Vintage Halloween Collectibles Research (1900-1979)

Vision-wary Architects freebie mailer: By way of quick introduction, the photo above is a visual celebration that shows all the postcards that went out in a batch mailer the week of July 21, 2024 - to all who previously purchased any volume of The Halloween Retrospect guidebook reference . Thank you!!!  Sending out a mailer in such numbers really proved to this author how much support has found its way to The Halloween Retrospect archive library . A head-spinning number of crossword cards going out to those who in past purchased any volume of The Halloween Retrospect. The story behind the postcard is this.... Since the release June 2024 of new reference  THR,  Vol 3  ( link here to THR book store ) the author has been continuing in background with the creation of brain-teasers for autumn fans. You might recall that Volume 3 is the first in the THR series to contain a "Puzzle Bulletin" with a vintage-Halloween themed crossword "Afterworld Lodger" inspired by the ar

Halloween Collector Guides THR - a year in review As of late June 2024 (almost a year since the first book) there will be  three volumes  of The Halloween Retrospect for the Halloween collector to add to their shelf of vintage references supporting that collection of visual survey books. THR is full of informative research articles that focus on certain market items as seen in the pages of various primary sources (mainly ~550 catalogs of consumer/vendor materials 1900-1979) and other archive materials across the United States (such as Framingham History Center for THR, V2 or Hallmark Archives for THR, V3 ). Guidebooks for the vintage Halloween collector with a focus on vintage research through vintage sources. If you are just now encountering The Halloween Retrospect archive library and its in-house publishing, please see the Home page (for introduction and a list of numerous blog entries) or check out various pages such as About or Publications . And for all, this seems a good

The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 3: An expected release of June 2024 is slated for Volume 3, The Halloween Retrospect reference series ( link here to THR blog ) and it sits in waiting with new content in an edition mostly about haunted houses, mostly! It is hoped that vintage Halloween collectors will appreciate a deeper review at ephemera collectible (of the haunted house) by such companies as Beistle, Dennison, Hallmark (featured in book with poster), Gibson (on the cover), Norcross, Whitney, and more. Book availability will be announced on the  THR website  in the near future.  This third time around, the library’s archivist at THR has opportunity to create a double-feature article on the transformation of haunted house imagery in early 20th-century times - and such a survey is not complete without considering the amazing mid-century paper engineering (in Part 2) from the past creative team of Hallmark Cards, Inc. for which help from Hallmark Archive  is included...! The resulting

Hallmark Vintage Halloween Collectibles Part 3: 1970's As with  Hallmark Halloween Part 1: 1950’s  and  Hallmark Halloween Part 2: 1960’s  the final entry considering the history of vintage Halloween collectibles by Hallmark (Ambassador, etc.) comes to a close with  Hallmark Halloween Part 3: 1970’s   All entries are part of a study by the archive librarian to get a better grasp on assembly, honeycomb, and pop-ups pieces created by Hallmark Cards, Inc. (1950-1980). This is all in regards to a research article (on a different topic of The THR, V3 to appear in THR’s bookstore ). As with  “Decrypting Dennison: Serial Number Guide Featuring Autumn Publications” (THR, V2) , this entry into "later years" is pursued to exhaustively verify changes over the decades. Shown here (and above) are details from a pop-up book  A Visit to a Haunted House (1972) by Hallmark.

Hallmark Vintage Halloween Collectibles Part 2: 1960's As in previous entry Hallmark Halloween Part 1: 1950’s , The Halloween Retrospect vintage collectibles guidebook series is researching dates for autumn Hallmark centerpieces (around and a tad later than mid-century) to inform a book article on a relative subject. The book's article is in development stage for collectors’ guide The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 3, and this entry (including that which falls before and after) will be a bit of a sneak-peek into the next volume ( to be available from THR’s bookstore ). So, here we go, to discover better dates for Hallmark ephemera (assembly, honeycomb, and pop-up) circa 1950-1980. And as with “Decrypting Dennison: Serial Number Guide Featuring Autumn Publications” (THR, V2) , much is revealed by taking a broader view at Hallmark’s products across the decade of the 1960's. Shown here is a detail from a large table-top pop-up  Haunted House centerpiece by Ambassador (Hallmark).

