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Coffin Boffin

@coffinboffin.bsky.social
1.1K followers 114 following 485 posts

Dr Sam George, Open Graves Open Minds Project. Gothic Enchantment. Books on Vampires, Wolves, Fairies, Unruly Plants, Shadows. herts.academia.edu/SamGeorge

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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 2h
TREATISE on VAMPIRES & REVENANTS By Calmet, a Benedictine Monk who lived through the European #vampire epidemic in the eighteenth century. It was translated across Europe as The Phantom World in 1850. Image is my 1993 reprint with cover illustration by Frank Papé #SpookySunday #31daysofHalloween
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 2h
EVERY AGE GETS THE DRACULA IT NEEDS 3 of the best covers #31daysofHalloween Penguin, 1979, shows Dracula the #vampire escaping his coffin; Modern Library edition, 1932, shows the Count as a member of high society; Constable, 1916, #Dracula as a bat-like creature scaling the walls of his castle
Penguin 1979Dracula 1932 coverDracula 1916 cover
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 2h
WIDDERSHINS means moving counter clockwise; this inversion of the natural order was associated with the devil and witchcraft. In this image #WITCHES delight in flying widdershins around North Berwick church with their broomsticks #FolkloreSunday #31daysofHalloween
Witches & North Berwick Church
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
DRACULA COOKBOOK 1978 This gothic delight imagines what #Dracula served his guests; he does not eat (or drink wine) himself of course! #31DaysOfHalloween
Dracula Cookbook 1978
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
THE BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE by Florence Marryat, published the same year as Dracula, 1897. Harriet, daughter of a mad scientist & a voodoo priestess, has the blood of the #vampire flowing through her veins; she's draining the life out of those she loves. First edition with bat #31daysofHalloween.
1897 edition of Blood of the Vampire
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
BRITISH VAMPIROLOGIST Alphonsus Augustus Montague Summers (1880-1948). The inscription on his tombstone in Richmond reads, "Tell me strange things". Buffy Summers of vampire slaying fame is named after this occult investigator #Gothtober #31daysofHalloween
Grave of British Vampirologist Montague Summers 1880-1948
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
VAMPIRE MIST As the nights draw in and we get the first mists in #Gothtober remember that the dead travel fast & #Dracula as #vampire can arrive in mist or be carried in moonlight rays as elemental dust (allowing him to creep through keyholes). Image: Bela Lugosi, Dracula, 1931 #31daysofHalloween
Belia Lugosi as Dracula, 1931Hungarian graveyard, Victorian.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
VAMPIRES Join me to celebrate our best loved monster, the #vampire over the spooky season for #31daysofHalloween and throughout #Gothtober. I am writing a short cultural history of the #vampire for the British Library published next year! There'll be vampire-related posts everyday this month!
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
FEMALE VAMPIRE STORY the Tomb of Sarah by F. G. Loring was published the same year as Dracula in 1897. 'I have prepared everything: the sharp knives, the pointed stake, fresh garlic, and wild dog roses; let the vampire be pierced through the heart' #31daysofHalloween
medieval style wooden coffin Victorian photograph of a woman wearing a garland
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Giving a #BotanicalGothic tag to this. Watch out for our CFP coming soon!
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Nina Antonia @ninaantonia13.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
As it's St. Michael the Archangel's day to whom I'm grateful for chasing away a few devils, here's the glorious Rawson memorial window, designed by Powell Brothers, 1899, which can be found in Holy Trinity church, Stockton.
