This tin litho tambourine wasn’t made by T. Cohn. It has been plainly marked on its face by the maker - Chein. It looks to be in fine condition, but the asking price of $300 is too high. A reasonable BIN offer would be ~ $175.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
HALLOWE'EN Fold Out Table Top Decoration -Cat on a Moon-circa 1940's
This hat design was produced by Beistle, but much earlier than the seller guesses. It was produced for a single season - 1921. This example is in poor condition and the coloration seems off.
02/05 Update: This sold for only ~$20.
Vntg Art Deco Halloween Scorecard Bridge Tally Booklet Unused The Buzza Co.
Pickings have been slim for months on eBay, but there have been a number of lots sold even within the last week that brought far less than they should have. Then I see this lot. Great tally in great condition - but is the price sustainable at $74?
There are a few hardy souls that brave the slog through eBay Halloween garbage listings. They have been rewarded by being able to scoop up the few nuggets at decent prices, but overall the first quarter of the year is the worst time to list vintage Halloween items. There seems to be more crap now than I remember in past post-Christmas listings. I’m hoping this will change soon. There is little to write about.
Halloween Vintage KATZY PARTY Game, Early 1900's, "Pin the Cat", Envelope
Although the graphics are excellent and the game not-often seen, I don’t consider this to be a game made expressly for Halloween. There is no imagery except generic black cat pin-ons - no JOLs, no witches, no nothing - that lends credence to the idea this was made for anything other than a generic Katzy party.
VTG 1940s HALLOWEEN JAMBOREE CANDY BOX WITCH BLACK CAT BATS TRICK OR TREAT
This is one of the nicest candy box designs I’ve seen with so much going on and so much energy. It is a truly pleasing design. Others felt the same way given the ending price and accounting for condition. The box was produced by the Jamboree Sales Company of Los Angeles, CA during the 1950s.
Early Antique Halloween Jack-O-Lantern Scare Crow Die Cut Standing Decoration
This seller has at least three listings of items I’ve not seen before. This is one of them. I believe this was produced by a regional paper manufacturer with quite limited distribution - certainly not by one of the bigger names like Beistle or Dennison. I like the artwork and the simple colors. If condition was better and there wasn’t that post-manufacture applied bit of crepe I’d be a bidder.
01-25 Update: This sold for $37.00
VINTAGE 1930's U. S. A. HALLOWEEN Party Tally Card OWL on smiling JACK O-LANTERN
I haven’t seen this tally many times. I think it was produced by Whitney during the 1920s. Have confidence in dealing with this wonderful seller.
1933 Vintage Halloween Etta Palmer Wotsie Witzie Fortune Teller Game Decoration
I would classify this game as having only the most tangential of connections to Halloween. Except for the broomed witch, there really is none. Some collectors specialize in collecting fortune telling games, and a precious few are truly Halloween related, but the vast majority either have no connection or the slimmest of connections to Halloween. Just as a nice piece of colorful art, I can see the modest value this item fetched - but that price is also a judgement from the market that classifying this item as a Halloween game is incorrect. The Fortune Crystal Game is another example of an item often wrongly classified as having a Halloween connection.
Happy New Year!
Hello Readers,
Happy New Year to you!
I appreciate you taking the time to read what I post here. Looking at the site’s analytics, the reading audience has greatly expanded over the last several years, with a notable spike in 2019. I’d like to think it’s because of my witty prose, but the reality is almost certainly not that. The hobby remains expensive with more fakes, fantasy and “Frankensteined” pieces coming to market than ever before. Vigilance remains the watchword when buying vintage Halloween items. Know the sellers. Conduct business only with those who’ll stand behind their attribution forever. If you buy at shows, always get a receipt detailing the item and the seller’s contact information.
As so many of you do already, feel free to ask my opinion of any particular item you see on any forum. I’ll give you the straight skinny as I am beholden to no one.
Stay tuned for my May 3rd auction. I’ll have at least 100 lots of nothing but authentic, vintage items on offer. This go-round the range of goods is broad: German diecuts, German candy containers/figurals/lanterns, hard plastic, post cards, games and game pieces, US pulp, tin noisemakers, Dennison goods, Beistle treasures, small paper items and other rare miscellany.
As always, the auction is open only to those who care enough about the hobby to have invested in the best and most complete reference available, my 3rd edition of Vintage Halloween Collectibles, by buying a copy from me. Ordering information is on this site.
Be safe, be well and be kind in this New Year!
MBL
Antique 1929 Fortune Telling Game, The Witch of Endor, Naumkeag Games, Salem, MA
This game surfaces enough that I feel $200 was an aggressive price to pay. A loyal reader asked my opinion of the listing. I said that although the overall condition was good, the BIN price was too high, given that several have sold for about half that in the last year on eBay and other forums. (The listing shows the game sold for $225, but the actual selling price was $200 according to the seller. )
RARE Antique Witch Cauldron 1925 Beistle collapsible paper Vintage Halloween
It was great to see this listing for the iconic Beistle honeycomb cauldron. This design came in three sizes, with this one appearing to be the largest. The arch, normally the scene of the crime with these delicate objects, is intact. I suspect the seller might have gotten more for this given its size and overall condition if it had been offered through an auction format.
1928 Fortunes Party Halloween Game Past Present & Future Punch Board Unused
This is a punch game I don’t recall seeing before. The graphics are both minimalist and check most of the boxes for iconic imagery. Unusually, it seems to be wholly intact. I wonder if the seller has started it too high at a $49.99 opening price?
01/02 Update: This sold for $62.99.
1916 DENNISON H636 HALLOWEEN DECORATION STICKERS SEALS Ghost Scaring Boy Set 25
This seller got a phenomenal price for this box of Dennison seals. This design was first produced in 1922, not 1916. They typically fetch in the neighborhood of $100-125, so the buyer paid a steep premium.
Halloween Vintage Toy Pumpkin (Germany?) Children's tea set sugar
The seller contacted me for my opinion on this assemblage. I said that although I couldn’t be sure of the teapot, all the other pieces were produced in Japan not Germany.
Very fine near mint 1920 Vintage Halloween German Black Cat & JOLs Tiara Diadem
This has to be one of the finest German tiaras I’ve seen. Can you imagine how rare it is for something to go through nearly 100 years and still look like this with its bright color and intact highlighting? Discerning collectors know what a treasure this is as it has been bid up to $510 as of this writing. It’ll be fun to see what this fetches!
12/17 Update: The ending price was shockingly low - $787 - surely a disappointment to the seller.
