7^th HANTS BATTALION BAND 1910

The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army created in 1881. This postcard shows the Battalion band in 1910 (7^th Battalion). The Regiment took part in WW1 and I wonder how many of the men depicted here took part in the fighting and how many, if any, returned.  

EUROPHILEX 2015

(Part Two)

(see previous posting for more cards from this exhibition)

MAURITIUS POST OFFICE PRINTING PLATE

(Display)

At the show there was a special display of the recently re-discovered ‘Mauritius “Post Office” Printing Plate on stand G124 on the Gallery level. The display of this philatelic treasure was put together by ‘David Feldman’ auction house. Two special postcard sized advert cards were produced which were free to all attendees. The first is this vertical image of the TWO PENCE MAURITIUS POST OFFICE POSTAGE printing plate section showing a close up of just one of the two engraved stamps on the full plate (the other is the engraving of the ONE PENNY – see below). Text on the reverse side reads “SPECIAL EXHIBITION DISPLAY AT LONDON 2015 EUROPHILEX”. These cards were a nice souvenir of a visit to the display    

MAURITIUS POST OFFICE PRINTING PLATE

(Display)

I took a copy of this postcard on my visit to the display on the 14^th May 2015 and then applied a show special overprinted EUROPHILEX LONDON – PENNY BALCK 175 Post & Go machin head stamp and then had this cancelled with the special show cancellation dated on the date of my visit to see this printing plate – 14^th May. A personal souvenir  

MAURITIUS POST OFFICE PRINTING PLATE

(Display)

The second postcard available depicted the entire printing plate with both the TWO PENNY and the ONE PENNY engravings.

Although copies of this card were available to visitors throughout the exhibition it was originally used as an invite to the presentation event for the unveiling of this recently discovered gem. The text reads as follows:-

David Feldman S.A., the British Library and the Royal Philatelic Society London

Are honoured to invite you to discovere the

Mauritius “Post Office” Printing Plate

“The Greatest Philatelic Treasure Existing”

LONDON 2015

13 May, 2015 at 10:30 am

Buisness Design Centre, London – Room C, Gallery level

The presentation will be followed by a cocktail

MAURITIUS POST OFFICE PRINTING PLATE

(Display)

Again it seemed only right to turn one of these cards into a personal souvenir so again I attached a Post & Go, with Europhilex London overprint and again had this cancelled with the special show cancellation dated for the day of my visit – 14^th May 2015 (the second day of the show)

EXHIBITION STUDY GROUP

EUROPHILEX LONDON 2015

MEETING – SATURDAY 16^TH MAY 2015

The Exhibition Study Group held a special meeting on 16^th May 2015 in room B at the Business Design Centre where the Europhilex International Exhibition was being held. To advertise this display ‘experience’ they issued this advertising card giving details of the event. Again it seemed a good idea to turn one of these into a personal souvenir so again I applied an exhibition overprinted Post & Go Machin stamp and had this cancelled with the shows special cancellation dated for the day of the display advertised – 16^th May.  

‘delcampe’

EUROPHILEX STAMP EXHIBITION POSTCARD

The internet based auction house ‘delcampe’ attend a number of major stamp exhibitions around the world and often produce an exclusive postcard for these events. This is the postcard issued free to visitors attending the Europhilex London 2015 show. This particular card celebrates 15yrs of ‘delcampe’ and was Edition 1 for 2015 and was released in a limited edition of 3000 copies.

BUCKINGHAM COVERS

EUROPHILEX SPECIAL POSTCARDS

I have previously posted a mint copy of this postcard, along with the other three postcards which made up the four given away by this dealership at their stall at this event. As Television is my main theme I wanted to turn copies of this particular card into my own souvenirs for each day of my visit, and I visited each of the four days of the show.

