Blog

Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN ‘DUNBAR GALLERY’ AUCTION CATALOG - ‘HUGH LUCK’ AUCTION 1997

These were foundational sales. The leading Halloween collector at the time, Hugh decided to sell his small but very choice collection in a series of sales through Dunbar’s Gallery, run by Leila (Lee) Dunbar, who can now occasionally be seen on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow mainly appraising sports items. Hugh was an early collector with a very good eye. He was generous with his knowledge, making time to educate collectors at all levels. He was, and is, a charming bon vivant. I was fortunate to get to know him some years before these sales, providing an opportunity to examine the items comprising his collection, in situ, so to speak. I was an aggressive bidder in these sales, enabling me to purchase the best of his collection. Four items on the cover of this catalog made their way to my home.

I began assembling an archive of catalogs and magazines when I first began collecting. The internet was a few years away, so some dealers would send out near-monthly offerings through the mail. I kept nearly every one, enabling me now to access a sizable library of reference materials that still serve to inform my collecting. There were other publications and zines then - the best of which was The Boo News. If you have a chance to acquire any of The Boo News newsletters, do so. They make fascinating and prescient reading, decades removed from publication.

The 2023 March Auction

Thanks so much to all the many participants in my recently concluded annual auction! The bidding was fast and furious all week, with the 107 lots dispersed all over the United States, Canada and even to Merry Old England. The only bummer was a non-paying bidder - only the second such instance in conducting my annual events since 2015. She bid on six lots. Three were sold to underbidders and three will be offered either on my For Sale page or in next year’s event. This bidder is now banned from all purchasing and bidding events.

DEAD MINT Old Vintage Halloween JOL-Faced Hatbox Candy Container Germany 1916-21

So, here’s a listing involving the same fine seller that went the opposite direction from the post directly below. Instead of underperforming, this lot overperformed surely to the consternation of the prevailing bidder. There were three determined bidders all intent on bidding sums far in excess of what these not uncommon hatbox candy containers typically fetch. (If you are going to see pieces from this large set appear, they almost always are the hatbox and the purse. They both typically bring half or less of this shocking result.) If anyone wants mine for $2,900, please contact me.

VERY RARE Vintage Halloween Die Cut Mechanical Scarecrow Nut Candy Cup, Beistle!

This result surely was a significant disappointment to the seller/consignor, but a true bargain for whomever was lucky enough to snag this for $262, especially given its condition. I don’t understand the result, so I have to attribute it to the vagaries of eBay. There are four of these Beistle mechanical designs. This same seller offered the strongest design of the quartet, the witch, not long ago and it fetched $938. If the other two designs are offered, it will be instructive to see what they fetch.

VINTAGE 1940's The Dolly Toy Co. HALLOWEEN Candy Container Box OWL on TREE STUMP

It is so heartening to see a truly rare item on eBay, the once proud site that has sadly become a garbage heap of undifferentiated Halloween goods. (Is anyone else exhausted from scrolling through endless pages of crapola just to find the occasional vintage item? I sure wish the boobs who run eBay would bring back and enforce a vintage category for Halloween items.) Now that I feel better after ranting, let’s turn the focus to this rare and desirable item issued during the 1930s by Dolly Toy of Dayton, Ohio, under their Fibro Toy line. This is only the second time I’ve seen this item. The first time was when I purchased a near-mint+ example from a seller in July 2007. You can now see it on page 296. The owl fits onto the stump and sits above it by using the slot at the bottom of the owl. The photos for this listing seem to show this slot, so the seller’s statement that the owl just sits inside the stump is incorrect. I know of several collectors who want this item, so if the right people are watching, this should go for more than a song. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were to fetch north of $500.

03/30 Update: This ended a bit short of what I expected - $441.

Vintage Halloween Bugle Made U.S.A. Noise Maker

Bugle Toy of Providence, Rhode Island, had the most innovative and interesting designs for their tin litho noisemakers - far eclipsing the typical efforts seen by their main competitors like Kirchhof and US Metal Toy. The collectors’ market has long recognized tin Bugle Toy desirability by generally placing a premium on their valuation. This item in preternatural condition affirms this generality. Listed for only a 3-day stretch, the shaker has achieved a bid level of $76 in only a few hours as of this writing. If you love Bugle, you almost surely will not see one in better condition.

03/30 Update: This sold for an astounding $406.99, surely a record.

