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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

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.

Old Vintage Halloween Cardboard Diecut Die Cut Out Table Decoration Beistle 1955

I have concerns about this item being a poorly done reproduction. I’ve asked the seller, who is a regular seller of vintage Halloween items, to include photos of the interior so that potential buyers can see how the sides are connected.

Update: The seller quickly added additional photos. After reviewing everything, this is what I wrote to the seller just now: “Hello, Thanks so much for adding the photos so quickly. Although the interior construction is consistent with a known vintage item in my collection, I feel this is a somewhat less sloppy reproduction than what another eBay seller offered recently. My primary concern is the lack of white in the piece. Truly vintage such items have a pleasing three-color presentation. The one you are offering has a two-color presentation. My feeling is that this was made to fool the newer collector. I feel it is a reproduction, not a truly vintage item. Best, MBL”

Another Update: The seller changed the listing after my input, offering it for a BIN for $59.99, with private offers to those having it on their Watch List at $49.99. Given that I feel it is a poor reproduction, the BIN price is much too high.

Yet Another Update: Some person acquired this reproduction for $47 plus ~$7 shipping. The listing shows it sold for $59.99, but that is just an artifact of eBay’s studied lack of transparency.

VINTAGE BEISTLE’S ‘HALLOWEEN PARTY HELPS’ - UNUSED SET TALLY CARDS W/ENVELOPE!

It’s nice to see a quality listing amidst all of the out-of-season listings of items produced only in the last few years. (There has been some great small paper offered by netantiques!) Beistle made these tallies for many seasons. The original strings are always pink, so what would have been the original color? Orange? The tallies typically don’t fetch much as they are common, but to have a complete set with its original thin-paper envelope elevates this listing. The fact that the sellers are A-1 people with deep knowledge of our fun hobby absolutely should spur collectors to bid. Don’t let this great item escape your grasp!

BEAUTIFUL VINTAGE HALLOWEEN DIE CUT CENTERPIECE PARTY FAVOR W/WAX BAG AS STORAGE

This is not a vintage, authentic Beistle centerpiece. I’ve handled several of these and this one is wrong on several matters. The colors are not the rich ones you’d find with an authentic Beistle product from the 1950s. The colors seem to be more consistent with a copy. The paper gauge seems to be wrong, too, although that is hard to tell with the poor photographs this seller has provided. Lastly, and most problematic, the pieces seem to be glued together. The seller cryptically writes that, “The item is hooked to itself by each panel”. Again, the poor photos don’t really lend themselves to close inspection. A truly authentic example is all one piece, easy to do if you are Beistle, hard to do if you are offering something that happens to be fake.

This same seller has another listing of four “stained glass” diecuts. These also contain irregularities that cause me to question their age.

01/05 Update: I’m glad to see this sold for a pittance as I feel it has decorative, not collectible, value only.