Time Capsule Ghosts

Does excluding the knowledge of other fields in turn affect our current understanding of certain vintage collectibles? I would attest that while each of us may have familiarity to large catalogues of past imagery (for example vintage decor images by Beistle, Dennison, Gibson, etc.), we should also ask if we (myself included) fully understand the historical context of their appearance. For example, do we know the full extent of design processes, merchandise production, and business operations ---- all of which are extremely important to properly assess time-capsule discoveries of Halloween items. If we ignore external and/or related variables we might create a powerful but incorrect interpretation.

Just to play devil's advocate (with no reference to current listings) what follows is historical fiction that assumes minimal yet practical knowledge of the past employees of Gibson and Dennison. Note that photography sub-titles are actual, and images link to source material. And the portraits drawn here are based from this factual photography.

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A Tale of Two Employees

Hallie Wiene was hired in the 1910's by the Gibson factory along with a thousand+ head-count of other employees. She performed light assembly and packed orders for millions of manufactured cards and diecuts that rolled off the assembly lines. (Departments such as printing or die-cutting with their multi-ton machinery were separate, while high-profile jobs like creative design, marketing, and sales were also elsewhere in separated offices).

Above: a group of women focus their attention on their work while employed by the Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, ca.1910s (Cincinnati Museum Center/Getty Images).

Hallie loved the beautiful designs. During her employment, she squirreled away quite a collection of damaged and/or overstock items that otherwise would have entered the trash bin. She wondered what it would be like to design such products. With some of her small collection, she would cut and paste them, to use as decoration for parties at the office.

Above: 1912. South Framingham, Massachusetts. Two mothers, three children, working on tags for Dennison. Children anemic. Make $10 (more or less) a month. (Library of Congress).

Hallie's distant relative, Glenda, worked for Dennison. Hallie envied Glenda's ability to work from home, but Glenda was far removed from company life. Glenda's employer was large, at one time employing over 3,000 with offices and manufacturing located in different cities, different states. Glenda was somewhat crafty, but she was a world away from viewing the important sketchbooks and pre-die mock-ups created by the all-too distant design team. (She never learned the names of these designers, and that would have been a truly important discovery!) Glenda and children were sometimes gifted the damaged and/or excess stock, and the family sometimes altered the decorations for their parties at home.

Above: Macaroni all spread out on table being cut. Tag tying (for Dennison) going on at same table. 1912. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine (Library of Congress archive).

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Are these portraits plausible? Again, the portraits are built on factual images yet the above is historical fiction, and offered merely as counterpoint to exuberant dreams that sometimes riddle the world of collectibles. These portraits are welcome to grow and change as we gather more facts about employee life at these companies...

Earlier entries on this blog which examine assumption and reality include: Halloween Diecut Quiz (that reviews our knowledge of the diecut process), Bogie Books | Bogus Bindings (that questions assumptions of book publishing), as well as Halloween in Germany:1955 (from a series of entries questioning the production/availability history of German-made diecuts).

Hallowe'en Panorama

Hallowe'en crepe paper (and it's ephemera relatives - napkins, paper plates, cups, etc.), is in some ways the forgotten art form of vintage Hallowe'en, and the great variety of these prints mostly absent from many modern books on collectibles. Dennison's Bogie Books offer a resource from their own company catalog, but a full visual retrospective of multiple companies' work could fill an entire collector's book of richly bizarre patterns. It would be a welcome addition if someone out there surveyed these amazing works!

One amazing snippet from this neglected history is listed as a Panoramic Crepe in the 1921 Bogie Book - H108 Hallowe'en Design  (fold 10 ft. long without repetition of design).  It can be seen appearing for a few years in the Bogie Books, and is here (image below) used as a table skirt. Amazing to imagine how these now precious paper designs were sliced up to make other displays. Directly below this "decorating suggestion" is a slow un-rolling photograph of the design left to right.

Bogie Book decorating suggestion - 1921.

