Book Review:  Vintage Halloween Collectibles by Mark B. Ledenbach

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.