A man came across an eye-catching antique at a New York estate sale that carried with it an alarming warning.
Our passion for antiques is stronger than ever. Figures compiled by Statista estimate there were $11.8 billion in total online sales of art and antiques in 2023, an increase of around 7 percent on a year earlier and nearly quadruple the amount generated a decade earlier.
Antiques can tell a story, prove highly lucrative to a seller with the right connections or can be a source of personal curiosity to the buyer.
The acquisition made by one avid collector attending an estate sale in the Hudson Valley earlier this month falls into the third category, with a dash of morbidity thrown in for good measure.
The buyer, who requested he be identified only by his Reddit handle u/MaxtheMighty, told Newsweek: "The owner of the home, which was also a workshop, was a cemetery caretaker and stonemason who was in charge of making the graves and maintaining the cemetery."
Given that background, a few unusual items were always likely to pop up for sale, but it was one thing in particular that caught u/MaxtheMighty's eye: a bottle featuring a picture of a rat with the words, "this bottle contains a deadly poison," written on it.
"It was pretty wild. He had a large collection of vintage bottles," the poster said. "I love collecting oddities, though, and the bottle with a rat embossed on it, and with the label still on, seemed unique."
What made the discovery even more unique was that the bottle, which was thought to be around 80 years old and contained arsenic, was almost full and, more importantly, still quite poisonous.
"My understanding is that arsenic does not degrade, so I'm keeping the bottle sealed shut," he said. In a further twist, u/MaxtheMighty discovered that, despite the previous owner's background, having arsenic in the home wasn't all that uncommon.
"It was not related to the work that person did as their profession, which I thought was interesting considering it was in the house of someone doing that type of job," the Reddit user said. "Practically, this was rat poison; same as poison that you can buy at any hardware store today, but with a different chemical agent."
He noted that "most homes have similar poisonous materials today under their kitchen sinks," though the poster added that they are usually not labeled or branded in as "scary" a way as the one he found at the estate sale that day.
The Reddit user has no plans on using the arsenic to kill rats, though, or anyone for that matter. In fact, he is not planning on ever opening the bottle, which sounds entirely sensible.
"I'm planning on keeping it in a locked glass case with other curios and oddities," the poster said. "Ideally, I'd like to sell it to a collector who will care for it; someone who collects vintage and rare bottles or someone who collects oddities would be best."
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