{"title":"Slideshow Pool","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"haunted-harriet","title":"Haunted Harriet","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe piece, named Harriet by her previous owner, features a remarkably unsettling visage with wide, staring glass eyes and rosy cheeks. The dummy is attired in a period-appropriate navy blue dress adorned with delicate white trim and embellishments, complemented by grey stockings and black shoes. A cream-coloured bow adorns its head, adding to its deceptively innocent appearance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eProduction Details\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThis striking theatrical prop dummy is believed to originate from the acclaimed series \"Into the Badlands\", understood to have been used as set dressing in the episode \"Cobra Fang, Panther Claw\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrafted from modern materials including resin and plastic, this static prop was designed specifically for atmospheric effect rather than performance use - the eyes and mouth are fixed in position. The construction demonstrates excellent attention to period detail while maintaining the show's signature dark aesthetic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eStrange Occurrences\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter filming, Harriet was sold through auction to a collector of theatrical props. It is believed that \u003cspan\u003eHarriet has since exhibited an unsettling tendency to relocate herself. On three separate occasions she was discovered her seated at a breakfast table, despite having been secured in a prop storage room the night before. Most disturbingly, the cream-coloured bow in her auburn hair had appeared freshly pressed each morning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCondition\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe piece remains in excellent display condition, retaining all its original costuming and paintwork. Minor wear consistent with production use may be present adding to its authentic character as a genuine television prop.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50568189116680,"sku":"LHC-00004","price":275.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/dummy-0031.jpg?v=1736446038"},{"product_id":"fire-devil-retort","title":"Fire Devil Retort","description":"\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-heading md-focus\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eIn nineteenth century Tibet, when a spirit refused to leave and every gentler method had been exhausted, a lama would take a copper vessel and fill it with juniper, mountain herbs, and mustard seed. The mustard seed mattered. It was the wrathful substance, reserved for spirits that would not respond to anything else. The mixture was set alight inside the vessel's bulbous body. The smoke curled up through the curved neck and out into the air.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThe spirit, drawn by the smoke, entered through the neck. Once inside, the curve of the passage prevented it from finding its way back out.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThen the neck was sealed. Pinched shut. And the vessel was taken away from the living. Buried deep in the ground, or thrown into a fast-flowing river. The lama did not keep it. Nobody kept it. A vessel with something still inside it was not something you wanted in your home.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThe vessel was called a fire devil retort. The Science Museum in London holds several, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk\/objects\/co125264\/fire-devil-retort-for-catching-devils\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003ecatalogued\u003c\/a\u003e with disarming plainness as \"fire devil retort for catching devils.\" They record almost nothing about how they were used, or what became of the spirits inside.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThis retort is a genuine antique, dating to the 1800s. Hand-worked copper under more than a century of dark patina. It is not a reproduction. Very few survive outside of museum collections, and for good reason. They were meant to be buried. They were meant to disappear. The fact that this one is still above ground is, depending on your perspective, either a stroke of luck or a cause for concern.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eIt is also sealed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eWe cannot say what is inside. We can say that a sealed retort is a retort that caught something, and that whoever sealed this one over a hundred years ago saw fit to ensure it stayed shut. It was supposed to be in the earth by now, or at the bottom of a river. Instead, it ended up here. Make of that what you will.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThe vendor advises against attempting to open it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 class=\"md-end-block md-heading\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eIn Performance\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThe fire devil retort is not a trick. There is no method, no gimmick, no effect. It is a genuine artefact, and the history is the performance.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eSet it on your table at the start of the evening. Do not introduce it. Let someone notice it, or pick your moment. Tell the story. Hand it round. Let them feel the weight and the cold copper while you talk about the smoke, the tradition, the invisible world. Everything you say is true. You never claim the retort contains a devil. You describe how these vessels were used, how the neck was sealed once a spirit was caught, how they were buried or thrown into rivers. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThen you let whoever is holding it discover for themselves that the neck is sealed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eThat moment of quiet recognition is the entire piece. A real object, a real history, and a question nobody in the room will want to answer out loud.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eIt is also a door. The retort establishes something most bizarre magic has to work much harder to create: a room full of people who have accepted, even briefly, that the invisible world is real and leaves traces in physical objects.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003ePut the retort in someone's hand and a pendulum in the other, and the spirit communicates through them. Ask them to close their eyes and describe what they feel, and you have psychometry. Put a pen in their hand and whatever is inside the vessel writes through them. The retort may work best as the first thing they encounter. The quiet opening that makes everything after it feel less like a performance and more like a warning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eFull performance ideas are included in the field guide.