Detail’s in the devils in Vancouver woman’s museum-home

Carmel Rosa and Mark Anthony Rosa, with their two infant sons, posed for photos with Krampus, the Central European folk monster who punishes misbehaving children, beside a black Christmas tree festooned with devil ornaments during their visit to the Devil-ish Little Things Museum in Rose Village on Sunday.

Photos with Santa for one part of the extended family, photos with Krampus for the other, joked Mark Anthony Rosa.

The home and museum houses Marion Held’s massive collection of devil-related novelties, knickknacks and art objects. The collection is usually only available by appointment, but Held opened her home to the public over the weekend.

Held’s been building her collection for about 20 years, and her museum holds thousands of novelty devils, satyrs, Krampuses, Mephistos and other imps and horned creatures.

Most of the collection comes from European countries.

“Every room is basically part of the exhibit,” Held said.

The walls to her museum-home bear old prints, artworks and advertisements bearing Old Scratch.

Shelves and glass cases abound with little devil figurines, devil ashtrays, devil candlesticks and devil ceramic art objects.

There are devil-faced hotel desk bells and a devil measuring tape.

One case’s shelf is stacked with inkwells — “When you get ready to write your naughty letter, you want to take your devil inkwell,” she said — others are filled with devilish tobacco jars and pipes.

The heavily red-and-black accented Burgundy boudoir bedroom has devilish fashion items, jewelry and clothes. There, she pointed out an 1800s-vintage Russian silver purse, and a custom pin made for a dentist’s wife. It had a tooth devil, as opposed to a Tooth Fairy.

Even the bathroom has some adversary accents.

“Anything you can think of, any kind of novelty thing,” she said.

She moved to Vancouver in August 2017, during the solar eclipse. The building has been remodeled several times since it was built in 1911, first as a church.

“The building itself is part of the excitement about it, having an antique devil collection in an old church. I mean, I was just looking for a good space, and it really kind of found me,” she said.

Held said she’s not entirely sure where the interest started.

She grew up in Germany, with fairy tales and Krampus, but was never the “princess type,” she said.

“Who wouldn’t like a handsome naughty devil?” she joked. “It’s very whimsical, it’s very playful. There’s nothing religious or satanic behind it.”

Retiring from the movie business — where she worked for movies and TV shows including “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” “The X-Files,” “Sin City,” and “Hellboy,” among others — gave her the time to set up and share the collection, she said.

“I worked in the creature effects shops where we could make something like Klaus,” she said, pointing to a rubber devil that once lived in an English carnival ride.

“You name it, I probably worked on it.”

Part of the notion came from other home-museum hybrids she’s seen or heard of in the area, such as museums for puppets or canoes, but she noted that there are plenty of people who own or live in castles or manor houses in Europe who open their homes in the same way.

“Shopping, hunting for cool collectibles, is part of the fun, but it’s also fun to share with people,” she said. “It’s just kind of fun to open your house.”