Every once in a while, the Antique Archaeology Team unloads some picks that don’t look anything like motorcycles or metal signs off the Picker van. We’re talking creepy picks. Sometimes Mike’s taste tilt towards the unusual. (Like that one trip to upstate New York when he returned to our Nashville location with a load of clown heads and a gigantic old clown suit!) It’s only appropriate with this Halloween, that we share some of the most spooky antiques that the Master of Junk has resurrected on American Pickers.
Scroll down if you dare…
Mike picked this famous Frankenstein bust and pair of hands in Michigan from an older collector. These plaster pieces were created by the studio in the mid-1930s and distributed to movie theaters across America to promote the “Frankenstein” movie. The theaters would have a dummy that they would but it would sit in a lobby. it was easy for the studio to send the heads and hands and the team would have to assemble and create the body.
When it comes to art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Who knows what magic hypnotized Mike to purchase this menacing demon. An important detail that American Pickers fans will recall is that the demon’s face is not on traditional canvas like wood or paper — but a VW hood! This red devil currently for sale resting high above customers at Antique Archaeology Nashville… watching…
Wolf Boy is undoubtedly one of the most famous picks in “American Pickers” history. He was displayed at circus shows as an attraction and was created by sideshow artist, Homer Tate. (Read more about Homer HERE!) Wolf boy is currently resting in his wooden coffin at Antique Archaeology Nashville. — Just don’t tape on the glass display that covers him… once he wakes up he is impossible to lull back to sleep.
Mike found Gypsy Grandma, a fortune-telling, coin-operated machine from the 1940s and 1950s, inside a Louisiana warehouse amongst self-playing piano and gabbling gumball machines. Feed her a dime, ask a “yes” or “no” question, then watch her reach over to open a cabinet where she’ll grab your fortune and drop it into a pot for you to read. Careful what you ask for…
Does anyone recognize the clown on the left? You saw it on Season 7 when Mike purchased it in upstate New York. The paper mache clown head used to be propped atop a circus sign to greet the audience. The Bozo clown head on the right was off that same pick.
While pickin in Flordia, Mike uncovered a retired eye doctor’s eye-popping collection of optical-related antiques — including these glass eyes. If you look at them long enough you’ll swear one blinked at you…
Is there a spooky pick from the “American Pickers” we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
