It seems the olden days of Halloweening had a lot more to offer by way of unique decorations and interesting finds. Stores these days seem to offer less and have more stuff that's shiny and powdered with glitter.
So I was thinking about what would be my Holy Grail by way of walking into a store and seeing a Halloween decoration/item that would make me gasp and pray it was affordable.
For me, I think it would be some unique ceramic jack o'lantern with an incredible face and a unique finish... or some kind of creepy wall mask, like the one Peter Vincent had hanging in his apartment... or something like this vintage metal Devil ash tray (but in wall art form).
What's your Halloween Holy Grail?
31 comments:
I would say any sort of sleepy hollow horseman decoration, or the old school blow mold cat with a pumpkin on its back. I would love to see them re issued in some form.
That reminded me, I need to order on of those headstone blow molds from the stranger things trailer!
Anything that makes my house feel more like a home that the Addams family would be proud of. Artifacts that look like they were freshly imported from the Amazon's black market. Books that you can't open, and somehow don't even want to open. Creepy, scary, and real-feeling.
I'm with you, I have been searching for a really cool ceramic jack-o-lantern for years. I can't seem to find one!
I’m fascinated by the skeleton system, human or animal, so I often visit obscure shops in search of specimens. Also vintage (40’s-50’s) Halloween posters and paper cut outs. The graphics and colors were so amazing back then.
Maybe a real vintage Krampus mask. Carved out of wood.
Or a vintage papier-mâché trick or treat skull or jacko.
It would definitely be a wall hanging. Something that would be on the large size, rustic looking, something that would catch a persons eye as soon as they walked in, and said person would be captivated by the whole design. Has to be artistically dark too.
Dammit, I think my Halloween Holy Grail just got expensive............
Aside from a Rot-made swamp lantern or some other cool handmade thing, there's one item I've always wished for.
It's a simple one, but this vintage Beistle skeleton cat.
http://www.churchofhalloween.com/wp-content/gallery/beistle/beistle-skeleton-cat.png
Pretty sure it's long out of print. There are other variations on the idea, but this one has a lean menace to it that I just love.
I'm thinking some sort of ornate old grandfather clock adorned with chiseled ghosts and skeletons. Dark, polished wood and a gold jack o'lantern swinging behind rippled, ancient glass. And low, atonal bells that chime on the hour... or maybe just at midnight.
Theo, that'd be quite the find.
The price: One Human Soul.
I've always wanted an old-fashioned hearse and a full-size wooden coffin. Of very high quality but, you know affordable, and coming with their own storage space, that could be magically added to my mine.
I would so love to find one of those old, pumpkin parade lanterns. The kind that is made of metal and holds a candle inside and is on a staff that children would hold above their heads when they dressed in costume for the Halloween parade.... That is my holly grail of Halloween finds. I know they have some on Ebay, but to stumble upon one at an antique store or garage sale....that would make my whole year!! It would be like finding that perfect, undamaged shell, just lying on the beach after being tossed in the waves for decades. So perfect!
Uh....anything by pumpkinrot! Your zombies in particular. <3
It seems the golden age of Halloween items from decorations, props, costumes, and masks was in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000's. I would say around 2005 is when I noticed the offerings were becoming more, as you said Rot, "Shiny" and less realistic. When I was young, I really enjoyed all the Foam Blowmolds from Trendmasters and Paper Magic grp along with the unique wall decor. I remember going to stores like Michael's MJ Designs and seeing those giant items stand out like a beacon to the season. Also, Spencer Gifts always had a great selection of oversized masks, costumes, and props that as a young child, could never afford and my parents would never buy for me. I can remember standing in the mall outside a Spencers Gifts starring at the window display's of life sized Gag Studios props and giant Illusive Concepts masks and being in awe of it all.
I can go on all day about those days when the stores had such great stuff. Every year, I see less and less realistic well made items. I really hope that the resurgence of vintage items brings these treasures back. Nothing made me smile more than walking into a store, racing to the seasonal section and seeing those unique foam pumpkins light up a section of Halloween. As far a a Holy Grail, I would say those items I have of find from my child hood. Though to say which ones...
Very cool.
I recall those SPENCER GIFTS days as well. And SEARS, of all places, had some kind of weird front area called Halloween Headquarters...that's where I bought my first Michael Myers mask...THE MASK....
Man, I'm seeing some good ones on here. Grandfather clock, hearse and coffin, metal lanterns......
.Good Stuff.
I have to agree with your comment regarding the olden days of Halloweening having had a lot more to offer by way of unique decorations and interesting finds. Halloween decorations and props found in the chain stores now are so homogenized. Each year the selection seems to lessen and so does the quality. Sometimes it feels like the stores are just phoning it in for Halloween and want to skip from "Back To School" straight into Christmas decor. For me a really great latex monster mask is my holy grail. I remember when some of the party and Halloween chain stores would carry highly detailed latex masks that were painstakingly painted. Now the masks appear to made of stiff vinyl, are painted maybe using 3 or 4 colors at best, and were produced in the thousands instead of few dozen or a hundred. The really good collector's grade masks now have to come from small studios online and cost a fortune.
