Weird & Scary Items

“Where there is no imagination, there is no horror”. – Arthur Conan Doyle

I have been examining thousands of items of personal property over the years. In many cases, there are stories that are attached to these items. I have selected a few stories that made an impact due to the weird or scary nature associated with the item. 

The Flying Tea Cups: A couple who were major collectors of tea cups, which numbered in the hundreds, lived in a renovated Victorian-era house dating back to the 1880s. They displayed their collection on specialized shelves to hold the saucers and cups. Seeing walls of shelving with tea cups was very impressive. They had a “Royal Albert Avon”, pattern from 1905. Once placed on the shelf, they found the broken cup and saucer on the floor the next morning. It was the only set broken. They were able to find a replacement and the same thing happened. They found it strange that it would happen a second time, and only that pattern was broken. So they searched for another replacement. Once placed on the shelf, they applied weights to the cup & saucer, thinking that vibration on that part of the shelf was responsible. That was not the case, as they found the cup & saucer broken on the floor. They decided that after 3 broken cups & saucers, they were not going to try to find a 4^th replacement. They placed an index card, with the name of the pattern on the shelf, with a little note of what happened. When we appraised the collection, we were told the story. 

The Sword that Did Not Rust: A couple in the SDG region was renovating a very old house that started as a 1 room log house, dating to the mid to late 18^th. Century. They raised the house from its old stone foundation, which was going to be rebuilt. The workers found very old tools and a sword. The iron-forged sword did not have maker markings, only a date of 1808, and without its scabbard sheath. What was special was the sword was clean and free of rust. When the contents were found, photos were taken. They took the photos and articles to some antique dealers, to find out if the items had any interest for them since they wanted to sell. The comments from all who saw the sword asked why they polished and cleaned the sword. The people’s response was always the same, we never did anything to the sword, it was found in this condition. The sword was purchased by a collector, who later called us and told us the story and showed the pictures of when it was found. 

The 17^th Century Windsor Chair in the Corner: We were doing an estate appraisal of an elderly person who is deceased. He was a collector of Antique English Furniture. His home was decorated with fine pieces from the 1600 – 1700. Most of the furniture was of a very high quality. The living room had a large fireplace and in the right corner was a 17^th Century Windsor Chair. We were told the story, that its placement in the room was not normally where it was supposed to be. It originally was at the entrance of the living room. After the gentleman passed, they found the chair moved itself to its present location. After a few tries of returning the Windsor chair to its original location, they always found the chair next to the fireplace. The house was empty, with no one living in the house, until there was a decision of what was going to happen. After our assignment was complete, we had no idea where the chair ended up. It is hoped that it will be placed near a fireplace.

Disclaimer

Prestige Evaluation Inc. does not engage in any buying or selling of any personal property. Prestige Evaluation Inc. can not do any verbal appraising without a work file and consultation. It’s important for the seller/buyer to do his or her own due diligence, before accepting an offer to purchase or in selling your personal property. For any company referred or named in this document, there is no financial consideration or relationship between Prestige Evaluation Inc. and John Grow. This article was not generated by ChatGPT. AI Free