Vintage Postcard Gallery

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II – 1977

2012-06-01T16:11:00.000+02:00

This lovely full length portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was taken by photographer Peter Grugeon F.R.P.S. at the time of Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and was issued as a commemorative postcard by John Hinde Ltd. She is wearing a tiara hung with pendant pearls known as the 'Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara', which was allegedly smuggled out of Russia during the Russian Revolution, whilst her necklace was originally created to honour Queen Victoria during her Golden Jubilee in 1887. The pale pink Royal Family Order of King George VI is seen pinned to the blue sash just below her the left-hand shoulder, with the pale blue Royal Family Order of King George V, of which Queen Elizabeth II is the only surviving member, immediately below it.

I remember that particular Jubilee, celebrating Queen Elizabeth's first 25 years on the throne, very well – it was one of the first Royal occasions to have made a real impression on me as a child, with summer street parties and Union Jack bunting flying everywhere.

This year, of course, sees the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II with celebrations throughout 2012 marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. In the UK a four-day holiday this weekend will honour her Diamond Jubilee, coinciding with the Queen's Official Birthday on 4 June. Hip Hip Hooray!

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Find more vintage postcards over at Beth's postcard blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy and join other collectors on Postcard Friendship Friday.

The Sheraton-Lincoln Hotel – 1957

2012-05-04T21:00:00.003+02:00

Vintage hotel advertising postcards are a fun specialisation for postcard collectors as they really seem to sum up the fashions of the day so beautifully – the advertising blurb on the back of the card will be sure to list all the mod cons, whilst the image often shows not only the hotel, but local sites too. This Plastichrome postcard printed by major Boston publisher Colourpicture (active 1938-1969) featuring the Sheraton-Lincoln Hotel in Indianapolis is a classic: all the Indianapolis landmarks are there – the downtown skyline, the 284-foot Soldiers and Sailors' Monument, and of course, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway illustrated by a wonderful 1950s racing car - whilst the reverse of the postcard promises “Free Sheraton Hotel Reservations” via the quaint-sounding and today very nearly obsolete “Teletype”.

The hotel itself, however, is the star of the show. Formerly known as simply the Hotel Lincoln, it was built in 1917-1918 by Chicago-school architects Rubush & Hunter, and was situated at 2 Kentucky Avenue. The tallest flatiron building ever built in Indianapolis, it was sadly demolished in 1973 to make way for the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis/PNC Center.

For comfort, convenience and sincere hospitality it's Sheraton-Lincoln – in the heart of Indianapolis. Each room has private bath, television, radio and circulating ice water. Air-conditioned guest rooms in season.

The postcard is rather flimsy and was probably issued as part of a picture booklet as the top edge has been cut in a way that accidentally includes a little of the following image. The print is a little off-kilter too, but this doesn't detract from the boldly stylish design. Posted in November 1957 it carries a lovely joined pair of 2 cent Thomas Jefferson postage stamps.

A great memento of a lost architectural gem.

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Find more vintage postcards over at Beth's postcard blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy and join other collectors on Postcard Friendship Friday.

Vintage Russian Easter Card – 1911

2012-04-06T16:08:00.000+02:00

I bought this lovely embossed Russian Easter postcard on a market stall in Rome some months ago and have been patiently waiting for Easter to come by again in order to share it here on the blog. I was attracted to the delicate hand finishing on the embossed catkins and pink background wash, but wasn't immediately aware that it was an Easter card. Luckily the woman who ran the stall was actually Russian and immediately translated the words "Христос воскрес!" as meaning “Christ is Risen!”

Catkins, of course, are a traditional Easter decoration being the very first signs of new plant life after the winter; as any allergy sufferer will confirm, catkins herald the coming of spring! According to Wikipedia, Russian Orthodox and various other Eastern European peoples also carry pussy willows on Palm Sunday instead of palm branches, blessing both palms and pussy willows in church.

If you'd like to read more about Russian Easter cards there's a wonderful resource here: Russian Easter Postcards.

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Happy Birthday Debbie Reynolds!

2012-04-01T19:56:00.000+02:00

American actress and singer Debbie Reynolds is celebrating her 80th birthday today so this seems like an excellent occasion to post this vintage Italian postcard featuring the film star as she looked in the 1960s, when she appeared in a series of successes, most notably perhaps the 1964 movie The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Rotalfoto, Milano logo

No.97 in a series of Hollywood portraits printed in “Rotalcolor” from a Kodak Ektachrome photo by prolific Milan-based publisher Rotalfoto, the uncirculated postcard is undated, but the reverse of the card carries a few clues as to when it was issued: the company's distinctive logo – a scroll with the name Rotalfoto wrapped around a globe - includes the title “Rotalcolor” written above it, an extra detail which was added to the insignia during the late 1960s.

