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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Rare Vintage Dennison Halloween "Eats" Party Sign with Witch - 1930's

Here’s another rare and wonderful item from the same great seller referenced below auctioning the witch falling into cauldron decoration. This is one of my favorite Dennison diecuts for several reasons: the colors are arresting, the design is clever for a relatively compact wall hanging and it nicely demonstrates just how ephemeral such decorations were meant to be at the time of their production. I mean, who would have thought to keep a sign so clearly meant for a party showing the way to the best part of any gathering? This was sold with the odd stock number of H667 1/2. Condition is fine as the diecut is whole with bright colors and minimal creasing.

03/14 Update: This sold for an eye-popping $667.

1930's Vintage Halloween Witch in Cauldron Die Cut - Rare Glow in Dark

This seller comes up with the most wonderful items! It’s nice to see some interesting items popping up on eBay, as there has been too much junk of late. As stated in the listing, this witch falling into a cauldron glow-in-the-dark decoration is a companion piece to the Jitterbug Jones decoration shown on page 293. I don’t know which firm produced this innovative item. I thought I had a photo of the placard that would have been attached to this originally, but I can’t find it. This is the best one (of the three) that I’ve seen for sale. I’ve never seen one in-person - they are that rare. It’ll be fun to see what this fetches. Its RSIN would definitely be a 1.

03/11 Update: Thanks to a fellow collector who may have the only compete example extant, I can relay what is printed on the placard that should be attached to this diecut: “Turn off the light And ghostly bright A grinning skull Glows thru the night.”

03/14 Update: This sold for an eye-popping $960! It wasn’t even complete. Irrational exuberance?

1930 rare sexy flying witch Halloween tambourine

This rare tambourine might very well have brought a stronger price if the seller, seemingly new to eBay, had posted numerous, clear photos. Simply posting one blurry photo and providing a skimpy description was a poor effort on the seller’s part. This Deco witch flying over a cityscape tambourine noisemaker is rare enough I’ve never seen one in good enough condition to acquire. It was produced by T. Cohn during the 1930s.

I just received this email from the buyer - an informed and savvy collector: “… looking forward to your upcoming auction. I have been looking for a mint condition version of this tambourine for my collection. After many requests for additional pictures with no results I was able to get the seller to tell me it is in mint condition.  I took a chance and paid $300 for it. I will let you know if I made the right decision.”  

03/12 Update: The acquiring collector turned out to be thrilled with his purchase. It turns out the tambourine was in near-mint+ condition. I wonder why the seller didn’t bother posting several clear photos?

Vintage Dennison Halloween JOL Traffic Cop Die Cut - Rare

This diecut was last offered for sale on eBay in May 2018 as part of a lot of three diecuts. Sadly, it was in horrific condition, yet still the lot brought $305. This example is in superb condition with bright colors and should easily eclipse that last price. This JOL-headed traffic cop diecut was produced by Dennison and first appeared in their 1930 Price List pamphlet. It was produced on the thin yellow-stock paper Dennison used often at the time. It makes a good companion piece to the Hallo' Inn diecut shown on page 142. I know of many collectors who have been waiting for this rare diecut to surface in this condition, so it’ll be informative to see what this sells for.

03/07 Update: Wow, this brought $597.99, tip-top dollars indeed.

ANTIQUE VINTAGE HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD CREPE PAPER ACCORDION BAT HANGING DECORATION

I’ve been away for nearly a week on vacation and have taken few opportunities to wallow in eBay’s listings. Imagine my surprise when amongst all of the crapola, I see this exceedingly rare item in nice shape! This sinister devil bat diecut was produced by Beistle during the interval of 1925-1931. I haven’t seen one in this condition for many years. (Typically, one of the horns and at least one foot are long gone.) The orange honeycomb wings look essentially unused. Beistle also made this item with black honeycomb wings. This deserves to bring a very strong price, indeed.

03/05 Update: And it sure did bring a strong price - $970 - perhaps a record.

Smiling Jack-O-Lantern Face Vintage German Halloween Candy Container; Mint!

It was refreshing to see such a high-quality item appear on eBay. This genre of item is among my favorites. (Check out pages 58-60 to see the items in the collection.) These were made from 1916-1921. They seldom surface in such nice condition. There is an identical design made in a slightly larger format that you can see on page 59. The ending price was right where I expected it to be.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD BLACK CAT-PART OF A PULL TOY

This seller, who has been selling Halloween items for many years, really should have been able to identify this remnant. It wasn’t “…originally part of a pull toy.” It was a part of a slot and tab decoration manufactured by Dolly Toy as part of their acquired Fibro Toy line during the 1930s. You can see the complete item on page 296.