This trio of horns was produced by Bugle Toy of Providence, RI, during the 1940s. The seller notes the textile labels on the interior of what is now a horn noisemaker. The labels provide a clue as to the cost savings emphasis kept front-and-center by Bugle as well as other manufacturers. They would purchase used textile spindles in bulk to use as the basis for which to wrap the spindles in lithoed paper to mark various holidays, like Halloween. One might ask why firms like Bugle wouldn’t remove the labels. Don’t forget that these operations were not high-margin endeavors. These horns originally sold for pennies. Removing the labels would add to production costs without a real benefit, so the labels stayed.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
Antique German Halloween Devil Jack-O-Lantern, Compo Nose, Ears & Horns--Great!
I’ve never been particularly attracted to lanterns, but this would be one that would have a place of some honor amongst any collection. As with retailers today spanning the spectrum from Dollar Tree to Nordstrom, back in the 1920s there were the dime stores at the low end where most holiday goods were sold and posh retailers at the high end selling such things as this lantern. The Durante proboscis, the add-on horns and those ears all differentiate this from the garden-variety lantern. The seller is a collector well-known for his vintage Christmas collection and expertise. It will be fun to see what this somewhat sizable lantern fetches.
04/09 Update: This brought $1,862.87.
2 VINTAGE 1950s HALLOWEEN NOISEMAKER CARDBOARD HORN GREAT GRAPHICS BOTH WORK !
These two lithoed paper over cardboard horns were produced by Bugle Toy of Providence, Rhode Island. The seller is correct in pointing out that textile spindles were reused in the manufacture of these noisemakers, an early and laudable example of recycling. Bugle was an odd company. They made memorably wacky tin litho Halloween noisemakers, different from their coma inducing designs on paper. It seems likely that a key art designer left the firm and was replaced by a hack, but who knows? Bugle tin litho items sell quickly, whereas most of their lithoed paper designs linger in the marketplace.
