A Rare Telescopic Tin ‘Direct-Voice’ Séance Trumpet; The Spiritualist Lyceum, Dalkeith Street, Barrow-in-Furness c.1900-10

Origin: English
Period: Late Victorian / Edwardian
Provenance: The Spiritualist Lyceum, Dalkeith Street, Barrow-in-Furness c.1900-10
Date: c.1900-10
Length: 25”
Diameter: 4.25” (at bell)

The late Victorian or early Edwardian telescopic Spiritualist séance trumpet, formed from thin rolled tin in three collapsing sections terminating in a flared bell, extending to approximately twenty five inches in length, the lightweight construction allowing the sections to nest within one another for transport by travelling mediums, the interior of the bell retaining the characteristic internal voice tube, a feature associated with “direct-voice” mediumship whereby voices were said to project through the trumpet during séance sittings and the whole surviving from the Spiritualist Lyceum at Dalkeith Street, Barrow-in-Furness.

Showing expected age and use with light surface wear, minor dents and oxidation consistent with thin rolled tin construction. The telescopic sections remain intact and functional, collapsing neatly within one another. Overall, an honest survivor with good patination and with an atmospheric surface that one would hope to see in objects of this nature.

This example originates from the Spiritualist Lyceum at Dalkeith Street, Barrow-in-Furness, a congregation known to have operated from the Psychological Hall in the early twentieth century. The church was built in 1893 and many people still refer to it as the Lyceum.

Séance trumpets became a familiar object within the Spiritualist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when mediums claimed to communicate with the dead during darkened séance gatherings. The trumpet was placed in the centre of the room and participants were told that spirits would use it to amplify their voices, sometimes with the trumpet reportedly moving or floating through the darkness. Lightweight telescopic examples such as this were particularly associated with travelling mediums and demonstrations held in Spiritualist churches and Lyceums throughout Britain. The spiritualist service would include a demonstration of clairvoyance; evidence given to the continuation of life after death. The demonstration would have been held within the congregation, and it would be by chance if the medium has any communication for any particular individual.

With its generous size, telescopic construction and evocative association with British Spiritualist practice, this rare piece stands as a compelling relic of Victorian occult culture and the theatrical rituals of séance rooms.