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Italian Track Cycling World Championships Maximum Card - 1968

2012-03-02T20:24:00.001+01:00

In 1968 the UCI Track Cycling World Championships were held in Rome and the Italian Post Office (Poste Italiane) issued a pair of commemorative stamps to mark the occasion. Issued on the first day of the championships on 26 August of that year, this vintage postcard is an excellent example of a “maximum card” - a postcard carrying a postage stamp on the picture side, rather than the reverse of the card, where the stamp, cancellation and postcard are in concordance.

The 25 lire postage stamp was designed by R. Ferrini and features a dramatic view of a racing bicycle as it flies around the Olympic Velodrome (Velodromo Olimpico) in Rome. Constructed for the 1960 Summer Olympics, the Velodrome was little used in subsequent years and the 1968 track events appear to have been its last. It was eventually pulled down in 2008.

The first day of issue postcard was produced as a philatelic collectors item by the Circolo Filatelico Numismatico “G.Piani”, a stamp and coin collectors circle based in Imola, and was stamped and numbered by them as No. 1529 on the reverse, although I have no idea as to how limited the edition might have been. The artist signed postcard was printed by another local Imola firm Galeati. Coincidentally, the other stamp in the pair – not seen on this postcard - celebrated the 1968 UCI Road World Championships which were held in Imola.

The Tour de France has its yellow jersey, the Giro d'Italia a pink jersey, but the UCI awards a rainbow jersey and gold medal to the winner, hence the rainbow badge in the bottom right hand corner.

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Cupid's Bank, Unlimited – 1900s

2012-02-12T17:59:00.000+01:00

Some months ago we looked at a series of World War I postcards issued by the prolific UK publisher Bamforth & Co. Whilst they are best known today for their thousands of kiss-me-quick seaside postcards, this vintage Valentine's postcard featuring a blank cheque drawn on "Cupid's Bank, Unlimited" is more romantic than saucy; with Valentine's Day almost upon us, this is the perfect time to share it here!

Issued as part of series 2005, this vintage postcard is uncirculated, but can be accurately dated to the first decade of the twentieth century thanks to the pre-printed date in the top right hand corner of the cheque “190...”. The back of the postcard gives us an additional clue - Great Britain was the first to adopt the "divided back" postcard in 1902, putting this postcard's production somewhere between 1902 - 1909.

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Vieni, piccina – 1932

2012-02-03T19:40:00.000+01:00

Beth over at the Best Hearts are Crunchy has been posting some gorgeous Valentine's Day cards for a few weeks now – with February 14th only ten days away, I was inspired to dig out a vintage romantic postcard from my own collection to share on Postcard Friendship Friday today.

Carrying two postal cancellations - a Florence Railway (Firenze Ferrovia) postmark dated 5 January 1932 and another for its destination Venice (Venezia) on the following day – the stamp is an absolute classic example of the secret language of stamp positions. The 30 cent postage stamp featuring a frontal portrait of Vittorio Emanuele III is shown with the monarch's head a full 90 degrees to the right – a clear message of some sort, but which I've read can mean a variety of romantic things: “love and kisses”; “do you love me?”; “thinking of you”; and on an Italian language website “t'adoro”!

Issued by the Turin-based publisher Fotocelere (1910-1942), it is a gorgeous example of their hand-coloured real photo postcards – I just love the addition of those crimson details on the collar and sleeves!

The Italian verse translates more or less as follows:

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We wish you luck - Wir Wünschen Glück - 1938

2012-01-13T19:49:00.001+01:00

2012 is going to be a tough year for those of you who are superstitious – today is only the first of three occurrences in the calendar of the infamous Friday the 13th! A good luck postcard seems in order, therefore, so here's a very fine example of an artist signed vintage postcard featuring work by the master of scissors and silhouettes Georg Plischke.

Georg Plischke's signature logo

Whilst he appears to have been enormously prolific in his output, tracking down Plischke's personal history is a little tricky. He was born in 1883 in Neisse, one of the oldest towns in the politically contested Silesia, but the town was placed under Polish administration after the Second World War and renamed with the Polish spelling of Nysa. At that time, much of the town's German population was forcibly expelled, including Plischke, who was driven from his home and forced to leave his already established publishing house, setting up shop in Unterwössen, in Upper Bavaria, the following year, where he would live and work until his death in 1973.