Beistle Domino Masks vs. Beistle Domino Band Hat Masks

Even though I’ve been collecting vintage Halloween items with a curatorial eye since 1988, there are quite a few puzzles still existing. One that I feel has now been sorted involves Beistle Domino Masks.
If you look at pages 236-237, you’ll see three of the four examples from the set of four of what I called Domino Hat Masks. I called them that as Beistle’s own marketing verbiage referenced these items that way, even though I was bothered that they were not actually hats.
If you then look at page 94 of Lavin’s compilation, Timeless Halloween Collectibles 1920-1949 (Schiffer 2005), you’ll see the complete set of what she also called Domino Hat Masks. The confusion in my mind was reinforced by Lavin citing verbatim the Beistle marketing verbiage above the photos while the four items shown in the photos didn’t match the cited verbiage. “Four styles, Pumpkin, Bat, Owl, and Cat faces with black dominos. Each with orange-colored honeycomb tissue paper crown.”
Directly below that, Lavin quotes, “*The 1927 catalogue states, ‘The Domino Hat-Masks made their debut last season and judging from the repeat orders they must have become instantly popular. Why not? A Domino and a Hat in one.’”
I always wondered why there seemed to be a disconnect between the cited verbiage and the photos. The mystery, such as it was, was solved when I recently purchased a large, choice collection of mainly Beistle goods from someone who acted as a conscientious steward of the items since being found 45 years ago in a shuttered general store.
I now realize that Beistle first issued what I will now correctly call Domino Band Hat Masks in 1926-27, followed by the issuance of truncated designs of Domino Masks from 1928 through 1931. My supposition is that all four of the Domino Band Hat Masks are significantly harder to find than the Domino Masks as they were produced for a shorter period of time and in, arguably, smaller quantities. This theory is born out by the fact that I haven’t seen a Domino Band Hat Mask in any collection. With one exception, I haven’t noted any for sale except by zizsdream on Ebay in August 2021. That example was missing the nose.
As part of the collection recently purchased and referenced above, all four designs of the Domino Band Hat Masks were included. Interestingly, the design is printed directly on to the band hat. The design isn’t stapled or glued, but is part of the unified design. Below are some photos of the Domino Band Hat Masks now part of the collection.

NEAR MINT Vintage Halloween Thanksgiving Dennison Bogie Book, Décor Ideas, 1925

What was the purpose of Dennison’s Bogie Books? They were printed and sold for either a nickel or dime directly to consumers by Dennison or indirectly to consumers through the numerous stationary shops that once thrived in this country. But, why? The answer was to foment market excitement so that Dennison’s products would sell. They wanted to get these advertising booklets in the hands of consumers who were expected to repeatedly turn the (generally) thirty-two pages while they created their list of buys. Hence, these Bogies are almost always well-thumbed, heavily used ephemeral items. Which leads me to my point: to have one offered in this condition is unusual. Its unmolested pages and tight binding bear testament to its gentle handling over these nearly 100 years!

Vintage Halloween Die Cut Wall Decor WITCH w/ Cat & Pot m/ in U.S.A is 17 " Tall

I wanted to write about this design as it differs from most of Beistle’s output from that time - the mid-1950s through the early-1960s. This diecut was made for many seasons and is common. The design sensibility is not. Most of Beistle’s output at this time was cartoonish as the market swung sharply toward satisfying the nascent tastes of children and their parents’ desire to create a fun, light-hearted decorating environment so consistent with that relatively carefree time. It seems that some Beistle art director reached back in time for the imagery that caused so many units to be sold in stores throughout the United States. The witch and cat are cute but not entirely devoid of some level of menace. (I especially like the witch’s skull top button.) After this time, Beistle sagged into Halloween design obsolescence, not to really emerge with any consistency until they wised up and began re-releasing their 1930s greatest hits 10-15 years ago, with these sufficiently tweaked so that the newly released designs didn’t interfere with the secondary collector’s market.

Markdowns on For Sale Items

Hi Faithful Reader,
I’ve reduced prices on most everything on the For Sale page in order to clear the decks for many new items I have to list. Once 10-15 items have been sold, I’ll list new For Sale items in advance of my upcoming auction.
Auction emails will begin going out around February 9-10th. The preview period will begin the the 19th. The auction will begin on the 26th. The auction will end on March 5th. The line-up is quite strong this year.

6 Vintage Halloween Skull Skeleton Cardboard Paper Lantern Die Cut Decor Rare

The six imperfect but complete Beistle lanterns sold for ~$143 each, quite a bit considering condition and lack of scarcity. Beistle produced this unvarying design for many seasons, so if you are going to see a Beistle lantern, this is the design you’ll see. Far harder to find is the Beistle skull lantern that is primarily orange. Produced during the early 1930s, you can see an example on page 32.

EXCEEDINGLY RARE MINT Vintage Halloween Mechanical Witch Nut Cup Beistle 1930s!!

Beistle produced a set of four of these mechanical nut cups in one year only - 1938. I was fortunate to acquire four complete sets of these nut cups in 2014 from a seller in Massachusetts, plus a few singles. I kept one set, sold one set each to two close friends and offered the fourth and final set in my inaugural auction in 2015. That set was acquired by the person consigning this to zizsdream. So, this is one of the very nut cups from that 2015 auction. (I would expect the other three designs to follow from this great seller in short order.) These are intricate and delicate confections made from art Beistle recycled from earlier seasons. This recycling was common during these later Great Depression years when companies were just trying to survive.

RARE Vintage HALLOWEEN Scary WITCH 7.5" Die Cut PLACE CARD? 20s 30s Decoration

This odd item was produced by Gibson during the early 1930s. It was meant as both a place card and a napkin holder. I’m not sure how receptive the public was to this combination as they are seldom seen today. (There was another design, an owl. Both can be seen at the bottom of page 269.) The actual selling price was $110. I feel the buyer received a solid deal.