Bugle Toy of Providence, RI produced some of the best tin litho designs out there. They generally ran circles around the all-too-staid Kirchhof, and were given an occasional run for the top prize by T. Cohn’s earliest designs. This shaker exemplifies my remarks. Every side shows something different with the litho being simple yet very effective at conveying the spirit of the holiday. I hope this brings strong dollars.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
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.
Vintage Tin Halloween Noisemaker Bugle Made USA VG condition black cat and witch
Bugle Toy’s tin litho Halloween noisemakers always have zest to them. The designs are less staid and more in-your-face than those from their much larger competitors, like Kirchhof, US Metal Toy and T. Cohn. I have long coveted their designs. This seems to be in better-than-average condition for a Bugle tin item. As I slowly type this out, the bidding is only up to $33. Smart money says it has much further to run. We’ll see.
12/31 Update: This brought $86.
Desirable Cat and Witch Fry Pan Halloween Noisemaker by Bugle Toy Company
I haven’t seen this design come up for sale too often lately. Bugle Toy of Providence, RI made some of the most avant-garde tin litho decorations of any of its competitors. The ending price seems strong.
Vintage Metal Halloween Noise-Maker Featuring Black Cat, Witch and Pumpkin
The tin litho noisemaker segment has been moribund for years but has been lately showing signs of life. This was one of the first market segments I collected, so these “green shoots” are welcome. This is a desirable noisemaker. Bugle produced this sometime during a 20 year span beginning in the late 1920s. I don’t believe I’ve seen this particular form with this imagery before. I show a clicker and a rectangular shaker on page 212 with this same imagery, but this round shaker is a previously unseen form for me. As I write this it has already been bid up to $93.02 with over five days remaining, so others have keyed in on this rarity.
08/12 Update: This sold for $255.33!
Halloween Noisemaker Litho Tin/Wood Black Cat JOL Witch Pumpkin Old Vtg
This Bugle imagery is typically seen on a rectangular shaker or a clicker, so this form, a clanger, is unusual. The form drove the price. Given how big the image actually is, this form suits it far better than either the shaker or clicker forms. I received a lot of email asking me about the item, so I wasn’t surprised at the ending value.
Vintage Bugle Toy Halloween Noise Maker Tin Wood Handle
Bugle made some wonderfully eccentric tin Halloween designs - so different from their "kill-me-I'm-so-bored" paper over cardboard horns. This shaker from the 1920s with a very high dome doesn't come up for sale in this condition often, so it was great to see it at this barren time of the year. It came in right at sustainable guide value of $100.
Vintage Halloween Wooden Handle Ratchet Tin Noisemaker Made In USA
This ratchet was produced by Bugle Toy of Providence, Rhode Island. Item for item, Bugle made the most interesting, avant-garde designs of the major manufacturers. The overall number of their tin designs was small but collectors covet them, so prices have been firm, very different from most tin litho noisemakers that have seen sharp price declines. Sometimes Bugle had the wood handle at the witch's hat, as in this example, and sometimes at the base of the JOL. Placement is not material to value.
2 VINTAGE 1950s HALLOWEEN NOISEMAKER CARDBOARD HORN GREAT GRAPHICS BOTH WORK !
These two lithoed paper over cardboard horns were produced by Bugle Toy of Providence, Rhode Island. The seller is correct in pointing out that textile spindles were reused in the manufacture of these noisemakers, an early and laudable example of recycling. Bugle was an odd company. They made memorably wacky tin litho Halloween noisemakers, different from their coma inducing designs on paper. It seems likely that a key art designer left the firm and was replaced by a hack, but who knows? Bugle tin litho items sell quickly, whereas most of their lithoed paper designs linger in the marketplace.
Vintage Art Deco Halloween Tin Litho Noisemaker Ratchet Bugle
The seller offered this great Bugle Toy tin litho ratchet for $19.90 via a BIN option. Bugle made some of the most out-there or avant-garde designs of all the major tin litho toy producers. Some of their imagery is wacky, while others, like this ratchet, are highly stylized. These typically trade in a band of $50-70.
VINTAGE HALLOWEEN RARE BUGLE TOY CARDBOARD HORN WORKS NICE SHAPE
The mysterious Bugle Toy Company of Providence, Rhode Island produced memorable tin litho Halloween noisemaker designs but seriously faltered in terms of their lithoed paper output. The ho-hum imagery on this horn is representative of their aesthetic. What does make this listing interesting is that this is a marked piece. Whether out of embarrassment or not, it is uncommon for their lithoed paper items to be marked.
VINTAGE TIN LITHO HALLOWEEN NOISE MAKER WITCH/JACK O LANTERN/BAT WOODEN HANDLE
Piece for piece, I think Bugle Toy of Providence, Rhode Island made the quirkiest tin litho items around. The firm's design sensibility seems off-kilter, no doubt helping to make their tin litho items as collectibles as they are today. Bugle also produced lithoed paper over cardboard noisemakers, but these seem to have been produced by a wholly different firm as these items are devoid of creativity, bland and eminently forgettable.
Vintage Halloween METAL Noisemaker - Wizard & Kids & Witch by BUGLE TOY MADE USA
Although not a prolific producer of tin litho Halloween noisemakers, Bugle Toy of Providence, Rhode Island, was an imaginative one. Virtually all of their designs pushed the envelope away from the anodyne or overly cutesy imagery so common then and toward idiosyncratic, memorable imagery. This aesthetic has made Bugle tin items highly collectible and collected. As I write on page 189, "This firm's output was much smaller relative to the others mentioned here. What their line lacked in breadth was compensated for by cleverness. (This applies to their tin items only. Their lithoed paper output is unmemorable.)" Check out page 212 for a nearly complete inventory of their tin designs.
Tin Halloween Noise Maker
This is a desirable Bugle tin litho noisemaker made in the late 1940s. Not as rare as once thought, my new edition gives this a Relative Scarcity Index number of "3" and a sustainable guide value of $125.
VINTAGE RARE HALLOWEEN METAL BUGLE CAT PUMPKIN WITCH OLD TOY SHAKER NOISEMAKER
Bugle Toys of Providence, Rhode Island, made some of the more interesting tin Halloween noisemakers of all the largest manufacturers of such items. Their tin designs typically conveyed energy, rather than the stolid designs of Kirchhof, T. Cohn, U.S. Metal Toy, etc. Look at this design, for instance. The witch is trying to hide from a ferocious cat which seems to be in mid-jump. Now, unfortunately, the kinetic energy of their tin designs did not transfer to Bugle's paper litho designs. These tend to be so dull as to glaze the eyes. Too bad this noisemaker, a rare form, isn't in better condition.
02/05 Update: Condition aside, this was bought for $79.99 as a result of a BIN sale.
