This table centerpiece was actually made by Gibson in the 1920s.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
Vintage Beistle Fortune Wheel For Halloween Parties game/decoration, 1926
I love seeing these iconic Beistle treasures bring such strong results! Although these surface regularly, condition is typically an issue since the design was prone to immediate wear and tear. Having one available for auction in this "very fine" condition certainly was the primary driver for this result.
Vintage 1920's Dennison Halloween Diecut Hissing Snarling Cat Face
As pointed out on page 120, Dennison made this snarling black cat face in three sizes. This one is the smallest one. The 2 others measured 11" H x 10" W & 17" H x 15.25" W.
Vintage Halloween Old Large Black Cat Stand-up Diecut, Germany, 1920s-30s
This is probably the closest-to-perfect such diecut I have seen in many years. The superb seller is right, of course: the larger the diecut the harder it is to find them in such condition. The fillip I would add is that those diecuts with irregular borders are harder to find in such nice condition. This example is both large and irregular, so snap it up if you don't own it already or if you need an upgrade.
PAPER MACHE DEVIL HEAD CANDY CONTAINER
The buyer got the bargain of the year obtaining this vintage and near-mint candy container for a pittance.
Halloween Noisemaker
Each time I have ever seen this particular noisemaker offered for sale the handle is loose, so I suspect that the manufacturer made them all that way.
Halloween Paper Decoration
This is the top part to a very rare Rosen mechanical "Witch Pops" box. I have seven of these Rosen boxes in my personal collection now. You can see several of them on page 104.
4-sided Halloween Lamp Shade
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this listing. This lantern, made by Gibson in 1929, is exceptionally rare. The Relative Scarcity Index number assigned to this in my book on page 45 is 1. This marks only the second time in my collecting career that I have seen this item. This lantern is huge and is eye-catching. I can't wait to see what this excellent item fetches!!!
Vintage Halloween witch decoration
This common broomed witch diecut was made by Merri-Lei Corporation of New York beginning in the 1950s and continuing for perhaps a decade. It was typically sold in a set with several other diecuts including a JOL and a black cat.
1920s HALLOWEEN – BEISTLE DANCING SKELETON WITH ENVELOPE
The buyer got an exceptionally good deal here.
Vintage Halloween Tin Bell Style Clanger Noise Maker Black Cat Bat Owls
Unfortunately, the buyer of this lot (plus the buyer of a similar lot by the same seller, 110952803406) spent money on items that have no real age to them. Both of these noisemakers were made about 5 years ago exclusively for a retail store called Restoration Hardware. They were made for a single season and have zero collectible value.
VINTAGE HALLOWEEN DECORATION ART DECO PUMPKIN PEOPLE
Unfortunately, this is merely a remnant, being one side of a three-sided table decoration made by Gibson in the 1920s. It is missing its four connecting hooks, two of which were on either side. A complete example can be seen on page 200.
Vintage Halloween 1917 DENNISON's Bogie Book 36 Pages RARE
This particular issue is quite scarce in such beautiful condition so I am not at all surprised it brought $303.33. The print runs on Dennison Bogie Books varied greatly. The first one, issued in 1909, had such a small print run that only a single extant copy is known to exist. (Please see page 105.) There wasn't another Bogie Book published until 1912. That year, and all of them through 1916 had tiny print runs, except for 1915, for some inexplicable reason. No Bogie Book was published in 1917 or 1918 due to WWI. The issues for 1919 and 1920 had small print runs. After 1920, the printing floodgates were opened and today's collectors see Bogie Books from these years offered often.
Beistle Grandfather Clock Mechanical Halloween Party Invitation-skeleton & JOL
Roll out the red carpet to welcome this - arguably the rarest, most coveted single small paper item item from Beistle's Golden Age of production. This elusive, ingeniously designed invitation was on my HOLY GRAIL list for over two decades (I am not joking...) until I was fortunate enough to acquire one a scant few months ago. This item is very large and has an awesome presence. Issued for a single season, 1932, these almost never surface. Why is this the case? An enterprising collector contacted me several months ago to offer a theory. With minor editing I share it with you now:
“I have some information regarding the 1932 mechanical invitation and may have some insight into its rarity. I purchased the same invitation in 2010 that had the center piece torn out. I planned to repair it (no sharpies here, just a magnifying glass and sewing needles to apply glue, making sure none of it got on the decorative surface.) When the center piece was repaired and reassembled, I found that the skeleton side would not fully extend, and barely showed half of its face. In wanting to see the delightful Halloween imagery, I kept pulling until I realized that the center piece was flexing right in the area where it was originally torn and now just repaired. I stopped and disassembled it again to see what was going on. What I came across made me wonder if this could be a contributing factor to their rarity. In looking at the invitation, there are three eyelets holding the invitation together. The crucial ones are the bottom and middle eyelet. The bottom is the pivot and the middle helps form a travel stop for the center piece. The center piece has a slotted cutout in the shape of a curved arc. The ends of this arc act as a travel stop when it butts up against the center eyelet. What I discovered, is that if the virtual or imaginary center of that arc does not coincide with the center of the bottom eyelet, the slotted arc will trace a curve that is offset with the middle eyelet, and the eyelet will dig into the edge of the center piece slot preventing it from fully traversing on one side. I’m sure Beistle produced these in a batch run, so the discrepancy was no doubt transferred to all the pieces of that run. It is possible that its rarity may be due to many invitations having its center torn out and then discarded. I slightly trimmed the center slot and reassembled it and now both sides fully show the imagery. I don’t know if trimming it changes its “originality” but I felt it was worth it. Over all, the repair came out excellent. I kept the original eyelets by using a four fingered drill chuck from the tail stock of my jeweler’s lathe as a sort of mechanical finger to carefully unswage the back of the eyelet. I then used a eyelet kit to tap it back flat when done. It would have been perfect except that I had to undo the eyelets once more to find the problem. In doing it twice one eyelet developed a minor split in the edge when flattening it while the other came out perfect. To see that the invitation had even been repaired you have to hold it about six inches from your face. I have been looking for this one many years after seeing it in a collector catalog, and was immediately transfixed by the artwork. It just shouted “Halloween” to me. Anyway, I thought you might find this information valuable.”
