Herding Black Cats for Sale

Vintage Halloween Collectibles
from Bindlegrim on Etsy

Thirteen black cats (above) give or take recent additions (below) minus some recent adoptions - appeared for sale on the Bindlegrim Etsy shoppe over these last couple of days (February 2026). And please note that these are only listed for a limited time... until February 28th... when a different thematic batch (of Halloween characters) take their place.

Multiple vintage Halloween collectible black cats
have made there way to the Bindlegrim Etsy shoppe.

Again, these vintage Halloween collector items are separate from the research library of THR or other ventures from the Bindlegrim personalities. There is no requirement to purchase any guidebooks from THR's archive nor buy a subscription, membership, cross-country travel tickets, etc. That said, if you love new discoveries about old things - check out THR's store link on Etsy. There are now six books --- four wordy digests, and two art picture surveys - all offering data from the archive's nearly 650 vintage catalog library.

Six new best-selling guidebooks getting five-star reviews 

from vintage Halloween collector seeking market research.

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Are you new to The Halloween Retrospect? THR, after 2+ years of publishing, now offers a six-book research library of data based on sources (such as those above) rather than second-hand guesses that have riddled the collector environment! THR books now include two art-book-style surveys Halloween Artifacts, V1: Lighting and Halloween Artifacts, V2 Festoons as well as four article-based digests The Halloween Retrospect Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4. For a small niche publisher – THR is happy to celebrate sales of 400 books – see also @halloweenretrospecs on Instagram. 

THR Etsy book shop listing w/six digests and art books.

Two art books sold together, for vintage Halloween collectors.

Halloween digests offer collectibles info not found elsewhere.

See the Instagram post (below from @halloweenretrrospecs) for additional detail views of these vintage Halloween collectibles by Beistle. There are nearly 50 original envelopes (most with original content) of various products ranging from complete party outfits to individual envelopes for select items such as invitations, etc. (Note that the quite a few are vertically stacked, at top right, to fit the space - so perhaps a future photo will include the front image of all those shelved there).

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By the way, many of these were saved from the moldering backing pages of a salesman sample book that THR has not previously shown in its own various printed or online materials. These items were carefully removed by a paper expert some years ago, and THR is forever grateful for their expertise. 

As for current THR archive storage, someone had asked how these items were currently stored for preservation. My current favorite containers are called Crystal Clear from clearbags.com online made of BOPP/OPP which is considered an archive safe material. The company offers tons of sizes (thoough you may have to manually adjust if you have a great deal of variously sized items). For the interior, I cut pieces of 2ply museum board to support the vintage item which means (in case of these fragile envelopes) I put the envelope on one side and contents on the other - offering extra protection through separation (below). Unfortunately a bit of glare is the problem after that which can make photography a bit of a problem... 

Ghoul with three pumpkins likely by Whitney.

Meanwhile, the digital records of that Beistle sampler (in addition to the actual items that were saved from the original deteriorating container) are still referenced by THR for various hints and revelations that the original layout provide. It was used a primary source with Halloween Artifacts, Volume 2: Festoons. If you are interested in an older THR publication - please check out The Halloween Retrospect on Etsy.

#13: The Fates for Summer 2025

Arriving for Summer 2025 there is a new Bindlegrim Halloween 12-side collapsible  German-style lantern (#13 - The Fates) seen most recently on @Bindlegrim (IG). This one will have an edition of seven - and unusually combines both lighting with a fortune game.

The lantern continues the Bindlegrim limited-edition series of industrial-method panels made of sturdy 2-ply museum board that reveals laser-print vellum panes - made in mind of no-heat LED lights or small battery candles.As for the fortunes there are six pre-told visions that slip into the bottom panes. These fortunes were penned by Bindlegrim under divine inspiration from The Fates - so he takes no responsibility for their snarky witchery!

Bindlegrim 2025 vintage-style Halloween - The Fates (top).

Bindlegrim 2025 vintage-style Halloween - The Fates (bottom).

By the way, about the imagery... while two of the faces were directly inspired by Gibson Art Co. (and givewn some artistic embellishments by Bindlegrim) Halloween collectors will notice six different expressions. Bindlegrim expanded upon her apparent acting repertoire to include the basic human expressions which some theorize to include anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. (The original Gibson witch seems to have felt happiness and disgust).

Lantern detail: witch expressions of disgust and fear.

Lantern detail: witch expressions of happiness and surprise.

Lantern detail: witch expressions of sadness and anger.

Bindlegrim lantern 2025 - #13 The Fates w/fortunes.

Bindlegrim is producing these right now - clearing up a few snags along the way - but expects these arriving soon for sale on the Bindlegrim etsy shop, likely along with some older Bindlegrim from the past which may be in stock still. Some of the older designs are seen on this blog and @bindlegrim on Instagram.

Working on label design for The Fates by Bindlegrim.

By the way, have you been keeping up with Bindlegrim these past couple of year? Bindlegrim recently created for THR some industrial style vintage products (below) based on 1940's faux stained glass window products. The new items are true to the general feel of vintage pieces, but cannot be mistaken as such (as with other Bindlegrim productions) due to a deliberate difference in size, imagery, color, and production.  Much like the lantern (above) the windows are made of 2-ply museum board but with in this case use colored tissue paper. For more images see THR's website or THR's online book shop (or even via Instagram @halloweenretrospecs), but note Bindledgrim is not selling these - they are free with a copy of THR's newest edition of research from its archive library publications on Etsy. 

Dual-side faux stained glass paper window (2 shown) for THR.

THR, V4 featuring an homage window by Bindlegrim

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1,2,3,4 & Halloween Artifacxts.

