Oh Wow! This Old Painting Suggests Such a Dark Tale!

"Gnarled gypsies climb under an anthropomorphic moon! From an early Somerset Pennsylvania estate, likely last quarter nineteenth century. As found condition, complete with a hundred years of dirt and spots of loss. Oil on board measures 9 x 11.5 inches."

Antique Group of 8 Halloween Pumpkin Head Candy Containers German Papier-Mâché

Creepy-Happy Jack-O'-Lantern Papier-Mâché Pin

"This is a wonderful antique paper mache pumpkin pin, c.1930's, 2" diameter. Unmarked but certainly German. Adorable smiling pumpkin face surrounded by 12 paper petals.


"Wear consistent with age. Some slight wear to pumpkin face, petals show wear - soiling, folds, wrinkling and a small tear in one petal."

Antique Halloween Postcard--Kathryn Elliott (1914)

Our Lives Cast in Photonegative Look Creepy

Antique Halloween Glass Plate Negatives Rare Find assorted lot 8
Several of these glass negatives give me the creeps. It might be ordinary goings-on, and you have to remember that darkness is actually light in these, but still. 

In one, a figure (real? sculptural?) appears to be lodged way up on a building in a very dangerous way. The one with the graffiti on the wall feels weirdly anachronistic, modern. And what is the child standing before in the front yard? Is that a makeshift stage or is she hiding? It's another weird touch. Maybe if you print these, they will all be perfectly normal scenes. But in photonegative they suggest all sorts of dark tales.

Heubach Porcelain Halloween Cat with Fly Trinket Box (Circa 1910)

"German porcelain trinket box made by the famous factory of Heubach around 1910.

On the lid there is an attached, realistic metal fly.

The black cat has an orange ribbon with a little metal bell around is neck. This piece makes a wonderful Halloween decoration and can also be used as a candy container.

Marked with the Heubach sunburst mark and the number 9395 3 .

About 6,5" long , no damage at all, only slight signs of age."

Autre Temps, Autre Moeurs

   "This rare find comes from the heart of Ohio.  Made in  Toledo, Ohio in the early 1900s  this parade lantern is a rare find. Going door to door for treats did not take hold in the United States until the 1930s or later, but Halloween pranks began much earlier, at the same time as the first costumes. Perhaps outfits from that period were stark and ghoulish because they were designed not for a party, but for parading through the neighborhood with scary shenanigans. Composed of two molded half spheres with cutout features and painted highlights, this guy has green painted features and features its original wire bale that attaches it to its original parade pole. Even rarer is the fact that this little fellow has his original candle cup!!  It looks like he was originally painted shades of yellow and does show some scorching as he must have been used at some point. Sure, I would let MY child parade around town with a flowing ghost costume and an open flame, why not???  But that's the way they did it back in the day!!  This one is approx 7-1/2" tall, 6" in diameter and 11-1/2" to the top of his bale. The original stick is 18" long."

Vintage Aerolux Style Halloween Light Bulb with Frowning Jack-o'-Lantern Filament

This was almost certainly not produced by The Aerolux Light Corporation which, according to Wiki, existed from the 1930s through the 1970s.

But bulbs like this are often advertised as "Aerolux style," and one can easily see why.

The Aerolux bulbs could be quite beautiful and intricate. The panoply of flower bulbs below, for example, shows the high level of artisanship that went into their filamentous sculptures.

The patents for the Aerolux bulbs date back to the 1930s.

The bulbs would contain either argon or neon, or a combination of the two.

The little metal sculptures were covered with phosphors. The phosphors fluoresced when excited by "glow discharge."

The phosphors were delicate and could easily flake off and migrate throughout the miniature sculptures, and then certain patches would no longer glow.

The bulbs had a "high yield of light produced versus electricity consumed."

Chalkware Halloween Figures Made from Antique Chocolate Molds

I thought this was a really cool way to bring Halloweens past back to life.

I had never thought of artists using antique chocolate molds to produce chalkware (or other media) figurines.

This "Scared Cat" is part of a limited edition, a signed figurine of a chalkware cat cat made by artist Rich Connolly.

Each item is, of course, one of a kind.

And I see the artist has used other molds for other editions.

I think it's a great idea.

You can see below the signature that the mold used dates to around 1920.

He's selling these at an incredibly reasonable price to beat the boutiques. This one, for example, is currently listed at just over twenty dollars.

I think the paint he used here and the details are about perfect. This truly looks vintage or antique.

I just read more of the listing and learned that Rich Connolly has been using this process for thirty years, that he considers the end result folk art, and that he was once invited to exhibit his work at the White House when (cough! gag!) Reagan was in office. Also, he's just down the road a piece in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Now I'm thinking of the Moravians and poet H.D.

(Oh, and Jackie O. used to collect his work--from 1983 to 1993.)

Veggie Pumpkin Man Candy Container (Germany, 1920s)

"Has original 10 cent price tag, marked Germany."

"The flaws are minimal for this type of candy container - it is a novelty, meant to be given and then discarded. The veggie man is made from paper mache, covered with a thin coating of plaster, and then painted in orange and mustard yellow. The figure is mounted on a small cardboard box. The box has a slight damp stain on the orange paper band that goes around the middle of the box, and some chipping to the green paper on the top of the box. The inside of the box is a wonderful green paper with a white flower that has faded and slightly darkened with time. The pumpkin man stands 4 3/4", and the man mounted on the box stands 5 3/8". The box measures 2" across. The piece overall has wonderful vintage patina."

And Another Horrid Krampus!

(Read the post immediately below this one for more info on this Christmas Devil.)

Actually, you can learn a whole lot more about this possibly Pre-Christian, folkloric (let's hope!) figure here.

He appears to have a nice butt for a devil.

Vintage German chocolate mold. 
German Christmas Halloween Devil character KRAMPUS. 
The mold is 9.5 inches tall with original side clip.
There is an embossed 14 on the front of the mold and an embossed 7 on the back side.

Decorating with Antiques, Halloween Style

Grim Reaper Salt and Pepper Shakers (Japan, circa Mid-Twentieth Century)

Japan shakers with cork stoppers.

Three inches tall.

"Each have five holes on top, though one has smaller sized holes."

Note the word "POISON" on both shakers.

Grim Reapers or some such ghoulish figures!