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Vintage Halloween Collectibles Research (1900-1979)

Blog and guide from The Sane Halloween Observer now features The Halloween Retrospect collector and that author's research books into a vintage archive library of 525+ era catalogs referencing the lanterns, toys, diecuts, and ephemera dressed as the pumpkins, witches, black cats, owls, ghosts of yesteryear: 1910's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's.

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Halloween Print by Unknown

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- December 19, 2014

Sane Halloween Observer Unknown artist, the illustration (above) is a digital touch-up I created this evening after another photograph (below) of an amazing metal-block printers set spotted some years ago at auction. Auction photo...

Halloween Hoards

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2023 Robert Aaron Wiley for: The Sane Halloween Observer | The Halloween Retrospect

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Wordless Halloween

- April 18, 2015

Sane Halloween Observer Another hidden treasure of early instructional illustrations for the classroom. A wordless story of the traditional carving of the pumpkin from Before We Read by W.J Gage & Co. Limited. (page 24) printed in Canada. No date (perhaps circa 1950's?) - artist uncredited. (original book layout)

Timeline for Witches

- April 08, 2018

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 ...

Forever After...

- January 02, 2015

Sane Halloween Observer A HALLOWE'EN WISH May all the bats and ghosts and frights Bring jolly fun and laughter And fill your day with such delights You'll smile forever after! Here's an incredible vision - of another pumpkin-headed spirit at the fence ( see also Beware! The Gatekeeper ). This is a vintage Hallowe'en card posted by Alan Mays on Flickr ( originally posted on Ipernity: A Halloween Wish ). Would love to know more details on this item which is stated as being a single-sided greeting card from the 1920's-1930's. Will this smiling spook be as friendly once it climbs to the other side of the fence? Check out the meticulous details of this illustration. The landscape above the fence reminds me of Seattle where you see 1930s brick tudor style architecture in neighborhoods of extremely tall Douglas Firs silhouetted in the skyline. The fence alone has me stunned, with the glowing highlights at top, the visible knots and nail-heads, and ...

Who was GM Co?

- January 09, 2016

Sane Halloween Observer A well-known admirer of vintage Halloween currently credits a series of candy containers, pull-toys and rockers (constructed of paper-laminated cardboard) to General Merchandise Company of the 1940s-1950s. Determination appears based on the bottom abbreviation of G.M. CO. , but what is the historical record of this company and of its product output? As of this writing, I find no iteration of a plausible General Merchandise Company referred to as G.M. Co. (for example - The Treasury that was at one time named General Merchandise Company has no evident markings of G.M. Co. on its catalogs). As well, other than a few known series of holiday containers (for Easter , Valentines Day , Halloween see below marked G.M. Co), I find no other products via an internet search. Note that research is made difficult because general merchandise is a common term of business categorization such as dry goods ; ...

Candy Cottage

- December 13, 2015

Sane Halloween Observer Yet another awesome mid-century merchandise package for what must have been the popular "haunted house carry-case" genre..., this time from Brach's Fine Candie s circa 1955. You can see the handi-pak described in the 1955 Halloween Candies brochure : No. 5101 - Trick or Treat Handi-Pak Haunted house design on satchel-shaped pak contains minimum of 70 assorted cello packets of Candy Corn, Halloween Jelly Beans, Orange and Black Imperials, and Assorted Creme Cones. Empty satchel serves as a container for Trick or Treat loot. Net weight per pack 22 1/2 ounces. 16 Handi-Paks to case. For more haunted house candy-boxes see Witch's Chest and Candy Loot .

Variations on Trix or Treats

- May 17, 2015

Sane Halloween Observer Note: (2-1-2024) various dates are lined-through here (since the old 2015 entry) to reflect primary sources rather than secondary are now referenced. In the THR archive library , various sets are depicted in candy ads (1946-1954) in Sears catalogs. And while this may not definitively narrow years of availability, it does indicate that variations in regional distribution may have been a stronger factor. More primary sources are needed concerning the cards appearances to consumer. In the meantime these cards are discussed further in The Halloween Retrospect: Rosen Moon Pop for the new book The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 2 that presents new details from on-hand catalogs. A quick visual survey of known sets of Rosen's Hallowe'en Trix or Treats lollipop-holder cards (with variations of style shown here dating from the 1930's to the 1950's ). The first seven-card set (at righ...

Luminous Fortunes

- February 09, 2015

Sane Halloween Observer Fortunes by the Luminous Spirit or How to Stretch Your Ectoplasm and get Cooler Spooks! Following the spooklight glow of the previous entry Luminous Halloween , an interesting opportunity for a bit of compare-and-contrast occurred recently with two vintage Halloween games (one by the very same American Novelty Corporation of Omaha, 1943-1950). Although the condition of said game was not optimal, the outsider-art smorgasbord of this game ( another example shown below ) offers a ton of lo-fi messy fun - crazy fonts (some with random shadowing), odd charms, symbols, and creatures, all surrounding a witch acting as the game's spinner. Best of all, we've got that fun glow-in-the-dark ink overlay (shown below). The game sold for around $50. Overlay of previous image with a shot in total darkness (see first image). Another vintage Halloween game, of similar ilk, went for about 6x that amount! Arguably, this latter...

Bloody Paper Cuts

- September 26, 2018

Sane Halloween Observer As more and more vintage Halloween (the stuff no one was said to have retained) continues to crawl out of the woodwork, there have been haunting miscalculations of authenticity of paper items during the past few years, and the 2018 season is sadly no different The problem seems to be a continuing knowledge gap about what a diecut actually is, and how to spot either fakes and/or altered pieces. And this season was again proof that as a buyer you need some good initial knowledge of true vintage (in any medium) as apparently both field expert and recommended seller prove that nobody is perfect. As a subject introduction, I would point you to an earlier entry that introduces the concept and process of the diecut: Halloween Diecut Quiz . While in the entry that follows here, I will show you examples of true diecuts. I trust that once you know how to spot true paper, you should in theory be able to recognize the opposite. In our first occ...

Sane Halloween Observers

- November 23, 2014

Sane Halloween Observer This first entry begins with a disclaimer - I do not self-proclaim myself an expert in the field of vintage holiday collectibles - I am instead a hardscrabble artist inspired by these objects, and have been watching the (mostly Halloween) market for many years numbering now not much less than a decade -- yikes! And while there are blogs (too few in my opinion) existing on this subject, I'm starting another to fill what I perceived to be a void for something objective and random (that focuses little to no time on the vagaries of market pricing). In thinking about the value of doing this blog, I hope to maintain the following ground rules in consideration of future content: No direct reference and/or links that locates a specific item for sell. In instances where bloggers do this, there arise consequences whereby the blogger becomes a 3rd party before and after..., as well as skewing the market. Blog entries should avoid the promotion ...

Halloween in Germany:1955

- November 21, 2015

Sane Halloween Observer The title of this entry is something of a deliberate misnomer. It follows on the heels of two previous entries Diecut Bubble? and Seven Spooks in Narrenfibel 1968 / 1970 concerning the presence of vintage products that appeared on either side of the Atlantic. Each previous entry was intended to dispel a centric notion that... "because we celebrate Halloween here in North America, there couldn't possibly be any of that imagery (as vintage decor) found or sold elsewhere in the world." Surprise! While it's been apparent that European and Asian festival items have snuck into past price guides, it was about two years ago that I began to also question availability dates ( not necessarily production dates ). This was due to discovering vintage "Halloween" decorations in German-language catalogs printed as recently as the 1970's. ( See Seven Spooks in Narrenfibel 1968 / 1970 ). This catalog displays themes for...