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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

EXCEEDINGLY RARE Vintage Halloween Diecut Centerpiece Decoration, Beistle 1955!!

This magnificent centerpiece was produced by Beistle in 1955. Beistle’s design engine was sputtering at this time, so much of their output then was forgettable and/or retreads. However, they managed to probably even surprise themselves with the two (and only two) centerpiece designs made at this time. Both are full of action and easily captivate the eye. They rarely surface in collectible condition. When they do the common defect is total separation at one or both joints. Although this example doesn’t suffer from that defect, it is by no means perfect. In my view, though, the defects are reasonable and to be expected. As I type this, the bidding is already at $200.50 with 15 bids, so I fully expect the ending price will be significantly higher. The two 1955 centerpieces are amongst my favorites in the collection. They are large, bold and pretty damn awesome.

07/14 Update: This sold for $382, lower than I would have forecast.

antique halloween decorations

This seller is squandering chances for a sale by having perhaps the most anodyne header she could devise, poor photos that don’t give any hint of the state of the embossing and by having an opening bid that is much too high. Sigh….

RARE Original Vintage Halloween Decorations Box for Set of German Diecuts, 1920s

Here’s a true piece of ephemera - a box from the 1920s that originally held a dozen of the detailed, heavily embossed diecuts that Germany produced from ~1920 through 1935, pre-WWII. These boxes seldom come available, especially in this bright, intact condition. I think the average retailer would not sell the boxed sets but only the contents, separately. Perhaps a few retailers did, but I think these boxed sets were sent by the Germans or the host of wholesalers used at that time to the retailer, which would then discard the box and sell the innards. I’m speculating here, but feel this is likely considering how few such boxes surface. This is a high-end item that collectors, and especially advanced collectors should covet.

06/30 Update: Although the final price was $770, which is a lot of cash, I was surprised that this didn’t bring more.

vintage halloween paper mache pulp jack o lantern with rare battery holder

It is unusual to see the original battery holder extant with these pulp JOLs. To eliminate the risk of fire due to burning a candle, this manufacturer changed their mold to enable a battery holder with bulb to be attached to the back. This seller obtained this particular pulp JOL through me some years ago. He’s a great guy and a knowledgeable collector.

Vintage Whitney House of Fate Witch Fortune Telling Card Halloween Decor

Any of the House of Fate cards are desirable and very rarely surface. It was exciting to see this listing. This card comes from a series manufactured by Whitney in the early 1930s that they called The House of Fate. The cards are superbly designed with pull-away roofs containing the printed fortune. I believe that nine constitute the complete set, although that is just a guess. At first glance, the differing base designs look similar. However, when you closely examine the cards, there are always very minute differences present. I'm puzzled as to why Whitney would have introduced these subtle differences. It doesn’t seem cost effective. Perhaps we'll never know. Whitney went out of business in 1942. (Check out the eight examples on page 278.) The last one on eBay sold in September 2018 for $550, a truly out-there result. What will happen with this listing?

06/22 Update: This sold for $535. Wow! I’ll sell all of mine in one fell swoop for $500 each. Contact me.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN BEISTLE DIECUT DECORATION - RUSTIC FIREPLACE/WITCH’S CAULDRON

Beistle was (and possibly still is) a clever company in figuring out ways to prolong the life of certain of their Halloween best sellers, like the cauldrons. I think for a season, and possibly two, between 1928 and 1932 Beistle thought to slap some streamers to the bottom of the largest of the three cauldrons and design a rather pallid structure to support the cauldron. They then dreamed up the name for this newish design and hurriedly created an envelope for it. I feel all of this was done rapidly as the Rustic Fireplace itself is uninspired. The envelope bears none of the over-the-top design elements and use of vibrant colors seen with so many of their other envelopes. That said, these original Rustic Fireplaces are hard to find. (The envelope, which you can see on page 127, almost never surfaces.) The sellers are great people with a deep love for and knowledge of vintage Halloween memorabilia. You can certainly buy from them with great confidence. It’ll be fun to what this listing brings.

06/16 Update: This brought a head-scratchingly low $159.50. The buyer got a bargain.

**VINTAGE** HALLOWEEN ORANGE OWL BLOW MOLD

The vintage Halloween hobby is broken down into many different market segments. Over the last few years, most segments have strengthened over an expected trajectory, some have weakened and a few have strengthened more rapidly than expected. Examples of the last category would be Dennison and Gibson diecuts from 1928-1934 and many blow molds. (I can hardly believe it myself!) This owl blow mold from the 1960s is a good representative of this new reality for this market segment. Will Gurley candles and common tin litho ever strengthen?

Vintage 1930s Embossed BEISTLE Die Cut HALLOWEEN Silver Foil PUMPKIN Rats Mice

I love these silvered diecut variants from the long-produced complete set of twelve diecuts from Beistle. They began production in 1932 and continued with some interruptions through the early 1950s. (The variants were made for only a season or two very early in the total run.) When these hard-to-find variants surface, they typically are in poor condition. The ones being offered by this fine seller are in better-than-average condition. It’ll be fun to see what they bring.

Vintage Halloween Place Cards Lot

This partial set of place cards was produced by Hallmark during the later 1920s. (The H within a circle is the mark Hallmark used at that time.) Hallmark undoubtedly used the imagery under license from Nash, as this imagery was first used by them as part of their postcard line. (I don’t have my postcard reference with me just now, so I am citing Nash from what may be a faulty memory!) These Hallmark place cards are fairly common. The child in the spotted costume may be the hardest to find of the four shown. The seller is asking $300 for them. I feel an achievable total would be $70-85.

RARE 30's Original Beistle Vintage Halloween Lightning Wumpus Electricity Dragon

There are several things I find irritating about this listing. The first is its bare-bones description. I guess the seller could hardly be bothered with providing a detailed description. The second is the photographs. Where is a photo of the reverse side? eBay allows 12 photos. The third is the cutesy pricing. Starting it at $666 is just so trite. The fourth is the seller cribbed from this very site with no acknowledgement or thanks.
This seller should have just started this at $49.99 (or thereabouts) and let the auction run. Slapping an already fully-valued opening price for an item in rough condition is just a bad practice. Trust the system.

05/26 Update: The seller has listed and relisted this again and again, varying the opening price but largely keeping the BIN price of $750 intact, down from the original listing’s BIN price of $999. They would have been better off just listing it with a modest opening price. Sellers should emulate long-time sellers like zizsdream, who wisely starts the vast majority of her auctions at $9.99 and lets them run. A high percentage of the closing prices she fetches testify to the wisdom of this approach.

06/02 Update: This mercifully sold on May 28th for $100. If the seller had simply offered it in an auction format beginning at $9.99, it would surely have brought more.

RARE! ANTIQUE/VINTAGE GERMAN HALLOWEEN BEISTLE DIECUT LANTERN - DOUBLE-SIDED JOL

This lantern was produced in two sizes for one season (1928) by German designers working for Beistle. It is the direct ancestor for Beistle’s now-iconic 1930-1931 lantern, also produced in two sizes, and shown on page 32. I really appreciate the fine seller taking such care in describing the lantern. I wish that all eBay sellers would take such a detailed approach with their listings! It’ll be fun to see what this brings.