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Vintage Halloween Postcards: A Popular Halloween Ephemera Collectible

Halloween-Vintage-Postcard

As the days get shorter and you feel the chill in the air, it’s not hard to notice that all around you the leaves begin to turn red and gold.  All these changes, usually signals that the fall season and all its wonderful holidays are quickly approaching and will soon be upon us.  And who can forget Halloween as you begin to prepare for all the treats you’ll be giving out to the ghouls and ghosts that will be appearing at your door!

This is the best time to get out those Halloween collectibles and that doesn’t mean that your vintage collecting can’t display your mix of vintage finds with your modern tastes.  However,  this type of  collecting is especially a challenge, when you are looking for vintage Halloween collectibles which is as rare a find as seeing the proverbial ghost!

But don’t despair one of the most accessible Halloween collectible that is available on Ebay and other auctions sites are vintage Halloween postcards or greeting cards and at reasonable prices.

kids-halloween

Since the late 1800s, the year that marked the “golden age” of postcards there have been a variety of Halloween themed postcards that were sent to family and friends.  However, what makes them difficult to find is that the holiday was not celebrated to the extent it is today and many housewives’ threw out their Halloween decorations along with holiday greetings.

Around the turn of the century, postcards were a popular way of sending greetings to friends and family. It was a popular way of communicating with loved ones in the “snail mail”, pre-internet days. The most beautiful and most collected Halloween postcards were published by John O. Winsch of New York between the years of 1911 and 1915.  Winsch used rich inks and embossing on his cards, and sent them to Germany to be printed.  At the time, Winsch sold his postcards two for a nickel, while postcards in America were charging one cent.

Popular Vintage Postcard Designers

The most popular designers for postcards at the time were:

Ellen H. Clapsaddle – She was one America’s well known and  most prolific designer who created her designs  for Raphael Tuck and Sons, International Art Publishing Company, and Wolf Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Inter-Art that Clapsaddle launched herself.

H.B. Griggs – Griggs, using the signature H.B.G., published almost exclusively for Leubrie and Elkus of New York. So little is known about the identity of the designer, that it’s not even know if the designer was a man or a woman.

Gracie Debbie Drayton – She designed or made Halloween cards for Raphael Tuck and Sons showing the similar big-eyed chubby-cheeked kids , that she created for Campbell’s Kids branding.

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Image Credit: Flickr – Creative Commons

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Halloween Collectibles : Book Review

Halloween book

Book Review:  Vintage Halloween Collectibles by Mark B. Ledenbach

Published by Krause Publications, c.2007, 207 pgs.; paperback – Subject : Halloween paper and decorative collectibles – List Price $33.99

This book is a price and identification guide for Halloween paper and decorative collectibles.  According to the author, since Halloween decorations were generally used once and then thrown away, unlike Christmas decorations which are usually used from year to year,( and thus put back into storage)  these items are very hard to find and highly collectible.  Their scarcity makes these collectibles more expensive than most other paper ephemera  and Holiday decorations.

The book is divided into several chapters that cover games, lanterns and shades, candy containers, noisemakers and diecuts.  Since this is a very niche collecting field of the larger ephemera collecting area, it’s no surprise that the bibliography only references five other books on the subject.

The book also includes:

  • 700 full color photographs – many items are in the author’s personal collection
  • Each entry is accompanied by a photograph, manufacturer’s name, date of production, dimensions, price for condition shown and a relative scarcity index scale of 1-5
  • The author has also included a brief history of Halloween collectibles, the current state of the market and advice on how to spot fakes or reproductions

If you collect holiday decorations and enjoy ephemera with vintage imagery, than this book is a must-have for your collection.  The book’s downside is that the history  section is very brief, only a few pages, but it makes up for this failing in great full-color photography and corresponding details for Halloween collectibles.

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The following video produced by Kovel’s Antiques on their Youtube Channel gives a pretty thorough view of what these collectibles look like.

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What Is Ephemera? Paper By Another Name

vintage paper collectibles

 

Ephemera is a beautiful word for what some people( depending on who you ask) would call plain old paper.  According to Webster’s dictionary, ephemera is defined as “something of no lasting significance” or “collectibles (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) not intended to have lasting value”.

Since paper items are easily torn, mangled and susceptible to sun and humidity they don’t often survive the ravages of time.  Yet, exactly some of those authentic old papers are bringing in big prices on Ebay and other similar auction sites.

For example, Barnum & Bailey original posters  (you know the colorful posters that the company would post on fences and walls to let townspeople know that the circus was coming into town) a c.1898 Barnum & Bailey, Coney Island poster sold for $700.00 on Ebay.

 

Ephemera Examples

You can see samples of these vintage paper collectibles in the header image above, they are included in the list below.

  • garden catalogs
  • dictionary pages
  • vintage maps
  • pharmacy labels
  • greeting cards
  • vintage books
  • fashion ads
  • vintage sewing patterns

In my opinion, I would imagine as we consume more digital information and slowly transfer into a digital world, the value of these paper collectibles will rise.

sewing pattern

McCall Sewing Pattern

And  the word ephemera has extended itself to include all manner of paper items including:  postcards, vintage costume jewelry advertisements, fashion ads,  famous concert and opera tickets, sheet music and turn-of-the-century stock certificates which are all highly collectible.

A Clapsaddle Halloween postcard depicting a young African-american boy holding a pumpkin sold for $290.00 and seven 1946-1952 Miriam Haskell costume jewelry ads sold for $122.50 on Ebay.  Please note the prices will vary per year.

Where to Find Ephemera Sources

If you are interested in this type of collecting or you just need this type of material for your altered art or digital scrapbooking or other types of papercrafting projects, you  can search completed listings on Ebay for these items and find out the going current prices.  In fact, there are even greater valuations for paper items especially if you were related to some historical person or someone famous and can prove the provenance, the history of ownership of a valued object or work, of the item.

Etsy is a popular online shop for a variety of ephemera and other types of vintage paper.  However, the prices and offerings vary by seller.  Also, as mentioned previously, you can often find original source vintage paper in various categories on Ebay.

Television shows like “The Antique Roadshow” and others often feature great stories about people finding valuable paper treasures in a dumpster or at a garage sale for a few dollars.  While these stories are more the exception rather than the rule, it pays to think twice about throwing out those circa 1950s fashion magazines or any other paper item you might find when cleaning out the garage.

You will get better prices if the condition of the item is  in “mint” condition or “like new”.  Although some yellowing is acceptable or allowed a collector should strive for vintage paper in relatively good condition.

However, even greater damage, tears or spotting are acceptable to some altered art designers it just depends what the final use of the paper will be.

You could find a local dealer who might give you a fair price for the item or try selling it on Ebay yourself.  It just might be worth your while and put a little extra paper, the green kind, in your pocket!