This postally used postcard was sent as an Easter greeting from Lübeck, Germany to Canterbury in the United Kingdom on 14 April 1938. It carries a Deutsche Reichspost 5 Pfennig stamp with a portrait of Paul von Hindenburg, which had been issued some four years earlier in 1934, rather than a more recent portrait of Hitler whose grim scowl had started appearing on stamps in 1937. The stamp has luckily been placed slightly high allowing us to see the bottom of the distinctive Plischke Karte stamp box and the number of this design – 59. There is also a clear postmark advertising overseas telegrams and German cable routes, in a similar gothic font to that used elsewhere on the postcard.

As is often the case with vintage postcards, the jolly good luck message seems at odds with the historical events of the day - the card was posted a month after the Anschluß (Anschluss), when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, and as we now know, the outbreak of World War II was looming.

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Find more vintage postcards over at Beth's postcard blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy and join other collectors on Postcard Friendship Friday.

Bonne Année - 1920s

2011-12-31T17:32:00.000+01:00

Anybody with even a passing interest in collecting vintage postcards from the early 20th century will have certainly come across an image published by the PC of Paris studio at some time or another; an enormously prolific company, PC of Paris was well known for its erotic nudes, as well as rather more innocent scenes such as this delightful New Year's Eve greetings card from the Golden Age of postcard production. This card is a little different, however, in that the publisher logo in the bottom right hand corner of the card – the initials PC inside a Star of David – is unlike the usual PC of Paris insignia which places the initials inside a circle and includes the name of the city. Very mysterious – it may be that this is an entirely different PC!

Regardless of the publisher, this hand tinted real photo postcard with hand painted additions of mistletoe and snow decorations, is a real gem. It was never posted, although it carries a new year's message on the reverse and was presumably delivered by hand. There is no date, but it was most likely issued during the 1920s or early 1930s.

Happy New Year!

Decorating the Christmas Tree - Buon Natale - 1941

2011-12-09T19:03:00.001+01:00

The countdown to Christmas in Rome seems to start very suddenly on 8th December - a public holiday celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception – when the city's Christmas lights are switched on and tourists and Romans alike pack the streets of the Eternal City to admire the decorations and start shopping for gifts. With this in mind I thought I'd share a vintage Italian Christmas postcard that I picked up from one of my favourite market stalls in Piazza Borghese in Rome yesterday, when I joined the thronging masses in town.

This gorgeous artist signed vintage postcard of two children decorating a Christmas tree was posted just in time for Christmas on 24 December 1941. It was printed by the Florence-based postcard company Ballerini & Fratini (1912 - the present day) and features an exquisite lithographic design by the prolific illustrator G.Piattoli.

The details are particularly lovely on this card with the lucky horseshoe, the pattern on the vase and border picked out in gold, with only the slightest shift of registration in the offset printing with some mismatched edges around the boy's hat and the puppy dog. The illustrator's signature is in the bottom right hand corner and incorporates the city Firenze – Florence.

A wonderful find! Buon Natale!

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Bamforth & Co. Songs Series Postcards – World War I

2011-11-11T15:31:00.001+01:00

When the War is Over, Mother Dear

As we drew closer to today's unique date - 11th November, 2011 - there was some considerable speculation online as to whether something mystical might happen at exactly the eleventh second of the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour on the eleventh day in the eleventh month in this, the eleventh year of the new century! Lest we forget, however, 11th November has always been a special day on which we remember the fallen and recall the official end of World War I on that same date in 1918. Formally known as Armistice Day, it is now called Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and Veterans Day in the United States. On a recent trip back to the UK I found a wonderful collection of First World War military postcards issued by Bamforth & Co. Ltd. so thought today would be an excellent moment to share some of them here.

Bamforth & Co. Ltd. Logo

Bamforth & Co. Ltd. was a postcard publisher with a colourful history. Founder James Bamforth started out in 1870 as a portrait photographer in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, turning his attention to the making of lantern slides in 1883. From the enormously popular lantern slides, the progression into silent movies was perhaps a logical step and in 1898 Bamforth & Co. Ltd. started making silent films. The filmmaking side of the business, whilst prolific, lasted only a few years, and the company is best known nowadays for the thousands of comic and saucy seaside postcards it produced, right through to the 1980s. By 1905 Bamforth & Co. Ltd. even had a branch in the States, and indeed the reverse of these cards reads Holmfirth (England) and New York, together with its distinctive Art Nouveau logo.

Bamforth 'Song Series' Postcards usually featured a popular sentimental song or hymn and a scene depicting a soldier missing a loved one – either his sweetheart or mother.

