When I first saw this listing I thought, My God! Except for in the pages of Lavin’s book, I have never seen this before. This was produced by Beistle for a single season, 1930. Now, think about what was happening at that time. The big economic story was what we now call The Great Depression. In mid-1930 when this mechanical invitation was produced, those icy fingers of depression were encircling and squeezing businesses as consumer spending plummeted. The plummeting continued as many thousands of workers were laid off. The average person was trying to feed themselves and perhaps a family. They weren’t spending money on such things as invitations to a Halloween party - no matter how cool the invitation was. And those few people that didn't know or care that the economy was crumbling merrily continued spending much as before. It was that person who would have bought this invitation. (This mechanical invitation was sold singly along with a white envelope.) So, what makes this particular invitation so desirable is that so few were made (Beistle didn’t know if it would survive the economic cataclysm, so they smartly made many fewer of their items than normal from 1930 through 1935.) and those that were purchased by the Mamie and Emily Baldwin’s of their day (A sly The Waltons reference…) didn’t waste them! To have one surface at all is so rare that I’ve never seen one before - BUT to have it be unused is the real point of its rarity.
As of this writing, this item has been bid up to $4,630 - primarily by just three bidders. Is it worth this? Well, yes, in that one person has bid that amount and would assumably pay that sum for it. Would I pay that or higher? Sadly, no, even though such items are in the top three of my favorite market segments. I think about what else I could acquire or what extravagant vacation I could underwrite with the money and the allure of owning something that I’d just toss in a display case fades very quickly. It will be fun (…and I mean it…) to see what someone is willing to pay for this rare gem - and I wish them the very best.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
Antique Halloween, Circa 1920's Mechanical Dancing JOL Automaton
Wow! What a nice item. I’ve seen a lot of problematic mechanicals offered on this and other forums, but feel confident even without a personal examination that this is the real deal and not either a Frankensteined piece or a full-on reproduction. I like the autumn vest. Very snazzy! It is nice to see some nice items appearing on eBay after a long drought.
1940`s Witch In Cauldron Tally Card By Dennison
Sometimes the way eBay reports ending prices is misleading. This is an example. A casual browser would assume this Dennison item sold for $500. When you dig a little, one discovers it sold for $200, still a hefty premium to what this design typically fetches. Dennison introduced a trio of these “Novelty Tallies” with mechanical action in 1928. (They can all be seen on page 258.) This witch emerging from her cauldron is the most interesting of the three.
