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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Vintage Halloween PartiPuzzle

This 15-piece puzzle was produced by Gibson during the 1920s. There are two known designs, viewable on page 22. Neither surfaces often, so I was again struck at the relatively low selling price. There were no photos of the envelope’s reverse, so that may have depressed bidding.

RARE Dolly Toy Company Vintage Halloween Candy Container P-6

This Dolly Toy candy holder sold for $275, the best offer. The ending price seems to be somewhat of an anomaly in that given its condition, the candy holder brought fairly strong dollars. I’ve noticed a strong down trend in overall eBay results since early March, a welcome development for buyers. My conviction for many years is that prices have gone up too far, too fast - freezing out the new blood any hobby needs to thrive. It’d be nice to see a substantial reset of valuations across the board, enabling those with normal budgets to actively participate. Given some recent ending prices for items that would have brought significantly stronger dollars even just six months ago (the Beistle Rustic Fireplace, a Bogie Book retail display box, a Beistle Tickler and a Bogie Book envelope as examples), perhaps this is the beginning of a sustained down trend. It could also be nothing more than a reflection that this is a time of the year when interest is low after my annual auction and collectors are calculating their past year’s tax obligations. As with all things, time will tell. I, for one, am taking advantage of this short or long lull by looking for bargains.

RARE! VINTAGE HALLOWEEN BEISTLE RUSTIC FIREPLACE & WITCHES’ CALDRON W/ENVELOPE!

It’s great to see such a nice Beistle item up on eBay. The Rustic Fireplace was almost certainly a marketplace misfire. Beistle was trying to achieve some economies by finding another purpose for one of their iconic honeycomb designs. They customized the cauldrons by attaching orange crepe streamers to the bottom to simulate flames. (If you see a cauldron without these streamers at the bottom paired with other elements of the Rustic Fireplace, it very well may be a marriage, so be mindful.) The props and crossbar are awkward and bulky, which I feel depressed sales. Offered for only a season or two, today finding one complete with an envelope is tough. I sold my complete set in my 2020 auction. It fetched $1,825, so it will be fun to see what this listing brings. The cauldron’s arch looks wholly intact, another big plus. The seller’s are knowledgeable and nice. I appreciate their concise, data-filled description.

04/11 Update: This brought only $1,113. I was surprised it didn’t bring more.

Dennison, Vintage Halloween, 1920’s Boxed set of 6 Owl Diecuts

One of my favorite market segments is the boxed Dennison products. I began collecting these early and that fervor remains unabated. There has been a noticeable and sustained uptick in interest (and therefore, prices…) for Dennison boxed items, especially for those items produced with their Art Deco look issued from 1928-1932. I had two Dennison boxed items in my recent auction. Both were strong performers. This box of owl cut-outs is a stolid design, yet is doing quite well with over six days to go as of this typing.

Vintage Halloween German diecut, Devil face, 1920’s

This is a beautiful example of this hard-to-find German diecut. Many diecuts will come in three states: matte, glazed and matte with a faux-distressed look. (The last is restricted to relatively few designs.) I typically like the glazed versions best, but this matte devil face is very appealing. I hope it does very well for this fine seller.

04/11 Update: This brought $317.99.

Beistle Vintage Halloween decoration, 1920’s

Beistle produced this decoration as part of a set of six during the 1920s. You can see an example of the original envelope and three of the other designs on page 218. I have issued a “Repro Alert” on these decorations. The entire set was reproduced on glossy stock paper about 7 years ago, so be careful. This listing (and the other by the same seller) is on matte stock with the fine line detailing consistent with truly vintage items. I haven’t seen pieces from the set being offered for some time, so it will be instructive to see what it fetches.

04/11 Update: This brought a scant $86.01.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN ‘DUNBAR GALLERY’ AUCTION CATALOG - ‘HUGH LUCK’ AUCTION 1997

These were foundational sales. The leading Halloween collector at the time, Hugh decided to sell his small but very choice collection in a series of sales through Dunbar’s Gallery, run by Leila (Lee) Dunbar, who can now occasionally be seen on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow mainly appraising sports items. Hugh was an early collector with a very good eye. He was generous with his knowledge, making time to educate collectors at all levels. He was, and is, a charming bon vivant. I was fortunate to get to know him some years before these sales, providing an opportunity to examine the items comprising his collection, in situ, so to speak. I was an aggressive bidder in these sales, enabling me to purchase the best of his collection. Four items on the cover of this catalog made their way to my home.

I began assembling an archive of catalogs and magazines when I first began collecting. The internet was a few years away, so some dealers would send out near-monthly offerings through the mail. I kept nearly every one, enabling me now to access a sizable library of reference materials that still serve to inform my collecting. There were other publications and zines then - the best of which was The Boo News. If you have a chance to acquire any of The Boo News newsletters, do so. They make fascinating and prescient reading, decades removed from publication.

The 2023 March Auction

Thanks so much to all the many participants in my recently concluded annual auction! The bidding was fast and furious all week, with the 107 lots dispersed all over the United States, Canada and even to Merry Old England. The only bummer was a non-paying bidder - only the second such instance in conducting my annual events since 2015. She bid on six lots. Three were sold to underbidders and three will be offered either on my For Sale page or in next year’s event. This bidder is now banned from all purchasing and bidding events.

DEAD MINT Old Vintage Halloween JOL-Faced Hatbox Candy Container Germany 1916-21

So, here’s a listing involving the same fine seller that went the opposite direction from the post directly below. Instead of underperforming, this lot overperformed surely to the consternation of the prevailing bidder. There were three determined bidders all intent on bidding sums far in excess of what these not uncommon hatbox candy containers typically fetch. (If you are going to see pieces from this large set appear, they almost always are the hatbox and the purse. They both typically bring half or less of this shocking result.) If anyone wants mine for $2,900, please contact me.

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.