I found this Halloween nut cup at an estate sale for $4 which might sound like a lot for such a small piece, but you have to remember how ephemeral something like this is.
These would have been used at a Halloween party, set at your place to provide a little snack while you awaited the remaining guests to arrive. They would have been thrown away at the end of the party, but someone decided to hang onto this little guy.
Noted Halloween collector and historian Mark Ledenbach identifies the die cut as made by American Colortype Company of Chicago and dated no later than 1936. It's possible someone used a diecut to DIY a nut cup, but I suspect these were sold by the same company for that purpose.
I always love finding things like this that were never meant to last, just because nobody typically thought they were worth keeping. How did this survive? Did some kid bring this home from a party, tuck it in a book, and forget about it for decades? Who knows, but it's great that some things hang on this long.
ReplyDeleteWow very cool. I think $4 was a steal.
ReplyDeleteI think so too, and the fact it was still there when I arrived a couple hours into the sale was a surprise to me.
DeleteQuite a miracle it has lasted so long! Maybe it's cursed ...
ReplyDeleteI never thought of that...
DeleteWow. This thing surviving 90+ years is amazing and certainly worth $4. I almost feel like it belongs in a museum. It had to have some sentimental value to have been kept so long and survive so many clean-outs.
ReplyDeleteIt always amazes me some of the things people hang onto, even more obscure than something like this. I haven't been able to find an example of this nut cup beyond the diecut portion, so it has to be fairly rare. It's in my museum now. :)
DeleteSomehow this reminds me of my childhood in the 80s.
ReplyDelete