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 class=\"md-end-block md-heading\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eIncludes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eGenuine antique copper fire devil retort, sealed, and dating from the 1800s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eCustom display stand. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"md-end-block md-p\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"md-pair-s\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain\"\u003eOn the Catching of Devils\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"md-plain md-expand\"\u003e, a Laudanum House field guide to the sang tradition, Tibetan spirit trapping, and the history of the object you are now responsible for\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53376945815816,"sku":"LHBZ-00027","price":550.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/fire-devil-retort-604.jpg?v=1772386201"},{"product_id":"seeking-glass","title":"The Seeking Glass","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"A Receipt, and a Question\"\u003eA Receipt, and a Question\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn October 1897, Cecil Hawthorne ordered something privately from R.S. Napier of Edinburgh. The receipt survives. The reason does not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe clerk's hand was deliberate copperplate. The article was set down not in Napier's usual catalogue language but simply as \"\u003cem\u003egazing glass and case, as specified\"\u003c\/em\u003e. Two guineas, which is well above the catalogue rate. The correspondence in which the particulars were agreed does not survive on either side, and, for reasons never given, the sale was not entered in the shop ledger that quarter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo years and two months later, following Hawthorne's death, his lifelong companion Jonathan Blackwood came upon the case in the north wall cabinet. The leaflet of instructions sat folded inside the lid, apparently unread. He entered the article in his inventory as Item 37 and, having no other words for it, wrote the line \"Purpose uncertain.\" For the rest of his life he called it, for want of a better name, the Seeking Glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCecil could speak to the dead, read the histories of objects, channel automatic writing, and capture spirits on photographic plates. He could not, so far as Blackwood ever discovered, do this one thing. Whether Hawthorne ever uncovered the glass in the two years and two months between its arrival at Russell Square and his death is not on record. If he did, he did so privately and told no one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe glass is offered now, in faithful reproduction, with the papers of its first sale folded once more inside the lid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"A Strictly Limited Edition\"\u003eA Strictly Limited Edition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeeking Glass is a strictly limited edition of forty-eight pieces. No more will exist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the first release of sixteen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"Included within this edition\"\u003eIncluded within this edition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Gazing Glass.\u003c\/strong\u003e A clear sphere of glass, three inches in diameter, free of obvious bubbles or seeds and polished to an even figure. Selected, in Napier's own words, \"for clarity of material and soundness of figure.\" Supplied resting in its case.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Fitted Case.\u003c\/strong\u003e A cube of pine, four and three-quarter inches on every side, covered in embossed pebble-grain paper in the Victorian bookbinder's manner. The interior is a black velvet recess shaped to the sphere; the lid bears the R.S. Napier seal struck into the paper. Offered in two finishes, tan-brown or dark bottle-green; and carefully hand-aged.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Instruction Leaflet.\u003c\/strong\u003e A reproduction and subtly aged folded leaflet titled \"THE ART OF SCRYING,\" issued under the guidance of the Society for Spectral Enquiry. Sober directions, five numbered rules, and a Notice to Purchasers in Napier's commercial voice. The leaflet has its own quiet trick: not every word it carries is intended for the living eye.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Receipt.\u003c\/strong\u003e Napier's pre-printed billhead, made out by hand to the buyer of the glass, with a Penny Lilac revenue stamp cancelled across its face under the Stamp Act 1891. Hand-aged and hand written in period dip-pen and ink.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA Page from \u003cem\u003eThe Medium and Daybreak\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e A reproduction leaf torn from the spiritualist weekly of 5 June 1885, carrying a letter on the art of scrying signed \"J.A.M., Glasgow,\" and, in the adjacent column, an R.S. Napier classified advertisement.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe R.S. Napier House History (Digital Download).\u003c\/strong\u003e A full history of the firm and its Edinburgh shop, from its opening in 1884 to its closing in 1916.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCecil Hawthorne, an Illustrated Biography (Digital Download).\u003c\/strong\u003e The updated edition of Cecil's biography, revised to take account of the glass and the question it raises.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Performance Guide (Digital Download).\u003c\/strong\u003e A guide for the custodian: the 1897 transaction, the unresolved mystery, and the presentation of the artefact and its ephemera by candle-light before a small circle.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCertificate of Authenticity.\u003c\/strong\u003e Verifying your piece as part of the Cecil Hawthorne Collection.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote that all items are carefully hand-aged, and so will vary subtly from the product photographs.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"The Article in Performance\"\u003eIn Performance\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe glass does not answer. It asks.