I have two Halloween Holy Grails:
1. Any super awesome yard or porch decoration that lights up at night and stores easily during the off-season.
2. Halloween decorations based on characters or scenes from the book "The Legend of Decimus Croome: A Halloween Carol." I'd love to be able to find a life-sized blow-up of that wicked scarecrow that Croome saw at the top of the stairs in chapter 3 or the jack-o-lantern headed spirit of Halloween past or the shape-shifting witch that was the spirit of Halloween present. Any of the characters would be awesome. I'm going to try making a replica of the graveyard scene toward the end of the book.
The time machine would take me back to Dennison's Golden Age in the 1910's and '20's and I could get everything in the Bogie Books, especially the crepe folds in all the wonderful designs (but I''d load up on cut-outs, seals, and all the rest, too).
Yes, anything authentically vintage to add to my collection. I really fell in love with plastics and I too enjoy the plastic witches with the caulderons and cats attached (as someone mentioned). I also really dig collecting original plastics with candy still in them from the 1930's. It REALLY feels like a trip back in time. I have a few but if I found a beautiful piece with candy still inside, AND it was afforable....well, it would be mine.
And I'd like to add to my list...
To find the two jack o'lanterns used in Tales from the Darkside's TRICK OR TREAT episode... I'd die.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZzhKqCSNjzw/SER-b_bTR1I/AAAAAAAABzM/IjrYgXp_SSs/s1600-h/ToT1.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZzhKqCSNjzw/SER_v_bTR9I/AAAAAAAAB0M/NW4mqOpTUik/s1600-h/ToT6.jpg
Side note: I had totally forgotten about Tales from the Darkside til you posted about it recently and since then the husband and I have been binge watching all episodes via YouTube. Love it. And as always, the comments are gold. Our favorite is A Case of the Stubborns. LOVE.
Rot, with your talents I'm sure you could take a still from those ToT jols and replicate it with great accuracy...probably better.
As for me......
A Pumpkinrot sentinel.
A cement pumpkin done life size and in great detail. Saw one at a garden show and fell in love.
Horse-drawn hearse.
Ornate victorian child's coffin and family coffin quilt
I must add the ultimate Halloween Holy Grail would be a hearse. I NEED a hearse.
Even though a Pumpkinrot scarecrow or sentinel would be pretty AWESOME. Put that on my list too.
haha
I totally have my Holy Grail- finding that 2008 groundbreaker you made for sale last week made my Halloween dream come true! Now to find ROOTS from Mr Jones in a storage locker-
Wow, that is a difficult question!! Those masks are definitely awesome. (You should make some, Rot!)
I'd definitely LOVE to find a store that's just totally full of Halloween antiques. It'd also be amazing to find Halloween items designed in a gothic cathedral style--creepy stained-glass windows, ornate candelabras, and early medieval paintings of the devil...
As much as I'd love to own a Blind Sentinel...I know that isn't gonna happen. About a year ago I bought a reproduction of the Beistle stringed silhouettes, they look exactly like the ones that hung across my parents front picture window when I was a kid. 5 years before that I was able to find a Cooper Darth Vader costume. Not long from now I should be receiving the closest reproduction yet of the original glove worn by Robert Englund as Fred Krueger in the original '84 classic. These 3 things virtually cover every aspect of Halloween for me, growing up. I couldn't ask for much more. A friend of mine owns one of those limited edition Pumpkinhead replicas...and that thing is breathtaking, so I suppose that would be up there.
This would of course be the Glenn Strange Frankenstein blow mold candy bucket..
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/b5/40/63/b540630cd303aba2d1a031ef283c9da8--frankenstein-halloween-horror-vintage.jpg
If Calli Lee's stuff actually became affordable.
wOw man. this is a great & most difficult question.
yesteryear for sure. Victoriana is my weakness. but, really, there are so many other falvours that are as equally beautiful. i think the one thing that is a certain, is you can actually stumble upon some cool Halloween item ANYWHERE. never say never, check everywhere when the chance arises.
i do LOVE those old Fortune Teller booths. OMG..they really do make my heart beat faster. even those: Gemmy spirit (crystal) balls really grab me. hahahahaha. there's sucha wide variety of them to choose from.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142504579094?vectorid=229466&item=142504579094&rmvSB=true
https://picclick.ca/Spirit-Ball-2007-Gemmy-Halloween-Prop-Sound-Activated-332343896747.html
& man...just watched the Village again & what i wouldn't give for the "those we don't speak of" creature suit. omg.
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