This 1930s accordion item, from Japan, is a design I had never seen before. This narrow market segment seems to have at least four known designs, comprising the ones I’ve seen. Often the yellow bellows are compromised in some way, but not in this case, which makes the ending price all the more puzzling.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
EARLY BLACK CAT HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD ACCORDION NOISEMAKER
I haven't seen this accordion-style noisemaker with handles before. Looking closely at the photos, the handles do appear as if they were originally with the noisemaker when produced. Virtually all of these sort of noisemakers I've seen with such handles were made in Japan, so it is possible that the original design was used by an unauthorized manufacturer in Japan which added these handles. (This is entirely conjecture on my part, however.) In any event, it is an interesting variant on a hard-to-find, typically German-made noisemaker.
08/08 Update: This sold for $110, indicative of the fact the buyer felt it was made in Japan, in my opinion.
Two Vintage Halloween Cardboard Accordion Cat And Pumpkin Lanterns
These items, devoid of any semblance to truly vintage items, are not memorable. One of the sure-fire ways to identify these as newly made, aside from the vacant expressions, is the presence of glitter, the bane of all civilized people. (As an aside, I dislike glitter so much that I open all Christmas cards right over a large garbage can in my garage. If glitter is detected, into the can they go.) Naturally, these two things are probably not even worth the opening bid of $9.99.