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeeking Glass is not a performance piece of shock and flourish. It is an artefact of unresolved enquiry, intended for the table at candle-light, in the company of a small circle who would prefer the question to the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe glass is the centre of the room and the source of whatever is shown. The custodian is not the seer; the glass is. Whatever happens in the evening appears to be its doing, surfacing slowly through the glass while the room watches and waits. The custodian is merely the voice through which what it shows is described.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUsed thoughtfully, the artefact becomes a witness to the evening. Pass it from hand to hand and the room reports temperatures and weights it cannot quite name. Hold it before a candle and the leaflet reveals a hand that did not write the rest of it. Set it before a sitter and the sphere returns their face, inverted, surrounded by the bent room. None of this needs explaining. The glass invites; the sitter fills the silence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCecil left a gap. Blackwood could not close it. The custodian inherits the question, not the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"Companion Articles\"\u003eCompanion Artefacts\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor those building a fuller continuity within the Cecil Hawthorne Collection, the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/laudanumhouse.com\/products\/emerald-oracle\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEmerald Oracle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (Cecil's pendulum, returned from a Buddhist temple in 1864) and the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/laudanumhouse.com\/products\/whispering-token\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhispering Token\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (his karmic psychometry pieces) sit within the same shared world. The same rooms recur. The same names. A keeper who holds several will, in time, find them speaking to one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCecil Hawthorne, his stories, and his artefacts are a work of fiction under copyright by Laudanum House Limited. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eAny resemblance to actual events or persons living, dead, or undead are entirely coincidental. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote that all reproduction artefacts are a mixture of genuine Victoriana and highly crafted props. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eCecil Hawthorne is fictitious and so are his magical artefacts and the history behind them.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Tan Brown","offer_id":57912292835592,"sku":"LHBZ-00032","price":390.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Bottle Green","offer_id":57912292868360,"sku":"LHBZ-00031","price":390.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/seeking-glass-green-647.jpg?v=1780071786"},{"product_id":"incarnate-the-case-file","title":"Incarnate: The Case File","description":"\u003ch2 data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eAn exorcist's secrets. A doctor's testimony. A boy's prophecy.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecovered from the depths of the Archivum Secretum Vaticanum, \u003cem\u003eIncarnate: The Case File\u003c\/em\u003e is a rare opportunity to acquire a long out-of-print copy of \u003cem\u003eIncarnate\u003c\/em\u003e from Dark Artifice, paired with Laudanum House's companion piece \u003cem\u003eThe Doctor's Photographs\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt its heart lies a rare copy of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/darkartifice.com\/products\/incarnate\"\u003eIncarnate\u003c\/a\u003e:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e the infamous performance artefact from Dark Artifice, long since vanished into legend. Supplemented by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/laudanumhouse.com\/products\/incarnate-the-doctors-photographs\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Doctor's Photographs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e in authentic vintage slides, this collection forms a tactile and terrifying narrative arc designed for live performance or intimate ritual. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA selection of period-authentic artefacts enriches the experience, from including printed prescriptions, newspaper clippings, and archival documents, each carefully curated to transport your audience into the era and mindset of the original investigators. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eA rare opportunity\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eA rare copy of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/darkartifice.com\/products\/incarnate\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncarnate\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (Dark Artifice) complete with Certificate of Authenticity. This is long sold out and very difficult to come by\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eA copy of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/laudanumhouse.com\/products\/incarnate-the-doctors-photographs\"\u003eThe Doctor's Photographs\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e(Laudanum House)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, including colourised slide artefacts, stamped archival documentation, and period prescription papers\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTogether they form a single tactile narrative arc: the rite, the witness, the aftermath. Material designed for live performance or for intimate ritual, where the audience does not merely hear the story of \u003cem\u003eIncarnate\u003c\/em\u003e but watches you turn its pages and lift its slides to the light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo you believe in prophecy? You will.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003cem\u003eIncarnate: The Doctor's Photographs is released with the full permission of Bobby Hasbun from \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/darkartifice.com\" title=\"Dark Artifice\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eDark Artifice\u003c\/a\u003e. Some images redacted on request of Dark Artifice.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/h5\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57948369092872,"sku":"LHBZ-00036","price":370.