Time to get your prettiest black frock on and dig the fancy Bone china out from the back of the kitchen cupboard – it’s Halloween and the friendly skeletons from the cemetery down the road are coming over for tea and a little waltz around the drawing room.

They may be less skin and more bones, but they’re a nice bunch. Talented too. They’ve brought their own music with them, which is very thoughtful. It’s always lovely to hear a gifted pianist tinkling the old ivories even if he’s been dead for over a century…

I absolutely love these photographs. They’re a great example of how our curiosity about death and the human body has a long and complex history – the middle and bottom photos date from the turn of the 19th century (the top image is from the 1930s) – and of how a dark sense of humour is about as human as it gets.

What makes these photos so enjoyable for me is that these skeletons all look like they’re having great fun (except the poor chap above, who looks like he’s been stood up by his dance partner. Oh well) – inasmuch as an inanimate collection of bones can have fun, I guess!

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween – and if you want more seasonal reading, there’s lots more spooky stuff here…