Hallmark Vintage Halloween Collectibles Part 1: 1950's Volume 3 of guidebook research series  The Halloween Retrospect  ( available on THR's Bookstore via Etsy ) is underway from the library desk of the archive - this time with a focus on vintage Hallmark Halloween collectibles. As a preview of book content (which will be on related subjects though notably different in content) this entry, and those upcoming, will attempt to develop a better timeline for Hallmark vintage holiday products starting 1950 to the cutoff date of 1980. This will be specific to party-centric ephemera including assembly, honeycomb, and centerpiece items. Readers will likely notice, as with “Decrypting Dennison: Serial Number Guide Featuring Autumn Publications” (THR, V2) , that it lends to better results when one looks beyond our Halloween obsession.  Shown here is the store box for shop owners that contained  a unit (or 12 sets) of the Haunted House party items.

Vintage Halloween Collectibles Guidebooks: As the image states above,  The Halloween Retrospect is a new guidebook series for vintage Halloween collectibles as a digest series for collectors seeking an archive and library research emphasis on the novelty markets of yesteryear (1900-1979). And so, while recent blog entries have focused on bits of this-and-that related to articles inside the editions of The Halloween Retrospect ( available on THR's Bookstore via Etsy ), this particular entry reviews the books' contents as well as page samples and poster inserts.  Guidebooks for the vintage Halloween collector with a focus on vintage research through vintage sources. As noted elsewhere, it is my wish as jack o'lantern of all trades , that is, as the author, editor, collector, archivist, librarian, artist, designer, publisher, and seller for this book series, that you too are seeking more details about old Halloween than previously available these last twenty or so years. In

Retro Fab Halloween: Wonder what great references exist for the vintage collectibles of Dennison's vintage ephemera? I often find it's best to look back at some of the original material of the era, and collectors are lucky that Dennison produced a ton of promotional material we can use today as primary sources.  Yes, in it's day, Dennison publishes a long string of annual Halloween-devoted books to help sell their products - from the  Bogie Book  of the 1910-1920's, to the later 1920's Halloween-themed editions of  Parties and Party Magazine , to the somewhat strained hurrahs in the 1930's with seasonal titles like The Halloween Book  (see Dennison Halloween Number) . And the company kept active well into the mid-century and beyond. However, for collectible guidebook  The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 2  a cut-off date was necessary to fit contents of an 11"x17" fold-out poster: "Dennison's Halloween 1909-1935 Autumn Publications & Serial

Decoding Vintage Serial Numbers: Vintage Halloween products are full of unsolved mysteries, even for those of us who examine all the data in this era's survey books as made available to collectors. This is one reason The Halloween Retrospect publications take a different approach, rather than repeating second-hand sources but instead dig into marks and clues heretofore unexplained, finding answers through research methods. One of the ongoing mysteries THR feels needed solving, is appearances of the cryptic serial number that visibly codes Dennison publications for many decades (see third image below). And just look at all these publications for Halloween alone (directly above and below) with Bogie Book , Parties and Party Magazine for autumn, and all those additional prices lists and pamphlets! Shouldn't we know more about  what makes them rare, rather than coincidental sightings (whether in antique shops, flea markets and yard sales, used bookstores, etc.)? Collage of Denni

The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 2: NEW! Volume 2 of The Halloween Retrospect is anticipated for release December 2023! Content for the return of THR book series for vintage Halloween collectors is complete, and the author is finishing up the final steps toward offering the new book together with poster and timeline card inserts. Availability will be announced on the THR website in the near future.  In the new edition, the library’s archivist is excited to announce a feature article working with an incredible archive of material located at  Framingham History Center . In that very town of Massachusetts, home to Dennison's historic operations, the archive houses a treasure trove of company material (that were gifted back to the organization from Avery). The resulting article (with THR’s typical detail) discusses the mysteries surrounding Dennison’s long line of autumn-themed publications (with some amazing revelations provided by documents of the archive). And all of this ties toge

Catalog Books & Archives: The archivist/librarian has been on a two-week excursion visiting museums, but is back now to catch up on a couple of recent entries over at The Halloween Retrospect concerning various archives and books that are available to people researching the vintage markets. Vintage Halloween Catalog Book First, I wanted to recommend to anyone who is really starting to dig more deeply into the actual data of vintage Halloween collectibles, this 2003 publication by Ben Truwe The Halloween Catalog Collection: 55 Catalogs from the Golden Age of Halloween . It's chockablock full of pages from vintage Halloween catalogs ranging in years circa 1900-1979 - and there is more about this book and author in the blog over at The Halloween Retrospect: see Truwe's Catalog Book .  While previously available in both book and compact disc, it sadly appears it is out-of-print in all past formats. The only manner of finding a copy currently is trying to find one in the overhe