Well, to close this blog entry, Bindlegrim notes this vintage-style artist has had the pleasure of being involved with Volume 1 and Volume 4 digests above, but is happy to return once again creating vintage-style decorations that bring olde Halloween to modern times. 

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Halloween Stained Glass Window

 

Bindlegrim is very excited to be back exploring the warm glow of autumn light... with a special Halloween Window created as a one-time insert included only as a freebie with each copy of the new vintage Halloween collectibles guide The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4. To start then, let's just begin this blog entry with various arty views of the windows, at times together with the book set as described via THR's etsy bookstore or recent blog entry "Vol 4 Halloween Retrospect."

Dual-side faux stained glass paper window (2 shown) for THR.

Not to scale: window shown (right) with book trio inset (left).

Faux stained glass windows assembled by hand are limited.

Detail of matte color tissue paper that creates a warm glow.

Following is a description for these windows --- importantly noting once again that they are not-for-sale on their own, but only included as a free insert with copies of the March 2025 vintage Halloween collectibles guidebook series The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4. (Etsy link here).

To begin, Bindlegrim designs are inspired by research pursued by THR that proves the originals to be vintage 1940's products created by Milton Bradley. Those originals hail from a time that included well-known art contributors (such as Louise D. Tessin) when the company is regularly involved in education (not only entertainment) and regularly publishing a magazine for educators called American Childhood. (Internet Archive link here). And while the new items are true to the general feel of vintage pieces, the modern Halloween Window cannot be mistaken as such, because Bindlegrim's version is deliberately different in size, imagery, color, and production method (and collages the four characters into one space). 

As for construction, the Bindlegrim versions are made of a thick 2-ply museum board frame which has been laser cut by the artist yet hand-assembled in the final steps. Still, the result is a doubled-sided decoration with colored tissue paper inside (very old school) which by result means either side is equally presentable as front or perhaps simultaneously from both sides at once. The tissue paper glows with a brilliant color while the framework remains strong and steady.

But again, this is part of a set (shown below) and Bindledgrim is not selling these - they are free with a copy of THR's newest edition of research from its archive library publications.

THR, V4 is shown here with book, crossword, and decoration.

A little bit about vintage Halloween collectibles guides are in order here, particularly the newest book that releases March 2025 by THR. If you are not familiar with THR publications - basically the archive library publishes research that utilizes many hundreds of primary sources from its collection - to better understand the history of ye olde holiday market. So far there have been four research digests and one art survey book (with more planned in future). The newest of these digests is The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4 with book cover shown below (see THR's website or THR's online book shop).   

Cover art for The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4 by THR publications.

While many preview images of the book are available THR's website or THR's online book shop (or even via Instagram @halloweenretrospecs) here are a few to make sure this blog entry is complete...  

Page preview of The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4.

The Halloween Retrospect, V4 book, puzzle & decor.

THR, V4 featuring an homage window by Bindlegrim

Well, to close this blog entry, Bindlegrim might advise that while this vintage-style artist has had the pleasure of being involved with Volume 1 and Volume 4 digests... THR since it's first release in June 2023 has five books now full of data or images about vintage Halloween collectibles of the past. They are great references for seasoned or new collectors of the hobby.... and here is an up-to-date image of those that the bookstore currently offers:

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1,2,3,4 & Halloween Artifacxts.

Hope you enjoy and if you do, perhaps Bindlegrim will continue to explore such Halloween lighting projects in future!?!?

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Project for THR Volume 1

Okay, okay, so brushing past the fact that Bindlegrim made the mistake of waking up in the real world  (with things like stale coffee, office banter, and dangerous commutes) seems it all just put hin back to sleep, dreaming about the garden at Ichabod's Cottage to see if there's a pumpkin vine or two still crawling along the ground. And so this little project came to be...

First of all, for sure, Bindlegrim loves vintage Halloween! With so many direct influences from vintage objects on Bindlegrim's artwork for lanterns, postcards,  etc., there was destined to be some kind of project that involved that olde stuff more directly. Looks like this is it. An archive library, The Halloween Retrospect, houses a whole bunch of vintage information objects (including content from nearly 500 vintage catalogs) and decided to put together a small digest of research from those sources. Of course, that's going to need some work on the book (particularly the cover), and then there's the website, creating a logo, and on and on. But, well, it's all ready now, and here to share. 

So, Bindlegrim had fun at first revisiting some old ghouls from an early lantern, and found this witch face from the very first lantern prototype in 2011.

4 sides of Bindlegrim prototype lantern from 2011

Once in a layout, she took over and let the scene coalesce around her..., and here is the cover for the book which should be available around end of July and/or beginning of August. (It's ready but has a layout bug that needs fixing). 

Cover art for The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 by Bindlegrim

That offered a chance to do something more with the art, to offer the books a little extra something to go with them. From out of the cover art, four bookmark-tallies were created to accompany the mailer. Here they are below:

Set of 4 bookmark-tallies, an extra with official copies of the book.

The book also comes with an 11"x17" fold out poster featuring a 1926 Halloween ad of products for schools (very fun stuff), and has some nice color and black and white illustrations across 32 pages. It's a 9"x6" publication, much like those old novelty catalogs, and is sure to have some good info for those into vintage Halloween collectibles. Here are some sneak peek images:

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1, with poster and 4 tally cards.

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1, with poster and 4 tally cards.

Oh, and last but not least, Bindlegrim put together a little website for the project: https://halloweenretrospect.com, and the logo below is a link there. Hope you enjoy the return of Bindlegrim, and the book...!