House of Black house-elves

"… and dear Aunt Elladora… she started the family tradition of beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays…"

— Sirius Black^[src]

These individuals were House-elves that served as servants for the House of Black in the years between Elladora Black's birth, in 1850, and Walburga Black's death, in 1985.

Elladora Black started the family tradition of cutting the heads off of the house-elves when they were too old to carry tea trays. Their heads were hung on plaques on the walls of 12 Grimmauld Place.^[1]

Behind the scenes

12GrimmauldPlaceElfHeads — The house-elves

In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the house-elves heads are not mounted on plaques, as described in the novel, but are propped up inside belljars perched in nooks by the stairs leading to the upper floors. This deviation is repeated in the video game adaptations of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.