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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

vintage Halloween decoration

Beistle produced a set of eight small diecuts during the early 1950s, of which this is one. It is a great set overall although there is one clinker - the maniacal clown. (You can see the full set on page 157.) The smoking JOL, the skull with the racing cap and the witches are truly super designs. Diecuts from this set have been bringing strong dollars for the last few years as collectors wake up to the set’s appeal.

Vintage Halloween Owl Cat Bat Jack O Lantern Honeycomb Band Hat Beistle # 1

I’ve always liked this great Beistle band hat design. They released it as a stand-alone hat in 1933 and discontinued doing so in 1941. Beistle entered into what I call their fairy mania phase in 1923, so this hat was released well after that mania had ended. In the year this hat was released the country was ensnared in the icy grip of the Great Depression. This is a good example of how companies with a reservoir of designs to call upon used already completed work to try to make some money when the retail markets were oh-so-tight. Production was ceased as WWII began for the USA in December 1941.

Vintage Halloween Party Invitation Opens Up Grandfather Clock USA

I was initially excited when I saw this listing, then I realized that it is missing the mechanical piece that should be present between the front and back. This piece was meant to move both to the left and to the right sides revealing spooky imagery. (See page 124…) One complete example sold in my March auction for a record $3,600, so the missing component has a major bearing on value. Even though the remaining invitation looks great - what is missing is important.

VTG RARE Beistle PINK SKELETON W/ JACK-O-LANTERN ON HORSE Diecut HALLOWEEN 1960

I love this diecut - and am surprised I do. (My opinion has changed {matured?} since 2014.) The darker designs with ominous portent are those that appeal to me the most - and this is galaxies away from that design aesthetic. From my anecdotal pulsing of other collectors’ opinions of this design, I find it be divisive. Few are ambivalent. Others either love it or despise it. Beistle released this for the 1960-1962 seasons. I have grown to appreciate the weird colors and out-there design. Beistle produced similar designs during this small window leading me to believe they had hired - and soon parted ways with - an art design manager with an eccentric outlook. Given these don’t turn up that often, I also suspect it wasn’t a strong seller.

08/15 Update: This brought $189.50.

Rare Vintage Halloween 3 Piece Witches & Pumpkin Fluorescent Die Cut Decorations

These diecuts were produced by Beistle. The witches were released as a trio of designs during the later 1950s. Even in rough condition like these two are, they bring strong dollars as evidenced by the ending price. The large JOL was released during the years between 1952-1963, inclusive. It is not as sought after as the witches. I feel the seller would have have achieved higher gross dollars by listing these items separately.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN BEISTLE DIECUT * WITCH * BLACK CAT * BAT * 12" BY 18.5" *

Beistle produced five different designs in this large form factor, all with scalloped edges, beginning in 1932. You can see four of these designs on pages 149 and 150. The enduring mystery of this set involves the fifth sibling - a puzzled skeleton in a graveyard shown on page 137. Whereas the other four typically trade in a range up to $700, the skeleton has routinely brought a minimum of $3,000, with several examples far exceeding that figure. The mystery is why the latter diecut is so scarce. Catalogs from the 1930s show the skeleton over several years, but I know of perhaps ten in existence, 3-4 of which are in poor-to-fair condition. My working theory is that Disney objected to the design as being too reminiscent of one of their shorts and demanded their removal from the market. (Now, I have zero proof of this theory, but I’ve struggled to come up with a real-world answer to the mystery.) If anyone can shed light on this matter with some proof, like Ross Perot, I’m all ears.

LARGE ANTIQUE VINTAGE BEISTLE PAPER MOON AND WITCH ON BROOM HALLOWEEN DECOR

Halloween values seem to be soft at the moment with exceptions, of course. The mystery here is why this broomed witch diecut, produced by Beistle during the early 1960s, has been bid up to $104.50 with a tad less than two days remaining. The condition is quite bad with more than some rubbing and creasing at the edges. There is a tape remnant in a prominent place and the witch’s hat is missing its pointed end.

I’ve noticed a trend of some sellers over-grading the condition of their wares. Being a collector of Bronze Age DC horror comics as well, I’m sensitive to how paper items should be graded. I almost never use descriptive terms like “mint” or certainly “dead mint.” When a seller uses such terms really peruse the item being sold. If it doesn’t meet that lofty condition threshold, call them out on it. Few truly vintage Halloween items will actually meet that threshold.