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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'Goblin Market' by Frank Craig. #FairyTaleTuesday #fairy #fairies #faerie #poetry
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
FEAST OF ST MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS St. Michael the Archangel defeats the Devil, holding him by a chain, in this unsettling painting by Giovanni Gasppero. Gasparro is a contemporary artist who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 2007. Check out the devil's ears and horns! #Michaelmas
St Michael slaying the devil By Gasppero
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
JACK-O-LANTERNS Before the grinning pumpkins of Halloween the folkloric versions or Jack-o-Lanterns, named for the Irish myth, were terrifying; carved from turnips or swedes they had the appearance of shrunken heads #31DaysofHalloween #FairyTaleTuesday
Irish Jack'O'Lanterncontemporary turnip lantern
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
JACK PUMPKINHEAD is a fictional character from the Land of Oz in books by American author L. Frank Baum. Jack first appeared in the 2nd Oz book 'The Marvelous Land of Oz', 1904. Images of my cherished copy! #FairyTaleTuesday
Jack Pumpkinhead book 1904
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
FAIRY TRANSPORT Fairies & elves are said to cast an enchantment over woodland animals. They are shown delighting in their mode of transport in the fantastical world of French author and illustrator Jean-Baptiste Monge #FolkloreSunday
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
BOOK OF DREAMS & GHOSTS 1897 Andrew Lang, best known for the coloured fairy books, was President of the Society for Psychical Research. The book poses some fundamental questions: Do you believe in ghosts? How do you define a ghost? One of the best looking ghost books. That cover! #SpookySunday
Longman cover for Lang's Dreams and Ghosts
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
THE FAIRY FELLER'S MASTER STROKE is on display at the RCA giving access to the stunning detail of a fairy #autumn. Dadd depicts the fairy 'feller' about to split a large chestnut with his axe to make a new carriage for Queen Mab, amid the prickly fruits of the London Plane Tree #FolkloreThursday
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
THE MOWING DEVIL or 'Strange News out of Hartford-shire'. An English woodcut pamphlet from 1678 that narrates a tale of Satan mowing a field in Hertfordshire. The images of reaping & gleaning are reminiscent of #harvest folklore; also cited as an early example of a crop circle #FolkloreThursday
Depiction of the devil mowing a field in Hertfordshire from 1678
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
AUTUMN MIST I encountered the perfect gothic scene for #AutumnEquinox. Walking through my local Yorkshire churchyard the leaves had begun to fall and it was completely shrouded in mist.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
For a variety, I would recommend Fearsome Fairies edited by E. Dearnley (British Library, 2021); Werewolf Short Stories (Flame Tree Press, 2025) and Michael Sims, ed., Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories (Bloomsbury, 2010). Excellent reads for the spooky season!
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
HARVEST FOLK HORROR NOVELS 1. HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon 1973 Foundational folk horror. A family move to isolated Connecticut village Cornwell Coombe; the locals are deeply obsessed with corn, ritual, and a harvest festival climaxing on 'kindling night' #HarvestMoon #FolkHorror #WyrdWednesday
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Dirk Puehl @wunderkammertales.eurosky.social · 22/09/2026
Oooh... perfect for the #WyrdWednesday harvest tomorrow as well! bsky.app/profile/wyrd...
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The #HarvestMoon will bring increased activity from #werewolves. Compelled to leave their hunting grounds in the woods, they will make their way to open fields at this time to prowl & howl at the moon. They may be found crossing roads & gardens! #FairytaleTuesday
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The Kimono Gallery @roger1952.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
young Geisha (Geiko) seated at a table while reading a book in 1930s Japan.
Seated gracefully before a polished wooden table, a young geiko leans forward in quiet reflection, her downcast eyes absorbed in the open pages of a book. Soft, ambient studio light bathes her porcelain profile, highlighting the immaculate contours of her traditional coiffure bound with white mizuhiki paper cords and a delicate hair ornament. She wears a patterned silk kimono adorned with subtle floral motifs, layered above a crisp white inner collar (han'eri) and tied at the waist. Beside her, a dark ceramic vase holding a slender spray of chrysanthemums catches a soft glint of light, its deep glaze anchoring the warm, sepia-toned composition in a moment of tranquil stillness.
