This place card made by the Henderson Line during the 1920s is superb. I have one in the collection and can state that the design is great and the colors are deep and interesting. Someone should snatch this up pronto. For a total acquisition cost of $46.50, this piece of ephemera is totally worth it.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
THREE UNUSED VINTAGE HALLOWEEN EPHEMERA-PLACECARD-TALLY-PICK
This listing contained an item produced by a firm I’d never heard of before. One of the many joys of collecting vintage Halloween is that so much remains unrevealed. A plethora of small local and regional firms produced loads of small paper items for various holidays. Most of these aren’t marked, causing those of us who care about such things consternation when trying to attribute an item to a particular manufacturer. I saw this listing’s photos and realized I had never seen the rightmost item. Surprisingly, it is marked, but the company’s name wasn’t familiar to me. Now I have another design point of reference when evaluating small paper items. (By the way, the buyer received a rare bargain in acquiring this lot for $40.)
Halloween Placecard Unused, near mint, Witch Flies over Pumpkin House
The smaller companies like Henderson Line really had to try harder to break into the small paper market during its 1920s heyday. Dominated by the industry heavyweights like Dennison, Gibson and Beistle, these Davids had to be nimble to have even a modicum of success against the Goliaths. I think that Henderson Line's angle was to have many design styles in the marketplace at the same time. Look at this awesome place card offered by a fine seller that I've been happy to call a friend for many years. It is complicated in its imagery and given the many irregular borders it's a wonder it has survived intact. Contrast this great place card with two others produced by the same company around the same time shown on page 287. The one at the top has much finer detailing while the other is forgettably plain. This all-over-the-map design ethos didn't work for them as Henderson Line was a short-lived entity.
