It’s almost Halloween, a time when people like to dress up as ghosts, witches or devils, and visit haunted houses, go on haunted hay rides and indulge their taste for s’mores and the supernatural.
But for a Clinton couple, the macabre is a year-round obsession.
The couple are the owners and purveyors of Dr. MacAbre’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which contains items they manufacture or buy and sell at vendor booths at Olde Glory Days and at events at Primitive Olde Crow and Winery.
It was an interest in other-worldly things that brought Bartholomew Katch and his partner together, he said. Throwing elaborate Halloween parties for their friends, complete with macabre decorations and party favors, grew into creating Dr. MacAbre’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which include charms, amulets, artifacts and enchantments.
The Katches’ muggle lives have been busy lately, Bartholomew said, so they haven’t gotten out to events the last few years. They sell products on their Facebook, Dr. MacAbre’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
If you call the phone number listed on it, you’ll get Dr. Professor Zigfeld Heimlech Von Kleinschmacher. The Professor is the doctor’s chief lab assistant. Bartholomew Katch is Dr. MacAbre’s Location and Acquisition Expert. There’s also Aloysius P. Danderderry, Head Scrivener and Master Cartographer.
The Doctor’s products run the gamut from Vampire Blood (Do NOT open except in case of emergency) and Iocane Powder, “Sicilian Tested — Dread Pirate Approved.” Several bottles, like that of Voracious Slime, are labeled “Do Not Open Under Any Circumstance,” but have tipped over onto a tray, the contents spilled out and congealed.
The Dr. MacAbre’s Cabinet of Curiosities Facebook describes the Doctor alliteratively as a “Purveyor of Potions, Importer of Incantations, Curator of Curiosity and Adventurer Extraordinaire.”
Among the more esoteric products are bottles of “Hair of the Werewolf.” Gems come in small, medium and large. You can buy “Obscurus” in a glass jar, or for that nosey cousin, a little bottle labeled “Drink Me.” To darken your den decor, the Cabinet also sells framed prints of ravens, sea monsters and Sherlock Holmes. The originals are hand-drawn with an antique fountain or quill pen on antiqued dictionary pages, and reproduced on pages of the books they portray, antiqued by the Good Doctor himself, Bartholomew said. For the Druid who has everything, there’s a fossilized, Bog Fairie, Adult, framed, size: Large, type: Nocturnal.
If you’re in the market for an accessory to complete your witch or warlock costume, or to accent your office attire on Halloween, you can order a neck chain with a spider, an old gothic key or dragon dangling from it. “Flowers of Wisdom” are $7 each. Bigger items include the “Mysterious Owl,” a life-size statue that is must for the serious Harry Potter or Poe fan, or a skull for your desk for those “Alas, poor Yorick” moments. The skeleton hand would add a nice touch to distributing Halloween candy to Trick-Or-Treaters.
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is the title of a 1920 German silent movie, considered the first horror film. Dr. Cagliostro’s Cabinet of Curiosities in Romania is considered one of the best occult museums in Europe.
The Katches balance their sideline with working shifts at a local company. For more information and a bit of Halloween humor, go to Dr. MacAbre’s Cabinet of Curiosities Facebook.
