Halloween Lovers Dream Auction of Rare Funeral Collection: Real Skeletons, Antique Caskets, Post Mortem Photos

Halloween Lovers may have thought they had died and gone to Haunted Heaven when they attended a truly unusual auction that was held in 2008 in Lima, Ohio, when a Collection-Macabre was sold off to the highest bidders!

We're talking real skeletons in real caskets, and other Funeral Home and Mortician memorabilia. Plus there were catalogs of caskets, and even garments that the funeral home could order to bury the deceased in, like the two pairs of Slumber Slippers, with lace-up backs to fit multiple sizes.

There were some small child's caskets, and several adult size caskets with real skeletons inside. The skeletons sold from $250.00 - $800.00 -- each!

A Victorian “toe-pincher”, also called “heel squeezers” or Dracula coffins because of their narrow tapering foot, sold $675.

Lots of casket handles and hardware, too.
I really liked the little folk-arty diorama of a cemetery. Perfect if you are really into decorating for Halloween!

Antique dealer Don Orwig recognized several of the faux-skeletons sold at the auction and lighted coffins as items from ceremonies hosted years ago by the Odd Fellows fraternity.

“Two of the coffins I bought were rigged with lights and the skeletons lighted up,” he said. “We’re seeing more of those, now that several of the old lodges are losing their membership and selling out. There’s quite a few collectors for these things, particularly among the Odd Fellows.” [Source]

The auction generated lots of excitement, and reporters came from all around -- here's the Toledo Blade article, and the Lima News article. Just check this google search to read some of the other newspaper articles.













I had hoped that there would have been some death-related and post-mortem postcards and photos like the examples below, but there weren't.

Here's an interesting book on Post Mortem Collectibles - link.

Here's the link to some post mortem items on ebay now.

Google's image search for Post Mortem items has some great photos.