When the war is over, mother dear - as featured on the first postcard in this post - was written and composed by A.J. Mills, J.P. Long and Bennett Scott. You can listen to the song performed by English tenor Ernest Pike (stage name Herbert Payne) in this 1915 recording – the verse on the postcard comes about half way through the song – or click here to listen on YouTube.

Mother Machree

Mother Machree was another popular song of the time, written by Rida Johnson Young and composed by Chauncey Olcott and Ernest R. Ball in 1910. The chorus is featured on the postcard:

Listen to the famous Irish tenor John McCormack singing Mother Machree below or click here to listen on YouTube.

Down Texas Way

A.J. Mills & Bennett Scott were joined by Fred Godfrey for composition of the hugely successful song Down Texas Way - the song went on to sell half a million copies of sheet music. Click here to listen to a 1921 recording by Frank Oldfield.

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Port Saint-Nicolas in Paris by Yvon – 1920s

2011-10-07T19:20:00.000+02:00

I came across this uncirculated 1920s French postcard of Le Port Saint-Nicolas in Paris (translated as St. Nicolas Harbour on the back of the card) on a market stall at Rome's most famous flea market at Porta Portese. It reminded me instantly of the postcard of the Pool of London that I last looked at on this blog, although this shot seemed to me to have something extra special about it that set it apart from the usual run of the mill topographical tourist postcards. Whilst it's less evident in the scan above, the tonality of the print is absolutely gorgeous and there's a real sense of depth – the foggy distant river bank and the reflective sheen on the water are in stark contrast with the looming steamer and dockside ships.

Printed by the Parisian publisher Edition d’Art Yvon, it was issued as number 46 in series 3 of Paris...En Flanant - Strolling around Paris – which featured scenes of less typical and carefully photographed Parisian views such as this. Pierre Yves Petit was a Parisian photographer who began publishing postcards of his photographs under the trade name Edition d’Art Yvon in 1919, signing the front of the cards with the pseudonym"Yvon". Initially using the black and white collotype method, he then moved onto bromide sepia tinted cards, finally adopting the “modern” rotogravure method in 1923. The Yvon name is still used to this very day and there's a potted history on their website here (in French).

Port Saint-Nicolas, a once busy cargo port, took its name from from the neighbouring collegiate church, but is today know as Port du Louvre. The quay where cargo ships docked is now a promenade for pedestrians running along the Seine from the Pont des Arts, which is just visible in the background of this postcard, to the Pont Royal.

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The Pool of London and Tower Bridge - 1940s

2011-09-02T18:47:00.001+02:00

Every time I visit London I'm struck by the amount of architectural changes that happen in the city - old buildings come down, new buildings go up – it's a city that is always in flux! No trip to London for me is complete without a walk across Hungerford Bridge over the Thames to the Southbank – the views from the bridge are spectacular, with the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye on one side, and the City and St.Pauls on the other. The City skyline always seems to be dotted with cranes and new constructions, but with the countdown to the 2012 Olympic Games well underway, the whole of London now seems to be abuzz with building activity.

This real photo 1940s postcard of the old London port at the Pool of London, with Tower Bridge in the background, illustrates perfectly just how busy London, and particularly the Thames, has always been. The cranes in this photograph are part of the docks – building cranes didn't arrive until the urban development of the area during the 1980s and 1990s. After centuries of use, the advent of shipping containers and coastal deep-water ports in the 1960s saw the dramatic demise of the Pool of London as an important commercial shipping port.

Reverse of card

Published by WHS, Bridge House, Real Photo Series, this uncirculated postcard carries a slightly misquoted line from one of Winston Churchill's most famous wartime speeches:

Now known as the War of the Unknown Warriors Speech, it was broadcast by the BBC on 14th July 1940. A previous owner of this postcard has marked the back with the date 1945, but I suppose it would be reasonable to assume that it may have been issued at anytime between 1940 and the end of Churchill's first term of office in 1945.

The correct version of Churchill's words are towards the end of this passage:

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Do not ask me to come home, I am at Clacton – 1920s

2011-08-26T19:35:00.000+02:00

I have recently returned from my summer holidays in the UK visiting family and friends and as usual, I came home to Rome with a new clutch of British vintage postcards in my suitcase! I'll share my new finds over the coming months on this blog, but before the summer hols finally draw to a close for kids in Britain I wanted to kick off with this absolutely stunning seaside postcard celebrating that most English of seaside resorts Clacton-on-Sea.