Photographed in 1930s Japan, this portrait records a nuanced moment during the early Shōwa period, when the traditional world of the flower and willow districts (karyūkai) adapted to the realities of interwar urban modernity. While geiko and maiko remained custodians of classical arts—including traditional dance, shamisen, and the tea ceremony—they were also educated urban women living through a time of rapid social transformation. Studio portraiture during this era represented a sophisticated expression of visual monozukuri (artisanal craft), merging European studio lighting techniques with indigenous standards of female beauty (bijin). By portraying the subject with a bound publication rather than a musical instrument or fan, the photograph emphasizes literacy, interiority, and modern self-cultivation.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
THE SLAVIC MYTHS This collection by Thames & Hudson has some wonderfully gothic myths. In 'The Black Butterfly', the soot coloured insect is the soul of a Serbian #vampire. When he is staked and doused in holy water it disgorges from his throat and flutters into the twilight. Wow - a great read!
Cover for a Thames and Hudson collection on The Slavic Myths.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
KNIGHT AT THE CROSSROADS is a nineteenth-century mythical painting by Russian artist Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (1848–1926). According to ancient superstitions, crossroads are unhallowed ground, haunted by vampires, demons, witches & trolls.
C19th mythical painting of a knight at the crossroads surrounded by skeletons and graves
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
VINTAGE #VAMPIRES FROM THE ARCHIVE McNally and Florescu's The History of Dracula and Vampires (1994 edn. with Gorey designed cover) and McNally's A Clutch of Vampires (1974); includes a ponderous essay by Montague Summers, 'Are Vampires Less Frequent Today?'
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International Gothic Association @igagoths.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Join the @gothicstudies.bsky.social editorial team! Gothic Studies is pleased to announce a number of editorial positions: 2 associate editors and 1 North American reviews editor. Click here for more information and to apply: www.globalgoth.org/blog/join-th...
globalgoth.org
Join the Gothic Studies editorial team - Gothic Association
Gothic Studies is pleased to announce a number of editorial positions.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, and writers appreciated too late longvictorian.com/2017/04/26/w...
longvictorian.com
Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, and writers appreciated too late
Anna Sewell (1820-78) was the author of Black Beauty, one of the ‘top ten best selling novels for children’ ever written. Sadly, shortly after her book was published, she passed away. Although Anna…
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
VAMPIRE WITCHES of MEXICO & PORTUGAL BRUJAS are Witches of Mexico & Hispanic communities who are ascribed vampiric habits. A bloodsucking Portuguese Witch who preys on infants is known as a BRUXSA #WyrdWednesday Las Brujas, Witches' Sabbath, Goya, 1797
Goya 1797, witches sabbath
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
THE VAMPIRE BATS of CHILE The Spanish supposedly came back from the New World with stories of blood-sucking bats; Buffon named them 'vampire bats' in 1774 & Charles Darwin popularised them in 1832, making several sketches of them in Chile #WyrdWednesday Images: Goya 1799, Darwin 1832
Goya, bats, 1799
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Here for the re-enchantment and the folklore!
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
AUTUMN FAIRIES John Anster Fitzgerald's painting is a glorious depiction of fairies in #autumn but if you look closely the rabbit is held captive by the tricksy fairies, symbolised by a rather menacing fairy to the left wielding a hawthorn spear #GothicFairies
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
PINOCCHIO is frankly terrifying; he's set alight, enslaved to a puppet master, lynched by ruffians, swallowed by a fish, plunged alive into a boiling pot and nearly carried off by rabbit undertakers, before becoming a real boy. Illustrations by Folkyard 1914 edition #FairyTaleTuesday
Pinocchio is nearly plunged into a pot (illustration by Charles Folkyard 1914 Dent edition).