For more Halloween crepe paper patterns check out Rise & Fall Of the House of Crepes and for a little something about the challenges of maintaining these fragile works see Halloween Humidification Horrors! If you know of any good visual surveys on paper party-good designs for crepe, napkins, cups, etc., don't hesitate to share the link. 

Halloween Fence Centerpiece

digital mock-up created from photo of fence/pumpkin pieces

Here's a vintage decoration set that gets generally pooh-poohed by some time-wearied collectors, however those with less discriminating eyes will have an instant fondness for the design and the roughly executed graphics seen on boxes or the instructions (shown below). The label depicts a picket fence posted with a weathered sign in turn illustrating the kit's arrangement featuring one large pumpkin peeking out from black-rimmed eyes. These were Dennison centerpiece kits that included a box of orange crepe-grass, classic cat/fence silhouettes of at least 2 different lengths, pumpkins to prop between fence slats, and a large air-fillable paper pumpkin. (The expanding pumpkin was somewhat like these paper balloons from Japan).

actual product label

Although I attempted to find something more about the long history of the Dennison company, these recent articles of the company's unfortunate demise may be of interest...

Jan. 20, 2013 - Framingham unearths decades of Dennison memories. 

April 7, 2013 - Framingham Departure On The Horizon For 169-Year Old Avery Dennison

November 15, 2014 - VIDEO and SLIDESHOW: Dennison Manufacturing Exhibit at Framingham History Center The public is invited to see the exhibit starting today, Nov. 15.

Bogie Books | Bogus Bindings

As a tip to new collectors, when able, consider this --- introduce yourself to certain items from a collector's stash before bidding and/or spending the big bucks on true vintage. If you don't have a local collector at hand, then looking around the market may offer other options: an antique store, an annual holiday/antique show, or an online venue. From personal experience, I madly craved celluloids for the amazing details; however, once I held (directly from a collector's shelf) these small objects with their seemingly light, fragile and generally dissatisfying material my yearning was tempered. I'm now content admiring most celluloid collectibles in photographs until the right opportunity.

Dennison's Bogie Book 11th Ed. (1923)

One collectable series (shown above) that offers an option for pre-collecting observation is the 1910's-1920's Dennison's Bogie Book (holiday idea booklets showcasing the manufacturer's product). While at this writing it's likely you can find scanned versions of these to peruse (sometimes on etsy) - there are others on ebay listing these in a printed softcover (different enough in quality, paper, etc., yet offering the original content). I got a 2nd hand batch of these, and they are enjoyable and informative while seeking deals on originals.

If you like what you've seen firsthand, wouldn't that then be the logical point to start collecting? Once you do start collecting Bogie Books, I would consider the following information below. (Note - I have added one point to my introduction list of reasons to write this blog --- #5 Question everything.)

Bogie Books were originally printed in softcover, yet there do exist library bound versions (as noted in collector guides). While it might seem logical that a hardcover is more valuable (with guides reflecting a hardcover valued at almost 3x the price), the Bogie Book example may not be normal for book collectors. As noted in Book Collecting: Illustrated glossary of terms, edition, & condition: "Lending libraries sometimes re-bind books into a heavier, more durable binding [...] which will stand up the heavy use to which library books are often subjected. [...] Collectors usually avoid library-bindings, since the book has been drastically altered." Therefore, you just may be getting a better deal buying less expensive softcover originals, over potentially mis-valued hardcovers.

Update 1-31-2016: It was recently proposed that some Bogie Book hardbacks may be trade editions due to the absence of library markings. Trade edition simply means an edition of a book offered for sale to the general public in book stores (wikipedia). Question --- would it follow logically that a book was sold in a book store because of absent markings? This would mean Dennison took a magazine-style catalog and turned it into a prebound book for book store sales. What is the evidence of this? In either case prebound is still an alternation of the original edition. One would continue to wonder if this destroys the value in either instance as stated above. But the great concern - if an original paperback and these prebound versions were undifferentiated by the publisher - who is to prevent anyone from creating fake "prebound" copies?

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