Red, yellow and blue dots

Situated on the Essex coast, with its sandy beaches, traditional pleasure pier and arcades, and during its heyday, a Butlins holiday camp too, Clacton it is still a popular day trip destination for Londoners today. The postmark on this postally used postcard is unclear, but it carries a red 1d (penny) George V stamp. Whilst the 1d red stamp was in use from 1st January 1912 until 1934, the postage rate for postcards didn't increase to one penny until 3rd June 1918, which most likely places this postcard somewhere in the 1920s. How strange to think that Clacton-on-Sea had, in fact, only been founded as a seaside town half a century earlier in 1871.

There is no indication of the publisher other than the words “F. M. Series” on the reverse of the card and it was printed using a simple, yet effective palette of red, yellow, and blue dots and stippled areas that vary in weight. Presumably the location could be swapped for any seaside location – this chirpy chap, with his red bucket and collection of seashells, would clearly be happy on any beach!

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Launch of Apollo 11 Spaceflight and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon – 1969

2011-07-23T17:46:00.001+02:00

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time on Thursday 21 July bringing the Space Shuttle Program officially to a close and marking the end of an era. The Hubble Space Telescope, that extraordinary instrument, which has brought the universe closer to us via stunning images over the last twenty years, was originally carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990 and has relied on regular servicing missions by Space Shuttle crews for its maintenance. With the closure of the program the telescope is expected to continue functioning until at least 2014, but will eventually stop working.

The final Space Shuttle landing, of course, falls very close to one of the most famous anniversaries in the history of space travel – the Apollo 11 mission and those famous first steps on the Earth's Moon on 20 July 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

These two vintage chrome printed postcards in mint condition depict iconic moments in the Apollo 11 space story: the launch of Saturn V on 16 July 1969, carrying the Apollo 11 crew consisting of Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins, together with their Lunar Module Eagle and the Command/Service Module Columbia; and Neil Armstrong's photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon's surface, in which he is reflected in Aldrin's visor.

The launch card was issued by NASA Tours (conducted by TWA) and numbered 115153. It carries the following description:

The Aldrin Moon walk card was distributed by the Texas based G. P. Slide Co., Inc., is numbered 310121 and carries a longer description:

It is perhaps this photograph, however, more than any other, which has helped fuel Moon landing conspiracy theories over the years. This postcard shows the image pretty much how Armstrong took it – with the upper frame cropped close to Aldrin's head. Within hours NASA had tidied the image up for aesthetic reasons of balance and added more black space above his head, thus adding to the claims that the entire Apollo program was a hoax. And as to what I think?...as Fox Mulder would say, I want to believe! You can read more about the history of the Buzz Aldrin photograph by clicking here.

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Good Luck - 1909

2011-06-17T16:14:00.000+02:00

Many international readers of this blog probably don't realise that in Italy where I live, Friday 17th is the equivalent of the more commonly recognised date of Friday 13th. I have even read that the Italian national airline carrier Alitalia has removed seat 17 from their planes, but I suspect that this might be an urban legend! One popular theory behind this peculiarly Italian superstition is that if the Roman numerals for 17 (XVII) are rearranged they spell “VIXI”, the Latin for “I have lived” or “My life is over”...spooky...or not, depending on how susceptible you are to such things. To cross my virtual fingers, however, I thought I'd post this vintage Good Luck postcard from 1909...just in case!

Good Luck postcards sent from British seaside resorts seem to have been all the rage in the early decades of the last century – I have a novelty card posted as late as 1958 from St.Ives, whilst this view of North Shore, Tenby, as with the postcard of Tenby, South Sands, which I shared over the festive period, was sent as a Christmas greetings card.

The popular seaside destination of Tenby is a walled medieval town and one of the jewels in the crown of the beautiful Pembrokeshire coastline of South West Wales – even one of Britain's most celebrated British artists, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) made several water colour sketches of Tenby, the North Shore and in particular Goscar Rock, which looks like an island in this postcard, but can be easily reached at low tide where it sits in the middle of the sands.

Dainty Series logo

The vintage postcard was published by ETW Dennis & Sons, Ltd. (Scarborough and London, England) early on in a long career that started in 1901 and is still operational today. Issued as part of their “Dainty Series” No. 20205, it carries their rather lovely logo on the reverse and was printed using the halftone lithographic method – in fact, the dots that create the areas of sky and cloud are easily visible with the naked eye.

The final detail is, of course, the Good Luck message itself, written in tarnished bronze coloured embossed letters that seem to have been glued to the surface of the front of the card, rather than pressed into the postcard, as the reverse of the card is completely smooth.

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Tenby, as you'll see from the photo below, has changed very little over the years!

Goscar Rock - North Beach Tenby a photo by pcgn7 on Flickr.

