Halloween Revisited -- Beistle Halloween Pirate Die Cuts

As with last year, I'll be reposting some past favorites (of mine) throughout the month on the weekends.  These diecuts are still a favorite of mine and at the time I thought I overspent on them (they were $10 each), but I'm glad I picked them up because I haven't seen them since.  Here they are in this year's display.

***Originally posted October 3, 2016

 These early Beistle die cuts are probably my favorite ones found this year.

Nutty Jack O' Lantern

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.

Die Cut Blow Out

Well, once again we find ourselves at the day before THE day.  Traditionally on this blog, today is the end of garage sale content with tomorrow reserved for photos of my home haunt.  Believe it or not, our outside still isn't decorated (as of writing this).  We had a new roof put on a little over a week ago (tornado damage last March) and I didn't want the decorations damaged by flying shingles.  Then it began raining (after a 3 month drought). And raining. And raining.  Today (10/30) is supposed to be cloudy but dry, so I'm going to go into overdrive and get the outside decorated.  Hopefully photos tomorrow will prove I was successful.

But for today, I thought I'd do a photo dump of all the diecuts I have heretofore not shown on this blog.  Some of these are from this past season, others I've found in prior years, but never posted (to my knowledge. Honestly, I didn't go through the blog and look).

Up first is a find from this year.  It's a giant version of the classic Beistle skeleton, measuring in at 54" tall.  I picked him up for $10 which I thought was a good deal.

Beistle Nite-Glo Ghost Diecuts

This trio of glow-in-the-dark ghosts comes from Beistle in the 1980's and were known as Nite-Glo Ghosts.

Beistle Wiggling Witch

I hit a pretty good sale with some nice vintage Halloween diecuts this past Spring.  Oddly enough, there was only one other person looking through them. Unfortunately, that person got there just before me and grabbed some of the best pieces.  They left behind any that were damaged, so I was glad to save those.  The damage doesn't bother me.  This one has some tape tears, but I think it still looks great.

While the piece isn't marked, I can see by the art that it's a Beistle and various auctions for this piece corroborate that, at least for what that's worth.  It was also suggested she dates from the 1940's which I would agree with. I couldn't find her in either of my reference books.  

The witch stands 14" tall and is jointed at the neck and waist, allowing her to perform a nice little jig when wiggled.

Dennison Skeleton Diecut

This Dennison Skeleton appears to have had a rough life.  Screws in his femur, a plate on his pelvis and even some string holding his humerus together.  Of course, he has nothing on Evel Knievel.

Mondays are to Die(cut) For - Dennison Witch

This huge Dennison Witch diecut was another find at the Halloween collector estate sale.  She's a little worse for wear, but vary rare to find.  She stands a whopping 67" tall.

Mondays are to Die Cut For - Detour

This odd Beistle die cut dates to the 1930s and has similar coloring to the singing cat die cut shown in last Monday's post and in fact was part of the same set.  The full 12-piece set is featured on page 151 of Mark Ledenbach's 3rd Edition of "Vintage Halloween Collectibles".

It features 2 "scratch cats" seemingly stuck in traffic. I know how they feel.

Mondays are to Die(Cut) For

Welcome to day 2.  I thought I'd introduce a new feature here called "Mondays are to Die(Cut) For".  Each Monday, I'll post a new Halloween die cut I found in the past year.  I may post more than one at a time, because it was a pretty good year.

This first die cut certainly isn't my best find of the year, but there's a story that goes with the other ones I found and frankly, I don't have time to tell it.  Stay tuned.

Anyway, today's die cut is a ferocious kitty.  I'm not sure if this is cute or horrifying.

This isn't terribly vintage and I've said before I'm not a big fan of the "cute" die cuts that began appearing in the 70's and pretty much took over by the 80's.  This one seems to be a transition piece.  It has the cute pumpkins and bats and the cat is almost cute, but frankly, it looks like it would tear you to pieces if you ran into it on a dark night.

A (Hay) Seed of Truth

Dennison produced this Pa and Ma Pumpkin set of diecuts in 1964.  You can tell this is "Pa" by his broken and repaired glasses and by the ubiquitous hay stem clenched in his mouth. 

Eureka Clown and Ghost Trick or Treaters

This is another Eureka piece I picked up in the past couple months. I bought it at the same sale where I found the owl. 

Dennison Die Cuts

The Dennison Manufacturing Company of Framingham, Massachusetts was established in 1844 as a maker of paper jewelry boxes.  When Halloween became popular just after the turn of the 20th century, they began manufacturing party decorations.  By the early teens they were publishing party guides known as Bogie Books that told how to throw the perfect Halloween party and just happened to sell the necessary supplies.

These Dennison Die Cuts date from much later.  The first two die cuts date from the 1960's and are the large versions measuring 16" tall.

Honeycomb Pumpkin

My earliest memories of honeycomb holiday decorations are of the Hallmark Thanksgiving Turkey my mom would put out as a centerpiece on our dining room table.  My sister and I would fight over who got to assemble it.  We didn't have any Halloween decorations outside of my own drawings and school art projects.

It wouldn't be until as an adult I began collecting vintage Halloween I would discover how many different honeycomb Halloween decorations were produced.  I'll be showing some of those I found over the past year in upcoming posts.  Today, we'll start with the old reliable pumpkin.  "25" is stamped on this particular pumpkin reflecting the original price of a quarter.

Witch Diecut with (some) Crepe Hair

Another die cut from the lot I bought at this estate sale is this Beistle witch.  She probably dates from the 1960's.  

She too suffers from the years with creases and hair loss.  Pretty much like myself.

Beistle Creeping Cat

At the same sale where I found yesterday's die cut, I found this Beistle creeping cat.

Black (Cat) Gold

This find from a few months back just goes to show there's still some gold to be found in the wild.

Amscan Spider Honeycomb Die Cut

This honeycomb spider die cut is made by Amscan and is probably dates from the 1970's to '80's, given its "Made in Taiwan" marking.

Amscan's corporate site hasn't been updated much in the way of history since the last time I wrote about it, however, I found additional information on the company and its founder from other sites.

Despite the corporate site's "About Us" stating "Our founders were American and Scandinavian…hence AMSCAN", the only founder I was able to identify was Elvera Svenningsen who started the business with $1,000 out of the family garage.  Elvera was married to Anders Svenningsen, clearly a Scandinavian name. Maybe Elvera was "American", although no mention is made of Anders playing a role in the company.  Elvera was an importer of honeycomb party decorations and "expendable turkeys"; I'm assuming the paper kind.

Amscan was eventually taken over by Elvera's son John who operated it until his passing in 1996.  John's children were not interested in the company, so it was taken over by employees who took the company public.  It has since expanded and even purchased Party City in 2005, the company that was once it's biggest customer.

Disco, Disco Die Cut

I found these well-worn die cuts in the basement of an estate sale marked at 50 cents each.  

Peck Skeleton Die Cut

It was hard finding an example of this flocked skeleton die cut by Peck.  The only way I was able to identify it as Peck was by the head which was available as a separate die cut.  I believe it dates from the 1980's, so I wouldn't expect it to be very scarce.

I found it at a garage sale for $1 which goes to show there's still some great stuff out there.

American Greetings Witch Die Cut

This past year's sales have produced a few new additions to my die cut collection including this witch from the 1980's by American Greetings below. 

For the most part, the 1980's produced a lot of wide-eyed black kittens, sugary pumpkins and friendly ghost die cuts from Beistle, Peck and others.  This die cut provides a little more scare than those and while it lacks the embossing of older die cuts, it does come with some good detail.