If Only I Hadn't Visited That Antiques Shop.

[dem bones]

"Why, customers. Come in, come in. I'm sure I have the very thing to tempt you. Lots of bargains, all tastes catered for. Oh, and a big novelty surprise goes with every purchase."

Ideally, stories that closely fit the From Beyond the Grave model - musty, mysterious shop, preferably impossible to locate twice, etc. - but anything concerning antique dealers of sinister aspect and their ghastly wares will do. Robert Bloch had a number of them - The Cloak, his Jack the Ripper story A Most Unusual Murder, at a push The Skull Of The Marquis de Sade, and his fellow partner in crime at Amicus, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, was fond of the theme: The Chair, The Holstein Horror and The Door come immediately to mind — I'm sure there are others? Robert Arthur had at least a couple - The Mirror Of Cagliostro and his Monkey's Paw influenced The Rose Crystal Bell. Then there's Oswell Blakestone's The Crack - the narrator has hideous dreams involving a weird antique dealer and his horrific statuettes of animals writhing in torment. E. F. Benson's The Chippendale Mirror - adapted for an episode in the first great British anthology film Dead Of Night - probably fits the bill, even if the Putney dealer and his premises don't play much part in the story.

[Johnlprobert]

I don't make a habit of plugging my own stuff but The Kreutzenberg Sonata in Faculty of Terror was kind of written with Temptations Ltd in mind

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I'm wondering if any of the authors on here have written a story based on an object they picked up, or know of stories by authors who have done so? Perhaps you can share.
Maybe you bought a mirror, or even a door, from a man who resembled Peter Cushing? Let us know!

You don't have to have written a story to take part; perhaps you own an object that you think would be perfect for a story, or has some background that would be perfect for one.

[bluetomb]

Was found stuffed in a couch at his university residence (which may have been the one which was a literal tower, although I never visited) rather than an antique shop, but my oldest brother does possess an estimably weird manuscript. 60 something pages of typed A4, of various layouts and font sizes (some pages had only a single very large sentence), with accompanying pictures and diagrams, describing a journey back to the time of the dinosaurs (as I recall to research the crania of tyrannosaurs), before segueing into a mixture of detailed theory and mechanics of a time travelling vessel (I remember toroidal magnets involved) broken up by snippets of the back story of the physics professor behind the whole adventure. He may have been a genius shunned by his university peers for his revolutionary ideas, he may simply have been over-fond of the devil's lettuce, but my brother never did find the guy to find out. Was a heck of a thing to leaf through, though much went over my head as I am neither a scientist nor an engineer. My brother thinks he still has it in a box somewhere, though he can't swear to where, it's been north of a decade since he last had it out. Hope he does, for who knows what secrets it may really hold? 

[johnnymains]

I wrote a story about haunted stamps called George V - based on, in part my trips to antique shops while I look for George V Downey Heads. It's a side hustle that has made quite a bit of cash for me over the years.

[helrunar]

Hi Johnny, that sounds like a cool story. Where can I read it? Hope things are going well with your health.

cheers, Hel.