Dried flowers - 1908

2011-05-27T16:35:00.000+02:00

Just over a year ago I wrote a post about discovering a second-hand book stall in Rome which sold some lovely vintage postcards. One of those postcards was an absolutely gorgeous real black and white photograph of a Tuberosa flower - the shop had several others, in fact, that I regretted not having bought at the time! As luck would have it, I happened to pass by that stall recently and the proprietor was able to lay her hands on the exact folder – almost all the postcards had been sold, but there was one highly unusual monochrome flower photograph postcard remaining! Like the previous card, there is an overall matte surface, however, unlike most vintage bromide prints there is absolutely no trace of any metallic-looking tarnish on this postcard, which leads me to think that this is almost certainly a collotype printed from a monotone photograph. Collotypes were extremely poular in Europe and the process was famous for the depth of detail that could be achieved – look at the downy surface of the petals!

I've scoured the Internet trying to match these dried flowers with living White Star varieties although I'm still not certain if I've identified them correctly – the Aquilegia White Star is a close fit as regards shape and petal arrangement, although the surface of these makes them look more like dried white flower shiitake mushrooms than blooms! Borage, with its hairy sepals in a star shape is another possibility – any suggestions gratefully received in the comments below if there are any keen flower gardening experts reading this!

There are absolutely no signs of a publishing house on this postcard, but it was posted in Italy in 1911 and carries a jauntily positioned stamp diagonally positioned towards the left which I have read means “Yes, I will” on anglophone websites, whilst an Italian language philatelic forum suggested that this means “Mi siete antipatico” ( I dislike you) – surely not?! Hopefully this postcard didn't break somebody's heart!

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Skyline Trail, Jasper National Park, Canada - 1930s

2011-05-11T14:31:00.000+02:00

This gorgeous Canadian landscape postcard was issued by prolific Ottawa-based publisher the Photogelatine Engraving Co., Limited. The Ontario company opened its doors in 1910, closing them for good in 1953 after a prolific period producing classic view-cards of Canada. Whilst this particular card is in pristine, uncirculated condition and therefore difficult to date precisely, the style is very much like other vintage cards the company produced during the 1930s – white, or rather, unprinted borders left around absolutely stunning tinted collotypes.

The Skyline Trail, in what is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Jasper National Park in Alberta, is a favourite spot even to this day amongst hikers and is famous for its magnificent views of peaks such as Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies. Whilst the riders on horseback looking out over the view may conjure up ideas of cowboys – particularly to European eyes – this image of man gazing in awe at nature is wonderfully evocative and utterly timeless.

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To get a feel of the Skyline Trail today watch the video below or click here to watch it on YouTube!

Buona Pasqua – Happy Easter – 1939

2011-04-22T16:00:00.000+02:00

When I saw this vintage 1930s real photograph Italian postcard on a stall in Rome I was instantly attracted to the rather kitsch staged scene of a romantic couple clutching Easter eggs and cherry blossom branches – it's highly reminiscent of the poses in French postcards of the 1920s, only this later card hasn't been embellished by the hand tinted colours that were so popular in the previous decade.

The models in this scene looked familiar to me – hairstyles and clothes of the day tend to blur resemblances to modern eyes, but when I got the card home and double-checked my collection I found what I'm pretty certain is the same couple posing in the snow, in a New Year's postcard from a couple of years earlier (click here to see my Christmas post). Issued by the exact same Turin-based publisher Fotocelere di A. Campassi in 1937 (although not posted until 1939), it was also dated in the same fashion as the earlier Christmas card using both the Anno Domini system as well as Roman numerals from the dark days of Italian Fascist Government with "1937 XV" printed immediately after the company address on the reverse of the card.

A little metallic tarnishing in the darker areas indicates that this is probably a silver bromide print - it's a pity that those eggs didn't get the odd daub of colour too!

Have a very Happy Easter!

Check out the Vintage Postcard Store for more Easter postcards

Find more vintage postcards over at Beth's postcard blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy and join other collectors on Postcard Friendship Friday.

Fröhliche Ostern – Happy Easter – 1910

2011-04-07T19:09:00.000+02:00

Easter falls very late this year at the end of April, although the advertising campaigns for Easter eggs have been in full tilt for a while now, reminding me of this gorgeous Easter postcard that I found on a second hand market stall some time ago and had stashed away. Posted from Löbau, a city in the east of Saxony, Germany, just over 101 years ago on 26 March, 1910, it is a very fine example of chromolithography with tight registration – there is barely a trace of the mismatched edges so common to lithographic prints using a rich palette, although the girl's hand on the left does charmingly break through the frame. The colours are still clean and bright and the postcard is also very delicately embossed with the Easter greeting in red slightly raised.