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
MUSEUM MERMAID This would have been a great prize for any C18th cabinet of curiosities. It is listed as a 'merman'caught in Japan in the records of the British Museum. Excited to have seen this #seachanges
Merman British Museum
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
NO COWARD SOULS The unsettled gothic beauty of the Brontë family home & churchyard in Haworth, Yorkshire. Posted in celebration of Charlotte, Emily and Anne this #FolkloreSunday No coward souls reside here. Images taken last autumn and fondly remembered.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
IT'S BLACKBERRY PICKING TIME but never eat blackberries after Michaelmas, Sept 29, because the DEVIL has spat on them! When Archangel Michael defeated Lucifer in a huge battle in hell he landed in a thorny blackberry, maddened, he spat on and cursed the fruit! #FolkloreSunday
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
COUNT MAGNUS M.R. James story about an undead count in a mausoleum who has acquired a knowledge of the Black Mass (1904). James was influenced by De Nugis Curialium a C12th work on #ghosts, #vampires and wood nymphs #SpookySunday
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
CFP A chance to contribute to our volume on mermaids www.opengravesopenminds.com/call-for-art...
opengravesopenminds.com
CFP: Sea Changes publications
Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river Following our very successful conference in September 2026, we invite participants from that event a…
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
FAIRY ARTIST Excited to have spoken to the curator of Richard Dadd 'Beyond Bedlam' at the Royal Academy today and to have browsed these remarkable fairy works full of awe and wonder! What an exhibition!
Book and exhibition catalogue for Richard Dadd at the Royal Academy.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
FENRIR the most infamous of the many #wolves in NORSE mythology; son of the god Loki and the female giant Angrboda. It is Fenrir who, in addition to killing Odin and destroying much of the world, will eat the sun and the moon during Ragnarok 🎨John Bauer #WyrdWednesday
John Bauer wolf warrior
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
SCARY ANGELS According to celestial hierarchies the CHERUBIM are of the first order of Angels, along with SERAPHIM. Their wings are said to be full of eyes; this is notable in medieval art and in the C19th paintings of Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov
Cherubim, showing their eyed wings in medieval art
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OGOM Project @ogomproject.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
CFP: Sea Changes publications Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river Following our very successful…...
opengravesopenminds.com
CFP: Sea Changes publications
Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river Following our very successful conference in September 2026, we invite participants from that event and other scholars to submit essays to be included in an edited collection and a special journal issue. Full fathom five thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes:Nothing of him that doth fade,But doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong.Hark! now I hear them,—ding-dong, bell.
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
CFP A chance to contribute to our volume on mermaids www.opengravesopenminds.com/call-for-art...
opengravesopenminds.com
CFP: Sea Changes publications
Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river Following our very successful conference in September 2026, we invite participants from that event a…
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Nina Antonia @ninaantonia13.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
An allegorical painting of autumn serenading the last of summer whilst anticipating the death of the year. From the time when the seasons generally did what they were supposed to. (art Piotr Stachiewicz 1858-1935)
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE A vampiric #ghost returns from the grave to prey on her lover, dressed in her shroud. Draws on Keats & Poe & also Le Fanu & Arthur Machen. The story is from F. Marion Crawford, author of Wandering Ghosts, 1911. Image: Mihály Zichy, The Ghost Hour, 1880 #SpookySunday
Victorian ghostly bride with spectres
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Dirk Puehl @wunderkammertales.eurosky.social · 06/09/2026
"The Spectre of Death" 🎨 Kazimierz Stabrowski (1907) #SpookySunday
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
#VAMPIRES transitioned from dishevelled peasants into alluring aristocrats with irresistible powers of seduction when #Polidori reshaped the folk material from which they grew. Lord Ruthven, a libertine, emerged from his lair into the drawing rooms of England in 1819 #FolkloreSunday
early C19th edition of Polidori's The Vampyre, 1819
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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
GOTHIC LOVES Mary Shelley is rumoured to have kept Percy Shelley's heart in a silken shroud, carrying it with her for years. After she died it is said that the heart was found in her desk wrapped in his poems. It's hard to out goth that! #FolkloreSunday 🎨encased embalmed hearts
Embalmed hearts encased in gold
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