Victorian Halloween Greeting Card: Witch Cauldron & Owl

A hunched figure in a green pointed hat and layered skirts hovers motionlessly beside a flaming cauldron with a broom on the ground and a black cat at her feet — the energy of someone who showed up to a potluck and is just standing near the food. An owl judges the whole scene from a bare tree branch beneath a full moon while bats circle overhead, and a banner helpfully reminds the recipient to 'Beware of ye wiles of Satan' — a sentiment that, in 2024, would get you blocked, but in the Edwardian era apparently passed as a charming seasonal hello. Artist E.C. Banks signed this masterpiece of festive theological anxiety, which means someone's name is permanently attached to the most unhinged Halloween card ever mass-produced.