things about vampires. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/12 "2018-08-20T20:02:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I seriously doubt that you’d find an _eighteenth century_. That’d be the 1700s, and vampires didn’t really get popular in western culture until the 19th century (which is what I think you meant). > > Even then, many of the ideas we have about vampires hadn’t solidified into well-known memes until Stoker published them in _Dracula_. He actually invented many of them. Vampires not visible in a mirror? Stoker’s invention. Vampires put off by garlic? Stoker’s idea. I don’t recall Holy Water or the Holy Wafer being used against vampires until Stoker. I think he even cane up with the idea of using the crucifix to drive the vampire back. > > That all pretty much guarantees, if anything was needed, that those “vampire-killing kits” date from after 1897. That was my thought, as well, since I knew that Stoker had codified a lot of what we now consider to be canon about vampires. That said, when I did a little spelunking on Wikipedia about Stoker and _Dracula_, I found a link to a page on “[Vampire literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_literature).” There, I read this: > [@](#): > > Vampire fiction is rooted in the ‘vampire craze’ of the 1720s and 1730s, which culminated in the somewhat bizarre official exhumations of suspected vampires Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole in Serbia under the Habsburg Monarchy. But, you’re likely right, the contents of those “hunting kits” are probably overly influenced by Stoker’s canon, and so, even if there were such kits in the 18th century, those probably would not have been their contents. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/13 "2018-08-20T20:05:20Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > We are surely fortunate that Herr Stoker discovered these things about vampires. Psssst…Abraham “Bram” Stoker was Irish. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/14 "2018-08-20T21:15:17Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I would assume that they’re all fake. I doubt there has been a thing like a “vampire hunting kit” before the 20th century vampire passion. > > Any evidence that such things have existed? In Eastern Europe and the Balkans there were “tools of the trade” that professional vampire hunters used. They do not resemble these kits. One of the more common genuine folklore methods of vampire eradication involved the hunter either wrestling the vampire’s spirit (which was not visible to the naked eye) or driving the vampire’s spirit (holy images and crosses might be used for this) into a bottle that would be immediately sealed. Other methods involved rock salt and iron shavings, but only in small amounts because of the cost. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/15 "2018-08-20T22:14:23Z")
One folkloric belief that seems to have vanished from most modern depictions of fictional vampires is that if a vampire came across something like poppy seeds or rice they would have to stop and count every grain. So you could prevent a vampire from leaving its grave by sprinkling poppy seeds around the grave. Interestingly, the first photo in the OP seems to show a bottle of little seeds on the right of the case. I wonder if this is a reference to that old belief. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/16 "2018-08-20T23:06:50Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > One folkloric belief that seems to have vanished from most modern depictions of fictional vampires is that if a vampire came across something like poppy seeds or rice they would have to stop and count every grain. So you could prevent a vampire from leaving its grave by sprinkling poppy seeds around the grave. Interestingly, the first photo in the OP seems to show a bottle of little seeds on the right of the case. I wonder if this is a reference to that old belief. One! Ah, ah, ah! Two! Ah, ah, ah! Three! Ah, ah, ah! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/17 "2018-08-21T03:28:05Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > That was my thought, as well, since I knew that Stoker had codified a lot of what we now consider to be canon about vampires. > > That said, when I did a little spelunking on Wikipedia about Stoker and _Dracula_, I found a link to a page on “[Vampire literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_literature).” There, I read this: > > But, you’re likely right, the contents of those “hunting kits” are probably overly influenced by Stoker’s canon, and so, even if there were such kits in the 18th century, those probably would not have been their contents. There wasn’t much literature to come out of the “vampire craze” in the 18th century. In that century we got _The Bride of Corinth_ and a little other stuff. What opened the floodgates of pop vampire literature was Polidori’s _The Vampyre_, and that because everybody thought it was by Lord Byron. But once it was out, it lead to multiple reprintings and stage plays, and then to derivative things like _Varney the Vampire_. What’s odd is that it appears that Polidori didn’t put it into print – someone else with access to Villa Diodati seems to have. Polidori felt that his contribution to the Great Horror Story Write-Off of 1816 was _Ernestus Berchtold_, a novel practically everyone has forgotten about. Byron didn’t want _The Vampyre_ associated with him – he thought it was awful – so he had the fragment he’d cobbled together printed at the end of his next book. You could say that _The Vampyre_ wasn’t so much published as that it _escaped_. Neither its putative author nor its real author wanted it in print, but it did, and was immensely influential. It gave us the Titled Vampire, one who could pass as human. And that changed everything, and eventually gave us _Dracula_ and all the pop culture vampires of today. And ephemeral like Vampire Hunting Kits. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/18 "2018-08-21T07:44:49Z")
There was a “[vampire panic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panic)” in 19th C. New England which predated _Dracula_. Predated the widespread acceptance of the germ theory of disease, too. Also, “New England Vampire Panic” is now the name of my emo-style Billy Bragg cover band. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/19 "2018-08-21T11:54:21Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There was a “[vampire panic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panic)” in 19th C. New England which predated _Dracula_. Predated the widespread acceptance of the germ theory of disease, too. > > Also, “New England Vampire Panic” is now the name of my emo-style Billy Bragg cover band. A newspaper clipping reporting on that event was the most recent piece of source material in Stoker’s collection when he wrote _Dracula_. He was definitely aware of it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901/20 "2018-08-21T12:41:14Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Psssst…Abraham “Bram” Stoker was Irish. 😃 Hey, they are always calling people “Mein Herr” in vampire films. I’m just getting in the swing of things. When in Rome, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-hunting-kits-an-in-thing-in-the-18th-century-im-sure/819901.md?page=2)