Vintage WITCH Black Cat Flying Broomstick Diecut MADE IN USA HALLOWEEN DIE CUT

By the late 1950s Beistle was riding on fumes creatively. Before they slid into a stylistic abyss for the next few decades, they managed to produce three pretty awesome diecuts, albeit with what I'm sure was great weariness. This is one of the three very odd witch designs Beistle produced at the time. The non-embossed diecuts rarely surface in collectible condition. Given where Beistle was at that time, I don't think they produced very many of any of the three designs. Check out page 159 for the other two from the set. My favorite is the witch looking behind her with very worn shoe bottoms. Also, each of the designs has the artist's initials cleverly woven into the design. Can you see them? 

07/12 Update: This sold for $169.10. 

Vintage Halloween Beistle Pirate Black Cat Hat die cut Tissue paper honeycomb

Beistle produced this continental hat design with plumes from 1925-1931. There were two designs total. (The other one features a JOL and can be seen on page 238.) This brought a strong price, perhaps due to the overall condition and the brightness of the colors. The SGV is $195. 

Vintage Beistle Black Cats Detour Stop Go Die Cut Halloween Decoration 1930's

This is a truly aberrant result. All twelve of the designs that comprise this set produced by Beistle regularly surface. Given this example's condition, it shouldn't have brought more than $80. 

ANTIQUE/VINTAGE CREEPY 👹Plaster DEVIL/EVIL MAN/ HALLOWEEN . Wall Hanging

This heavily repainted wall hanging has precisely zero association with Halloween. It is one of the many decorative hangings produced by an English firm called Bosson. They had a line of heads based on characters created by Charles Dickens. This is Fagin. 

NICE Vintage Foil Jointed HALLOWEEN EVIL DEVIL Skull Crossbones RARE

This was a high price to pay for this fairly common foil diecut. They surface regularly. This devil was produced by Happy Holiday of Battleboro, Massachusetts during the late 1950s and into the early 1960s. They typically change hands for $30-40. Foil items have not been a strong market segment for many years - if ever. Is that changing? More selling data points will tell the story. At this point, I feel this result is an outlier. 

Vintage Halloween DEVIL 30" jointed Die Cut ? Beistle Electric Man

Here's a great Beistle item you don't often see. This was issued for the 1931 season only and marketed as a Lightning Wumpus, one of four large jointed designs Beistle issued. They issued two in 1929 and two in 1931. (You can see them all on page 146.) This is one of their two best, the other being the scowling Skairo. This one appears to be in remarkable condition given how much can go wrong with this large item with its wholly irregular edges. SGV is $525. 

06/24 Update: This seems to be a slow time for quality listings - and when they do surface, the results, at least in this case, have to be disappointing. This stellar item sold for well below SGV. It brought $407. The buyer must be on cloud nine. 

VINTAGE 1960's HALLOWEEN Flying WITCH, Surprised MOON Die-Cut Party Decoration

Eureka produced a small number of Halloween diecuts in the early 1960s. They were produced on thin paper stock, so most are in poor condition when found. I’ve noticed that prices for Eureka diecuts have increased sharply over the last five years. This is a diecut of a broomed witch racing against a large moon with a surprised look on its face. The trees at the bottom are a bit spookier than one finds in the typical Eureka diecut. I sold a duplicate of this diecut in my recent vintage Halloween auction extravaganza. Unlike this one, it didn't have a specific date printed on the front, so Eureka definitely made at least two iterations of this diecut. (I feel this is the most interesting of their Halloween diecuts.) 

06/24 Update: This seems to be the most coveted Eureka diecut design. It brought a strong $152.50. 

RARE Vintage Halloween Diecut Pink Skeleton Jack-o-Lantern Wooden Horse

This was indeed produced by Beistle. This is a divisive piece in that collectors tend to either love it or hate it. Beistle made this available for the 1960-62 seasons, a relatively fallow period for them. 

06/21 Update: This sold for $73.

Vintage RARE Halloween Carboard I'm A Dumbskull Stunt Game Original USA

This is the rarer of the two versions of this game produced by Beistle in 1930 and 1931. The other has a hat-wearing cat at the top, no clock dial or metal spinner and an easel. Although it is easier to display than the version up for auction, the auction version is visually more interesting and typically commands a 30-50% premium to the other version. Interestingly, this particular item was a salesman sample. I have other Beistle items in the collection with the same handwriting. 

VINTAGE 1930's The Abingdon Party Book By Ethel Owen HALLOWEEN & Other Holidays

I purchased this for the collection. I was surprised to see so many Gibson items so prominently featured in the pages shown. Gibson reference material is scarce. I've only ever seen one catalog issued by Gibson. Undated, it is chock-full of their products - invaluable when I was doing research for the third edition. It will be fun to discover the commercial connection between The Abingdon Press and Gibson. 

VINTAGE 1930's Gibson HALLOWEEN Black Cat TONGUE TWISTER Novelty Party GAME Card

I'm surprised at the ending price, as these typically trade in the $50-75 range. Gibson produced at least six different tongue twisters, as these were sold in glassine envelopes from 1928-1932. They also produced a smaller version with full-bodied cats that I think are visually more appealing. Both can be seen on page 23. 

Vintage unused die cut 1920's Dennison halloween party favor nut cup colorful bright orange graphics of various jack o'lanterns

This hard-to-find nut cup was produced by Dennison in 1928 with a stick number of H566. It is on Etsy for a reasonable $40. Grab it now. 

Six Different Fabulous 1930/40s Vintage Halloween Place Cards USA

The star of the lot was the one at the middle right. These intricate cards are hard to locate in any condition. I gave given them an attribution of "probably Whitney" in the 3rd edition. (Two are shown on page 277.) No data has surfaced that prompts a change to that attribution, but I am remain optimistic that some marked box will surface one day. 

EXCEEDINGLY "RARE" 1930"s BEISTLE MECHANICAL OWL NUT CUP

This great seller is correct - this is one of a complete set of four mechanical nut cups that I know are exceedingly rare. Beistle issued the set for one season only in 1938. They slightly adapted already existing artwork to produce the set. (So many firms were hurting then due to the lingering Great Depression that cost reductions were more important than ever. Beistle wasn't immune, hence this set.) I had the good fortune of buying several complete and unused sets and then several singles out of an estate in Massachusetts in April 2015. I kept the best one, auctioned the next best one for ~$1800 and sold everything else over the next few years. (I am never in a hurry to sell anything.) Beistle printed these on surprisingly thin paper stock considering their intended use. Few survived unscathed. Few exist overall - so when an opportunity presents itself to get one, especially from such a wonderful seller, don't let it slip by. 

06/14 Update: This sold for a modest $119.50. 

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN SPOOKY ARTICULATED PAPER MACHE SKELETON - RARE

This is representative of the kind of crap one commonly sees on eBay these days. What happened to this once-mighty sales forum?