Not the Agatha Christie novel, but those who have read the Stephen King story Rose Red will find this piece of architectural confusion vaguely familiar.

The story begins in Connecticut, USA when heiress and widow Sarah Winchester consulted a spiritualist for advice following a depression brought on from the deaths of her only daughter in 1866, her father-in-law in 1880 and her husband, wealthy gun magnate William Winchester, in 1881. She had assumed that the Winchester family was cursed from the deaths that had occurred.

The medium she consulted was reputedly psychic and told Sarah Winchester that the family were indeed cursed—by the spirits of the people killed by the Winchester rifle. The medium apparently advised her to move west and build a new house for herself and the spirits.

The twist was that if Sarah Winchester was to ever halt construction on the house, she would also die.

Moving to California in 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased an 8-room farmhouse and started spending her $20 million inheritance on renovating and adding to the house. This work continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, for the next 38 years.

The house itself is a complete confusion of design or forethought: it has doors that open into walls, stairs that lead up to nowhere and end at the ceiling. It is predominantly of redwood frame, and boasts some 160 rooms, 40 of which are bedrooms. There are 47 fireplaces, 10,000 windowpanes and 17 chimneys. The motif of the number 13 is a running theme through most of the house; Sarah Winchester was fascinated with the number 13 as she felt it had some spiritual meaning to her.

The 1906 earthquake damaged the house: it was previously 7 storeys high but today is only 4. Nevertheless, Sarah Winchester died at the age of 83, and construction on the house was stopped. It is said to be haunted today, and is a popular tourist attraction, known as the Winchester Mystery House.

The story of her fear of the spirits of the dead is the most well-known for the reasoning behind the confused architecture. Perhaps Sarah Winchester truly feared the spirits of the dead—or maybe, she was rich enough to build her house how she wanted, and that is what she did.

You may not know his name, but it is likely that you will have seen the work of this artist and designer either in film, computer games, book illustrations or whilst meandering through the aether cables.

Christian Lorenz Scheurer has worked as a concept artist and architectural designer on visually stunning films as Dark City, The Golden Compass and iconic cyberpunk motion pictures The Matrix and The Fifth Element.

The image displayed above is a section from Mr Scheurer’s concept art for a game called Lost Odyssey, showing the highly distinguished and detailed nature of his artwork that absorbs people into highly technical, industrialised worlds. Much of his art also has a pseudo-Oriental setting, contributing to the illusion of a completely integrated, melting-pot-future in which all boundaries between states and people and technology have vanished entirely.

Further information can be found at Mr Scheurer’s website and a gallery of his work is available here.

This is just one of those images that give you what the hell? thoughts.

This advert entitled “Bovril by Electrocution” was published in 1891 in The Graphic magazine. Bovril is a beef extract product that can be spread on toast (akin to Marmite) or made into beef tea. The Victorians saw electricity as a wonderful discovery and just a single year before publication the first electric chair execution of a person had taken place in the United States.

So, this advert would be an example of “jumping on the bandwagon,” in a rather macabre, Victorian way. For more curious period advertisements, head over to our forums, the Smoking Lounge!

The above picture shows Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Joan Crawford indulging in a cigarette in the 1934 film Chained. Despite the many health risks associated with smoking tobacco, in the Golden Era, cigarette smoking was a fashion statement that showed the smoker to be a classy person. Indeed, many a student bedroom is adorned with the iconic photograph of Audrey Hepburn with cigarette holder clinched betwixted gloved fingers.

Tobacco firms knew of course that smoking was never particularly beneficial to one’s health and with anti-smoking lawsuits looming on the horizon, they turned to more attractive options and people to advertise their wares. Smoking has long been linked with the movie industry, and many Golden Era actors and actresses were paid to endorse various tobacco brands, in carefully-scripted written form and radio plays. Actors who were paid to advertise cigarettes included Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall and Spencer Tracy. They received up to $10,000 (approximately worth $146,583 in 2008) for their work!

Smoking on screen could also be a slightly subliminal method of advertising. With people seeing these glamorous bodies surrounded by plumes of smoke, by picking up their habits, was it a way for fans to emulate their silver screen (or smokescreen) heroes and heroines with little concern for their health? And does it still continue in today’s society?

An example of a tobacco radio advert script for Lauren Bacall shows how companies wanted their brand to be portrayed.