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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Vintage Lot of Dennison Halloween Seals in Original Box

Dennison began losing their design prowess relative to their boxed goods in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Most of their efforts from this time are forgettable. However, this boxed set is actually pretty cool. The assorted designs have a minimum of the anodyne imagery Dennison habitually used at this time. I've only seen the skeleton seals in a set that came out of Canada. This may be worth picking up!

3 Vintage U.S. Metal Toy Litho Halloween Horns Noise Maker NOS Sealed in Package

I enjoy seeing things in original packaging as it provides data on what, when and how items were originally offered to the public. Tin litho noisemakers typically had plastic tips beginning in the 1950s and always did into the 1960s. This header card used by U.S. Metal Toy has a zip code, meaning that it was used after July of 1963. The rather banal imagery used on the header card was typical of that time, although the firm didn't alter the actual tin lithography of the horns for decades. This is a great packaged set that doesn't surface often. 

05/31 Update: This package ended up bringing $148.49. 

Halloween Bogie Book by Dennison's-- 1916--Rare--good condition

This is a Dennison Bogie Book edition that rarely is offered for sale. This 1916 copy looks to be in quite good condition. For some reason, every issue from 1916 that I've examined has been in poor to very good condition only. Dennison seemed to have a problem that year ensuring the covers stayed stapled to the pages. On my Relative Scarcity Index, this merits a "2," with a fair market value of $675. 

05/21 Update: Given the condition, I feel the result of $510 is quite strong! 

Scarce early Halloween candy box. NEVER before seen by me!

This small form factor box is quite interesting. I concur with the seller that this box is early, somewhere prior to 1930. I really enjoy this great seller's descriptions. They are no nonsense and to the point. That's why he is listed as one of my trusted sellers. 

05/16 Update: I would have not expected this cool Halloween box to fetch anywhere near what it brought - $305.77. As with all such results, it was due solely to two bidders going to the mat. Look at the bidding history. If you remove the two tenacious bidders, the box would have ended at $50. Congratulations to the seller! 

VINTAGE 1924 BEISTLE HALLOWEEN HONEYCOMB HAT? CENTERPIECE? JOL JACK O LANTERN

Beistle issued a set of four of these fairy-themed party hats in 1923, the singular year of their fairy mania. Every example of this hat I have seen seems to have that top-most bit of the wing missing. The artist was even then pushing the boundaries of Halloween imagery. I suspect these were not produced in the large quantities associated with other Beistle products from this year - like their fairy-themed Halloween Party book - as these hats almost never surface. It will be fun to see what this fetches. 

05/14 Update: This wonderful hat fetched $405, far above what I consider to be the sustainable price of $250. If you look at the bidding history, it rocketed off from about $225. 

RARE Old Vintage Halloween Cardboard Diecut Die Cut Out Cats Sign Whitney 1930's

I love this exceedingly rare Whitney party sign. From what I can determine, four constitute a complete set: two featuring owls and two featuring cats. I have two of the four in my collection, but have never been able to score the other two. (You can see the two in the collection on page 150.) I'd be tempted by this one, but the condition is problematic for me. Cool, though, huh? 

Smiling German Jack-O-Lantern Halloween Pipe Noisemaker!

Horns like this first began appearing at large antiques shows in the middle 1990s. There were several different styles - a skull, a witch face, a black cat face - that all began appearing at once. I remember seeing large quantities of these different pipe noisemakers on the table of a dealer from Germany at one of the Atlantic City antiques shows during the middle 1990s. I wondered then just how many would be sold before collectors realized they had no age to them. I'm glad this item was listed in the correct category! 

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN DENNISON BLACK MATCHBOARD WITCHES - PACK OF 12

This is an exceptionally rare envelope of "black matboard" or silhouette witches that Dennison issued about 100 years ago! During their first few years of issuing packaged goods (1912-1914), Dennison's inventory numbering system is easy to understand. Once their sales of such pre-packaged merchandise took off, their numbering system became so complicated and convoluted that today there seems to be no way to understand their methodology. In the earliest years, Dennison assigned numbers only. Soon, they added an H before the numbers, sometime with a hyphen, sometimes without. (It seems so very random.) 

VINTAGE 1920’s-50’s U.S.A. HALLOWEEN WITCH & CAT ON BROOMSTICK PAPER LANTERN

Here is an item that rarely surfaces. This superb and fragile lantern was made by Beistle in the early 1930s. Notice how the cat's head is identical to the imagery on one of the two versions of Beistle's "I'm a Dumbskull" game. It has been a long time since one of these was sold through Ebay so it will be instructive to see what it fetches. 

05/05 Update: This fine lantern brought $295, a very strong price indeed!