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Weird Wednesday with Wally - Antiques and Halloween a perfect match
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Made in Germany sold for $75
You only need to see the set of the Addam's family, or the Munsters to know that antiques are an integral part of all that is scary, spooky, and well, Halloween.
From the Gothic decor of a Victorian living room, to the wrought iron spiked fence around your neighborhood's haunted house, antiques and Halloween mesh together like the fabric of a spider's web and it's victim.
If it's old and weird, it will probably sell. If it's old and REALLY creepy, it will probably sell very well!
Since it's the season, I'll be doing multiple articles throughout the month on Halloween and it's tie-ins to the collectibles market.
For this piece, I'd like to look at some of the Halloween antiques & collectibles that actually have a Halloween theme, rather than those which just fit in well with the holiday, such as cattle skulls and cast iron gates with Gothic embellishments.
Values of antiques depend on several factors. Scarcity, demand and age. Early Halloween collectibles by defintition have the age, but are also very rare and in demand. There are a lot of Christmas and Easter collectibles, but All Saint's Day Eve is another story. The actual institution of Halloween as a North American holiday began in the 1800s, but was nowhere near as publicly acceptable as Christmas or Easter, so of course this meant that much fewer Halloween souvenirs were produced.
Let's look a little at the history, before we get to specific items and prices.
From Wikipedia:
Halloween has its origins in the ancient festival "Samhain", which is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in the Gaelic culture, so Halloween is essentially an Irish born tradition.
Traditionally, the Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter animals for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops.
The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits, to either confuse or placate them.
What to know, and what to look for:
- Almost anything pre-1970 made of paper, but the golden period for these collectibles is from 1910-1940
- Especially popular are the dark burnt orange and black paper mache and textured cardboard items from Germany. The clown with the pumpkin in the first photo upper right, is a 4 inch tall decoration which I sold last year on eBay for $75.00
- Halloween postcards are red hot. Look for pumpkin and vegtable people. It's not uncommon for some 1910 Halloween postcards to bring more than $100 each!
- Early pressed steel noisemaker toys do well.
- Costumes from the 1960s in the original boxes are better than AIG stock right now!
These paper mache Jack O Lantern candy holders came in so many different styles and contortions that it's hard to find two that are exactly alike.
Insert photo caption or credit here
Here's another great thing about Halloween collectibles, while other seasonal items sell in their top price range in during pre-season peak, Halloween collectibles will bring great money all year round!
The good stuff is so rare, that the enthusiasts are just as willing to pay top price any time from Nov. 1st to Oct. 31st.
In my early picking days, I met a very interesting woman named Pamela Apkarian-Russell, aka the Halloween Queen. She has published more than 10 books on Halloween collectibles and it's tradition. She also runs the Castle Halloween Museum and Shop.
CASTLE
HALLOWEEN MUSEUM AND SHOP
Old Boggs Run Elementary School
577 Boggs Run Rd.
Benwood, WV 26031
Phone: (304) 233-1031
Map to Castle Halloween
Click here to go to CastleHalloween.com
I'm happy to say that she has agreed to be on my next edition of The Auctionwally show, next Monday eve at 9pm EST.
So stop by for a haunted evening, ask questions, or just to do a little lurking as you learn more about these mysterious collectibles.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to stop by next Monday evening, or I'll send the Pumpkin Man to come get you, and you don't want that ... do you?
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