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/incarnate-bundle-693.jpg?v=1780670071"},{"product_id":"florries-mule","title":"Florrie's Mule","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"The story we imagine\"\u003eThe story we imagine\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomewhere in the 1940s a father spent his evenings in the shed. He had scrap timber, a tin of paint, and a wish to make something his daughter would love. He cut the body long and narrow, jointed the legs with screws, and stitched a bridle from a scrap of old blue knitting. When it was finished he gave the mule to his daughter, and she gave him a name known only to the two of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe photograph shows her on a doorstep working him on his strings, the mule standing at her feet. She looks down at him with the quiet fondness a child has for a favourite toy. We call her Florrie.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow the mule is here and Florrie is not. There is a sadness in him. He misses his owner, and he has missed her a long time, waiting the way only a much-loved toy can wait, for a girl who is not coming back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"What you will receive\"\u003eWhat you will receive\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou will receive the mule himself. He is the real thing, a handmade string puppet from the 1940s, not a reproduction made to look old. His body is painted cream and dark brown, long and narrow, with jointed legs, a frayed blue bridle and a tail of rough fibre. You can see where his father's hands worked the wood. He hangs from his red wooden stand by two cords, hooves just touching the base. The stand is not original to him but made in keeping with the period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou will also receive the original photograph from the 1940s. It shows his girl on the doorstep with his strings in her hand, caught playing rather than posing. The print is mounted in a period-correct frame, exactly as it was kept.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"Using him in your show\"\u003eUsing him in your show\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe is not a trick. He is a story. Begin with the photograph and tell it. Let the audience sit with the girl on the doorstep before they ever see the mule. When you finally bring him out, the moment will already have weight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow you use him from there is yours to decide. Perhaps you found him at a house clearance with the photograph still beside him, the only thing left that remembers her. Perhaps an old lady named Florrie entrusted him to you, and you promised to look after him. Perhaps her father passed away long ago, and the mule became a substitute for something she could not keep. Perhaps you never mention her again and let the photograph do its work alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis name is a door you can leave shut or walk through. Keep him nameless, since his name went with her and the one thing the audience wants is the one thing you cannot give them. Or make finding it the performance itself, and let the audience help you ask. But never say what became of Florrie. The gap in the story is where each listener puts their own loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome performers end the night by turning him to face her photograph. It costs nothing and it says everything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhether he is a grieving object or a haunted one is yours to decide. Either way, tell his story with understatement and he will carry whatever you give him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58306256208136,"sku":"LHBZ-00039","price":180.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/mule-979_24694492-26ce-4126-a838-cca30871b499.jpg?v=1785157554"},{"product_id":"poor-devil","title":"Poor Devil","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"The villain who never won\"\u003eThe villain who never won\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe was built to lose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the German puppet booth the devil is the standing adversary. The children start shouting warnings before he is even on. He comes with an temptation. He leaves beaten about the head, to enormous applause. He was the one character everybody was allowed to hate, and hating him was the best part of the afternoon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo he came on, night after night, charming and patient, and he was struck down every time. Nobody ever took the deal. Then the booth was folded up for the last time, the hand went out of him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePoor devil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe is still smiling. Look at what kind of smile it is. Not a snarl. A salesman who has been refused a thousand times and still believes the next one will say yes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"What you will receive\"\u003eWhat you will receive\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou will receive the devil himself. A period glove puppet of the type used in German Kasperletheater, mid twentieth century, not a reproduction made to look old. He is unmarked. We do not know who made him and we will not pretend otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComposition head, painted scarlet, with two black horns and a black crescent of a mouth that goes further round the face than a mouth should. Green eyes, looking slightly to one side rather than at you. A black cotton ruff, a faded coral costume, blacked wooden hands, and dangling legs ending in long wooden boots that knock together when he moves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe legs are the detail that gives him away. A glove puppet does not need legs and most do not have them. Legs are for a devil who was meant to be seen sitting on the edge of the playboard, swinging his heels, waiting for somebody to make a bad decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe is honestly worn and has never been restored. Paint rubbed from the horn tips and the nose, a fine craquelure across the face, frayed cuffs, threads hanging loose. The head is sound. Nobody mended him. They just stopped using him. He's about 16 inches in length.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"Using him in your show\"\u003eUsing him in your show\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no method here. He is hollow to the shoulder, and that is the only thing he does. Whatever he does next, somebody will have done it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe was built to make an offer and be refused, so the question the object asks is what happens the one time he is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen hand him to somebody else. It costs nothing to do and a great deal to receive. A sitter with a devil on their hand has been made responsible for him, and the room will feel it. Nothing needs to happen after that. Let them work out how to give him back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlay him warm. He is likeable, well mannered and endlessly persistent, and the discomfort comes from liking him rather than fearing him. He has been refused for seventy years and he is in no hurry at all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58310840779016,"sku":"LHE-00114","price":75.