Yes, No, Maybe So? Skull & Bones


We’ve aired our differences on blogs about mounting Elk heads on walls or using cow rugs to cover our floors. Many tend to be in favor of using these items to decorate a room, however, not without a little *twinge* -- some of us pausing for a quick moment, pondering about the once live animal.

But what about something that is human?

Remember the plastic glow-in-the-dark skulls growing up that we bought at the five and dime store? Or those out there who have bought them for your kids. They were cool, but also creepy. But if we had to handle a real human skill (excluding med students) how many of us would get squeamish? And feel, well... weird.

Christie’s (New York) just pulled a lot from the January 22nd upcoming sale. It was a real human skull from the nineteenth century that had been used as a ballot box by Yale’s elite and old Skull and Bones society (est. 1832). The skull was given an estimate of $10,000 to $20,000.

The skull has a hinged flap on the top of the head and believed to have been used as a ballot box to collect votes during the cryptic society’s meetings.

Who was the one who sawed through the skull to make the lid -- bits of bone dust flying around in their eyes, nose and mouth?


top image from Haunt Your Home; second image from Huffingtom Post.