Now, if you collect the rarest items and have an eye for superb design, you MUST NOT let this go by the wayside. It is great to see such a truly rare item on Ebay. It will be informative to see what this mint item brings. (I have just added this seller to my list of those with whom I am proud to conduct business, so bid with confidence!)
Post-sale update
Wowee!! I never thought in a million years that this invitation would bring such significant dollars. Granted, this is rare and wonderful, but over $1700 for an invitation does boggle my mind. I paid $400 for the one I snagged in a private transaction a few months ago and thought at the time I had paid what I described to another collector as a "crazy" price. The response back was that she would have gladly paid $600, so I guesstimated that this listing would end somewhere between $600-800 dollars. I received many phone calls and texts immediately after the auction, so plenty of advanced collectors were watching. All expressed astonishment. I've identified the prevailing bidder and at least one of the recorded under-bidders and they are both determined, knowledgeable and apparently deep-pocketed collectors. God bless them!
The Current Market - 10-09-2011
As with so many other things during this lingering economic morass, the market for vintage Halloween memorabilia has been impacted, but less than you might think. Although the low end, the largest tier of merchandise like candles from all era, post-1960s tin and post-1965 non-embossed paper, is quite soft, the middle tier picked up noticeable steam this season with not a few rather jaw-dropping results on Ebay in the last few months.
Prices for mint common items like USA pulp, German diecuts, post-1948 Dennison diecuts, most hard plastic items, tin tambourines and many 1940s fortune-style games have shown marked upward movement. Whereas last year was a great time to be a buyer, the rapid escalation of prices for mint middle tier means that most buyers have to prioritize better.
Given the reality that Halloween decorations, by and large, were not treasured, near-mint and better examples of virtually anything made prior to 1960 remain hard to find. Even with rapidly escalating prices (by and large) for mint middle tier items, open your purses and wallets wide when you see such items. Over time, they will simply get scarcer!
For top tier items, the market remains very, very hot. I believe this to be true across all collecting genres as the very best stuff routinely brings eye-popping results. Pre-1940 German candy container, nodders and figurals; 1920-1931 Beistle paper and pre-1940 Dennison and Gibson boxed products and diecuts continue to lead the market.
Bear in mind that the overall trend line for prices is up over the last 25 years - perhaps way up - while the trend line for the availability of premium items is decidedly down. As a collector this is frustrating, but as a sometimes dealer it brings a smile to my face! I would say that 2011 is another year where I see the supply of quality items continuing to be thin.)
Two auction houses in particular offer vintage Halloween on a more or less regular basis. Results in 2010 and 2011 have been very uneven. Bertoia offered Claire Lavin's collection for sale in late 2010 to very dismal results indeed. Many of the buyers at that Bertoia auction immediately turned around and resold their purchases on Ebay with far better prices. Contrast this with the late 2010 auction by Morphy which, frankly, blew most collectors' sock off with insanely high prices for even forgettable items. The September 2011 auction by Morphy achieved very mixed results with many bargains to be found. Elements of auction houses being craps shoots abound.
The dark side to this overall rise in prices is the reproduced and fantasy items being brazenly hawked as vintage―especially through the on-line venues. Newer collectors, the life blood of any continuing hobby, are unsuspectingly buying these poorly made and soulless items, happily stuffing them into display cases unprepared for the disappointment due when, with further experience and knowledge, the realization hits they have purchased items with decorative value only. I used to worry more about the cynicism creeping into the vintage Halloween collecting hobby due to this avalanche of reproductions and fantasy items, which may have driven off the newer collectors at one time. However, with the strong sales of my book and the high number of unique visitors to this web site each and every day, my fears have been largely allayed. Keep in mind two rules of thumb: Be very skeptical of anything hawked as being "found" in the old East Germany. Many of these so-called vintage German lanterns, candy containers and figural horns have been recently made and are essentially decorative items only, with no vintage value. Also, have the same skepticism about dealers claiming to have brought back vintage items from any recent trips to Germany. At the time true vintage items were being made, they were ALL destined for export, as the Germans did not celebrate Halloween. I cannot emphasize these points enough!
Some genres have seemed to gain more strength than others: unusual German diecuts, American candy boxes, Beistle party sets and Beistle table top decorations have all seen very sharp price increases in 2011. The Halloween hard plastic genre, long ridiculously overpriced, has cooled considerably, although prices remain laughably high for what has to be the most readily available of all vintage Halloween material. Unless you just love the stuff, I'd allocate your scarce collecting dollars to items which are truly hard to come by!
Don't ever lose sight of this reality: Vintage, display-quality Halloween items are truly scarce. Because Halloween is an annual occasion creating new memories, this “renewable” aspect of the holiday will serve to keep interest in the old imagery strong in the coming years, attracting new collectors - all pursuing a dwindling supply of quality material.