Vintage Halloween Collectibles Research (1900-1979)

Christmas Sample & More from THR Novelty Catalogs! To backtrack just a bit... in the early spring months of 2025 a seasonally anachronous book arrived for sale at The Halloween Respect bookstore (digest THR, Volume 4 ) featuring quite a bit of Christmas imagery. Why? Because during chilly winter months of 2024 (see THR blog " To: Halloween, From: Xmas " ) new research at THR discovers holiday ads (both Christmas and Easter) for faux stained- glass windows like the Halloween-themed versions appearing in Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting . In fact, THR develops a rather large collection of primary sources in the form of newspaper ads from across the decade of the 1940's (example below) with one ad from Wisconsin proudly providing their vendor's name: Milton Bradley! (This is new information at a time when most guides are still recording these as circa 1920's maybe by Dennison or Gibson) Easter Cathedral Windows by Milton Bradley  as seen in  1947 advertis...

Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting: Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting is the latest book to be released for sale from THR's bookstore . With a different approach from the more in-depth research digests that preceded, this book features vintage Halloween collectibles displayed in vibrant full-color on 8-1/2" x 11" pages - and will offer collectors some unusual views and/or previously unseen objects across 114 pages. That said, the driving force behind this book, as with all from THR, continues to rely on primary sources (of the original vintage marketplace) via newspapers, 550+ vendor catalogs, etc).. Those sources are used together with photography to provide catalog clippings and to develop individual timelines for past appearances of the object.  Below is the cover shown with some sample pages... Cover and page samples of  Halloween Artifacts, V1: Lighting    Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting    is expected to have a sales release date o...

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...

The Halloween Retrospect: It sounds a bit funny to say, particularly for those who think Halloween is anything but normal  - but in this instance it's a bit of word play on a meaning few use these days, when a "normal school or normal college [was] an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum." ( wikipeida ). So, circling back to that title, Normal Halloween , this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a time when vintage Halloween products (fun and spooky) abounded in the pages of the vintage catalogs that supplied those instructors.  Get the classroom ready for Hallowe'en, The Bogie Book. (1926) There is more to read about such things in a blog entry titled  Bogie Book Ad, 1926 on The Halloween Retrospect website. Yet for a full perspective see “Normal Halloween: Holiday Novelties & Early Twentieth Century Youth” in the printed book ( via Etsy checkout ). The article discusses vintage Halloween products availabl...

Sane Halloween Observer As a collector of vintage Halloween, I feel it is worth the extra steps to research the minutiae of these items' history for myself. And of the types of decor, this blog has frequently reflected on German imports (specifically time discrepancies per dates in modern guidebooks) --- but how about the historical availability of American-made merchandise? Mulling over vintage catalogs now for both German and the U.S., I started to consider the creation of a timeline that would test the reference dates provided in various guides. Therefore this entry is an exercise, perhaps proving the wisdom in expanding one's available resources. And again I would stress that much of the content here (as with previously presented German catalogs) is pulled directly from archival records. Following then are two timelines for two different witches --- American and German. First up is this iconic witch (one-sided at 15"x23") by Beistle described in one ...