During the Golden Age of the Postcard in the early years of the last century, of course, Saxony was at the very heart of postcard production with many international firms relying on the high quality printing methods in the area, until the outbreak of the First World War stopped the industry in its tracks. Sadly, there's no information about the publisher of this card with only “Printed in Germany” visible to the right of the 5 pfennigs Germania postage stamp of the German Empire, carrying the "Deutsches Reich" inscription.

The reverse of the card is also very beautiful, albeit unintelligible...if anybody can decipher the handwriting feel free to leave a message below!

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I've somehow managed to skip Postcard Friendship Friday for a few weeks so this time round I'm posting early to be on the safe side!

Civitavecchia - Postal steamer leaving for Sardinia – 1920

2011-03-21T17:48:00.000+01:00

Civitavecchia - Piroscafo postale in partenza per Sardegna

This Italian postal steamer setting out from the port of Civitavecchia just north of Rome was most probably heading for Golfo Aranci on the northeastern coast of Sardinia, which was the main port for arrivals from the mainland. These postal steamers, or piroscafi, seem to have been popular postcard images at the beginning of the last century and one finds them not only sent by passengers from the ships themselves, cancelled with postmarks with the name of the ship and the words “PIROSCAFO POSTALE ITALIANO”, but also posted from other destinations.

This particular postcard may not have been posted from a postal steamer, but it was certainly still processed by a Travelling Post Office (or TPO) on board a train. The Italian name for a TPO is ufficio ambulante (travelling office), hence the abbreviation of the word ambulante “AMB.” followed by the train route "ROMA PISA" and the route number 151, that appears on this postmark, as well as the date 27 September, 1920. Curiously, the stamp has been placed on the front of the card and the postmark appears on both sides, with the reverse carrying a third, mysterious date – 6 October, 1920 – presumably the date it eventually reached its French destination. I'd like to be able to say that the post is far speedier these days...but sadly, it may actually be even slower in 2011!

Reverse of postcard - click to enlarge

Whilst the detail is pretty good on this postcard, the matte surface would seem to indicated that this isn't a real photograph postcard, but was instead printed from a monochrome image and tinted a gorgeous deep blue-green, which looks particularly stunning against the deep red of the 10 cent stamp featuring Italy's last King Vittorio Emanuele III. Issued in October 1906 as one of the Leoni definitive issues, this stamp would be in circulation until the end of 1930.

There is no mention of the Italian publisher, other than the information in the stamp box that says that the card was printed in Italy and the small SIA logo in the lower left hand corner on the reverse of the card. The SIA or Società Italiana degli Autori – the Italian Society of Authors – was created in Milan in 1882 in order to protect the copyright of writers, musicians, playwrights and editors and to ensure that royalties were paid. It exists to this day as the SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori).

Check out the Vintage Postcard Store for more maritime postcards

Oh! This cigar won't light! - 1907

2011-03-05T19:36:00.000+01:00

It's hard to imagine a time when the incandescent light bulb was still new enough an invention for this comic Belgian vintage postcard to have made people chuckle. It depicts a classic vagabond figure complete with walking stick and his possessions tied in a handkerchief as he tries, in vain, to light his cigar, clearly still expecting there to be a naked flame! Oh! Ce cigare ne prend pas feu!

Whilst Thomas Edison may have invented the light bulb in 1879, it was actually the use of ductile tungsten as the filament material by the General Electric Company and William Coolidge from 1906 onwards that saw the birth of the light bulb we know it today, so once again, this is a vintage postcard that beautifully illustrates a little bit of history. Those incandescent bulbs, of course, have also now had their day and are currently being phased out across Europe and being replaced by energy-efficient fluorescent or halogen lamps to help tackle climate change.

This is a really lovely example of a chromolithographic print with wonderful details – look at the wood grained floor, the wallpaper, the spotted 'kerchief and the hint of stubble on the chap's chin. Sadly I have been unable to decipher the publisher’s logo – if anybody has come across this one before, please feel free to leave a comment below. The back of the card reserves a final gem – a spectacular flourish of a question mark in black ink filling the entire message side!

Check out the Vintage Postcard Store for more comic postcards.

Pierrot and Columbine – 1920s

2011-02-18T18:14:00.000+01:00

Shrove Tuesday falls on March 8 this year, but in Italy the sweets and pastries that one traditionally eats during Carnevale have been on offer in bakeries all over Rome for some weeks now, the pavements are already sprinkled with confetti, whilst on Sunday afternoons small children decked out in fancy dress costumes can be seen out and about in town. Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day...Carnevale (or Carnival) has many names and is celebrated all over the world, but this vintage French postcard from the 1920s reminded instantly of the Italian celebration.

