A ritual dagger belonging to legendary occultist Aleister Crowley is to cross the block at Dreweatts in London on December 11 with a ?�10,000-15,000 ($15,687-23,531) valuation.
He regularly wore the lot as part of his garb - it appears most notably in an iconic Associated Press photograph from 1934.
 Crowley was an influential occult figure |
Crowley became famous as the founder of Thelema during the early 1900s, a religion based on the central tenet of "do what thou wilt".
He lived a libertine lifestyle, freely indulging in sex, drugs and the occult, and became a source of fascination and repulsion in the buttoned down society of his era. Additionally he helped popularise yoga in the west.
A number of bands during the 1960s and 1970s were influenced by his writings, including the Beatles (who included him on the cover of Sgt Pepper) and Led Zeppelin.
Also included in the sale are the robes Crowley wore in the AP photograph, which carry an estimate of ?�5,000-8,000 ($7,843-12,550).
Both the knife and the robes come from the collection of Deirde Patricia Maureen Doherty, mother of Crowley's son Aleister Ataturk.
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