Vintage Halloween Ghost Place Card with Saying Movable..RARE...

This ghoul place card was produced by Beistle during the interval of 1930-1931 as one of a set of four sold in an envelope. At least one of the stock numbers used for this set was 757. The ending price of $97 seems high given that the place card’s condition is so compromised. The two topknots are missing and the toning is too noticeable.

RARE! VINTAGE HALLOWEEN BEISTLE RUSTIC FIREPLACE & WITCHES’ CALDRON W/ENVELOPE!

It’s great to see such a nice Beistle item up on eBay. The Rustic Fireplace was almost certainly a marketplace misfire. Beistle was trying to achieve some economies by finding another purpose for one of their iconic honeycomb designs. They customized the cauldrons by attaching orange crepe streamers to the bottom to simulate flames. (If you see a cauldron without these streamers at the bottom paired with other elements of the Rustic Fireplace, it very well may be a marriage, so be mindful.) The props and crossbar are awkward and bulky, which I feel depressed sales. Offered for only a season or two, today finding one complete with an envelope is tough. I sold my complete set in my 2020 auction. It fetched $1,825, so it will be fun to see what this listing brings. The cauldron’s arch looks wholly intact, another big plus. The seller’s are knowledgeable and nice. I appreciate their concise, data-filled description.

04/11 Update: This brought only $1,113. I was surprised it didn’t bring more.

Beistle Vintage Halloween decoration, 1920’s

Beistle produced this decoration as part of a set of six during the 1920s. You can see an example of the original envelope and three of the other designs on page 218. I have issued a “Repro Alert” on these decorations. The entire set was reproduced on glossy stock paper about 7 years ago, so be careful. This listing (and the other by the same seller) is on matte stock with the fine line detailing consistent with truly vintage items. I haven’t seen pieces from the set being offered for some time, so it will be instructive to see what it fetches.

04/11 Update: This brought a scant $86.01.

VERY RARE Vintage Halloween Die Cut Mechanical Scarecrow Nut Candy Cup, Beistle!

This result surely was a significant disappointment to the seller/consignor, but a true bargain for whomever was lucky enough to snag this for $262, especially given its condition. I don’t understand the result, so I have to attribute it to the vagaries of eBay. There are four of these Beistle mechanical designs. This same seller offered the strongest design of the quartet, the witch, not long ago and it fetched $938. If the other two designs are offered, it will be instructive to see what they fetch.

Vintage Halloween Die Cut Wall Decor WITCH w/ Cat & Pot m/ in U.S.A is 17 " Tall

I wanted to write about this design as it differs from most of Beistle’s output from that time - the mid-1950s through the early-1960s. This diecut was made for many seasons and is common. The design sensibility is not. Most of Beistle’s output at this time was cartoonish as the market swung sharply toward satisfying the nascent tastes of children and their parents’ desire to create a fun, light-hearted decorating environment so consistent with that relatively carefree time. It seems that some Beistle art director reached back in time for the imagery that caused so many units to be sold in stores throughout the United States. The witch and cat are cute but not entirely devoid of some level of menace. (I especially like the witch’s skull top button.) After this time, Beistle sagged into Halloween design obsolescence, not to really emerge with any consistency until they wised up and began re-releasing their 1930s greatest hits 10-15 years ago, with these sufficiently tweaked so that the newly released designs didn’t interfere with the secondary collector’s market.

EXCEEDINGLY RARE MINT Vintage Halloween Mechanical Witch Nut Cup Beistle 1930s!!

Beistle produced a set of four of these mechanical nut cups in one year only - 1938. I was fortunate to acquire four complete sets of these nut cups in 2014 from a seller in Massachusetts, plus a few singles. I kept one set, sold one set each to two close friends and offered the fourth and final set in my inaugural auction in 2015. That set was acquired by the person consigning this to zizsdream. So, this is one of the very nut cups from that 2015 auction. (I would expect the other three designs to follow from this great seller in short order.) These are intricate and delicate confections made from art Beistle recycled from earlier seasons. This recycling was common during these later Great Depression years when companies were just trying to survive.