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/devil-958-3.jpg?v=1785155736"},{"product_id":"joey","title":"Joey","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c!-- obsidian --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"Somebody cut his strings\"\u003eSomebody cut his strings\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe strings did not perish. They were cut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA marionette does not come loose all at once. Threads fray, tangle, and go one at a time, usually at the knee, usually in the middle of a show. This one lost all of them together, at the same height, in a single sitting. That takes a pair of scissors and a decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhoever made the decision did not finish the job. He was not burned, he was not thrown out, and the control was not thrown out either. It was put away and it has stayed with him ever since, separated from him by an inch of cut thread and however many years. They took him out of service and then kept both halves of him anyway, which is a stranger thing to do than either destroying him or leaving him alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook at how he was put together and you will find two people in him, and they are not the same person at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomebody made the clown, and they could not do it. The hands are flat slabs with three saw cuts for fingers. The feet are blocks shaped just enough to read as shoes. The head is worked up in gobs of paste, lump on lump, nothing on it quite matching anything else: a yellow lump for a nose, a red ring for a mouth, red daubed high on both cheeks. The eyes are blue lids over black hollows with nothing behind them, and they are not looking at the room. A cheerful face attempted by somebody without the hands for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomebody else made the clothes, and they were very good. Yellow twill, a double ruffled collar, a peplum over the hips, rick-rack braid in red and blue laid along every seam and both cuffs. Hours of it, inch by inch, a beautiful suit of clothes made for that. They were looking at it the whole time they worked, and they dressed him in it anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery intention in the object is kindly and every result is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"What you will receive\"\u003eWhat you will receive\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJoey himself. A hand-made clown marionette, eighteen inches tall, mid twentieth century by the look of the cloth and the braid. Not a factory puppet and not a reproduction made to look old. He carries no maker's mark, no tag and no label. We do not know who made him, where, or when, and we will not invent it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBody, hands, legs and feet are wood, jointed on screw eyes and cord. The head is not wood. It is modelled in a composite of glue, clay and paste, painted cream, with a yellow nose, a red mouth, red high on both cheeks, and blue lids over black eyes. A low crest of red points runs across the crown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe costume is a yellow tunic and sleeves with a ruffled collar and peplum, blue trousers gathered at the knee and edged in yellow, and rick-rack braid in red and blue on every seam and both cuffs. Well cut and well finished.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition is honest and unrestored. The head is dirty and finely cracked, with the black chipped from one eye. The paint is thin on the hands. The cloth is faded and the cuff threads hang loose. The strings are cut short and left exactly as they were.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe control comes with him. It is not attached and we are not attaching it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-heading=\"Using him in your show\"\u003eUsing him in your show\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no method here. He is wood, cloth and paste, and he does one thing that no working marionette can do, which is nothing at all. What he has instead is two questions, and both are worth more than any trick you could do with him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first is how many people made him. There are two hands in this object and they are nothing like each other. One cut those slabs and pushed that face together out of paste. The other sat down and sewed him a suit of clothes worth wearing. The comfortable answer is that they were two people, a poor maker and a good needlewoman, and that she did her best for what she was given. The other answer is that they were the same person. Somebody who could do beautiful work when they chose to, and who did not choose to when they came to his face. Put both to a sitter and watch which one they would rather be true.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe second is why the strings were cut. All of them, at once, and then he was kept anyway. That is not how a puppet is retired and it is not how one is thrown out. Somebody wanted him not to move, and wanted him where they could see him. Do not answer it and do not hint that you could. Let the sitter arrive at what did he do on their own, because the moment they say it out loud they have decided he was capable of doing something, and you did not put that there. He may well have been. We are not going to tell you he was not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhatever he did, somebody made certain he would never do it again, and then kept him where they could see him. He is yours now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDo not restring him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Laudanum House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58312151859464,"sku":"LHE-00113","price":85.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0903\/6457\/6008\/files\/clown-928_f1a6c6b3-d106-488d-9ecb-1cfb1f125193.jpg?v=1785159447"}],"url":"https:\/\/laudanumhouse.com\/collections\/slideshow-pool.oembed","provider":"Laudanum House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}