Published by prolific Paris printers Lèo of Pradot, this is yet another striking example of the hand-tinted real photograph vintage postcards that were so popular at the time – this one must surely win the prize for most garish colours, however! There's no colour enhancement with this scan – those pinks really are that bright on the original card!

This uncirculated postcard features the lovestruck Pierrot, a famous stock character from Italian pantomime, wearing his classic loose white gowns, frilly collar and black skullcap, wooing a 1920s version of Columbine, who in the traditional pantomimes or Commedia dell'Arte plays breaks his heart when she leaves him for another very famous character - Harlequin. In the late 17th-century an Italian troupe of players performing in Paris called the Comédie-Italienne made these Italian masked plays popular in France, so it seems particularly appropriate that this should be a Parisian postcard.

Whilst doing a little research for this post I was reminded of a favourite song from 1980 that illustrates the enduring popularity of the Pierrot motif – David Bowie appeared as the character in the video for Ashes to Ashes, although his Pierrot sports the conical dunce's cap. Watch that blast from the past below or click here to watch it on YouTube!

Check out the Vintage Postcard Store for more Pierrot postcards.

The Greyhound Station, Kalamazoo - 1951

2011-02-04T17:31:00.000+01:00

Kalamazoo...What a wonderful name! So varied, in fact, are the theories behind this strange name that was given first to the river and then to the city, county and township, that Wikipedia has dedicated a whole page to the Etymology of Kalamazoo. What would seem certain, however, is that this evocative name was derived originally from the languages of indigenous peoples of what is now the US state of Michigan.

I just knew I had to have this vintage real photograph postcard of the old Greyhound Bus Station in Kalamazoo when I came across it on a market stall in Rome last weekend. The postcard was issued by the enormously prolific LL Cook Co., Milwaukee, so probably isn't particularly rare, but topographical postcards of US cities aren't that common here in Europe – in fact, this card wasn't even posted to Italy, but was instead sent to an address in Brussels, Belgium, on May 10, 1951.

I was even more excited when I discovered that it records a part of “lost” Kalamazoo – the old Greyhound Bus Station at 318, West Michigan Avenue, back in the days before it moved to the Amtrak depot. The neighbouring Paris Cleaners is another historic venue; opening its doors in Kalamazoo in 1903, the dry cleaning company moved to its current location on the corner of Crosstown Parkway and Westnedge Avenue back in 1956 – this photograph shows an even earlier site. Wanting to track down the very spot, I took a virtual stroll along West Michigan Avenue thanks to Google Maps Street View, until I stumbled upon the exact location! Looks like Jim Lum's Cafe was a place called the Copy Cup when the Google Maps camera passed by, although a quick search has revealed that it is now known as Pistachios, whilst the Grehound station itself is now a branch of the Bank of America.

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West Parade and Soldiers' Memorial, Rhyl - 1908

2011-01-24T17:16:00.000+01:00

Whilst rummaging through piles of postcards in thrift stores or on market stalls some vintage postcards will catch my eye immediately; this Edwardian British seaside postcard of the West Parade and Soldiers' Memorial in Rhyl on the north coast of Wales caught my attention, because it is so rich in contemporary detail – the fashions of the day, the horse and carriage, the promenading women with parasols – but also, and most strikingly, because of the way the people in the foreground of this shot are staring directly at the photographer.

The schoolboy in his high collar and boater is dressed up in his Sunday best (or maybe his school uniform, as there seems to be a satchel at his feet) and looks stiff and uncomfortable in those clothes - he is positively scowling! I love the chap sitting on the bench – his long moustache and fashionable homburg hat are so evocative of that period. Apparently Edward VII himself wore a homburg and they became all the rage.

The war memorial in the background was first erected to commemorate the soldiers who had died during the second Boer War in South Africa (1899–1902). It was later moved to the Rhyl Garden of Remembrance where it is found today, although sadly, many more names of those lives lost in wars over the last century – both World War I and II and more recent military conflicts – have since been added to it.

The postcard was printed in England by E.S.London from a hand coloured black and white photograph and it has a glossy finish that simulates the look of a real photograph very well. First posted on the 7 September, 1908 it was sent to the wrong address, but forwarded on to the recipient the very next day, so therefore carries two separate postal cancellations.

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I've been to North Wales and I confess that it's never been very warm...but maybe 1908 was a very good year!