FIRST DAY OF THE SHOW

13^TH MAY 2015

Special show cancellation

SECOND DAY OF THE SHOW

14^TH MAY 2015

Special show cancellation

THIRD DAY OF THE SHOW

15^TH MAY 2015

Special show cancellation

FOURTH AND LAST DAY OF THE SHOW

16^TH MAY 2015

Special show cancellation

SINGAPORE '95

Royal Mail Stamp Card Series D6 10/93

Self-Adhesive Definitive Stamp - issued 19th October 1993

This Stamp Card was originally issued in 1993 to coincide with the release of the depicted self-adhesive stamp. This copy has subsequently been overprinted on the front with a blue 'Singapore '95 - Singapore World Stamp Exhibition 1995' blue cachet in the top left corner of the red area of the depicted stamp. A copy of the self-adhesive stamp has then been applied to the front and has been cancelled with the 'HAMPSHIRE MAIL - SINGAPORE '95 -1st - 10th SEPTEMBER 1995' exhibition cancel. What you end up with is a nice philatelic exhibition souvenir and one worth a few pounds.      

THE ABBEY , WHITBY

(Black and white photograph postcard published by DENNIS PRODUCTIONS - E.T.W DENNIS & SONS, LTD, London & Scarborough)

W.0728.L PHOTOTONE

Postcard posted at Whitby and cancelled with a 'Whitby, Yorkshire' wavy line machine cancel dated 31st July 1958

I have been to Whitby on four seperate holidays and it is one of my favourite UK locations. I have visited the Abbey and stood at its centre and looked up at the sky and across down into the town itself, it is a beautiful place caught really well in this photograph.

This card has a nice patterened cut edging, a deckle edge with diffeent cuts.    

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The deckle edging is clearer here on this image

Postcard was posted to Essex which explains how it has found it's way into my collection

THE OLD CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, UPLEATHAM

(Reportedly the smallest church in England)

UPLEATHAM OLD CHURCH MAIL BOX - SMALLEST CHURCH IN ENGLAND

Cachet

This tiny church, in fact the remnants of the original church, stands on the B1268, north of the nearest village of Skelton, and around 15 miles North West of Whitby.

This is a plain simple postcard, no image on the other side, which has been posted in the Mail Box at the Old Church in Upleatham and thus receiving the boxed cachet which applied to mail posted here.

Clearly this was done by a collector rather than a tourist as no message was written on the plain reverse side. I have a collection of cachets and different hand stamps on postcards and am always looking for unusual ones like this.

JACK HOUSE GALLERY

Stories from the North

paintings by Lyndon Hayes

and Under Milk Wood

Illustrations by Sir Peter Blake

Private View:

10th September 2015 - 6:30pm-8:30pm

Exhibition Dates:

10th September to 17th October 2015

121 High Street

Old Portsmouth

POLICE PATROL AUTOMOBILE

Early American Postcard

Unknown Publisher

Card No. 121C  

This is an old postcard that I bought from a dealer on a stand at the Europhilex Exhibition in May 2015. Considering my job it was a card that screamed out to me to be bought and added to my 'Police' collection. Unfortunately there appears to be no mention of location and I can find no clues from the image as to where the original photograph was taken. It cost me £6 (it was priced at 8 euros).

A CONNOISSEUR CARD

by

COASTAL COLOUR

(A Tayfoil Product)

A multi-view postcard of Southend-on-Sea printed on a shiny silver surface card (the shiny reflective, glittery surface explains the look of the postcard in this scan). These cards were printed in Clacton (in Essex, some way from me) and has the reference number G.610. Depicted here are:-

TOP LEFT - the shelters on top of the cliffs in Westcliff (these over look the sea but although they look lovely here, with people actually just outside them, they became quite derelict and were used by the kids and the windows were damaged and they became less frequented)

BOTTOM LEFT - Pier Train. One of the original green coloured ones (I have previously posted a postcard depicting one of these green trains)

TOP RIGHT - The entrance to the Pier and the Bowling Alley. The Bowling alley as previously mentioned in a Blogg burnt down and the entrance gate also shown was taken down and no longer exists either.

BOTTOM RIGHT - The Golden Hind, a replica which was on the seafront for years but which was dismantled in 2013 (I took a walk on News Day along the Pier and saw that the ship was all but gone. It had been here since 1949 when it opened, having been in construction since 1947)

This postcard was an eBay auction win and when I first saw it I knew I had to have it. This was not because of the photographs on it, although they helped, it was actually because of the cat that appears in the centre - see below to see why.

A GLITTERCARD

by

COASTAL COLOUR

A TAYFOIL PRODUCT

When I was a child we went on a family trip to Walton-on-the-Naze, which is just up the coast from Clacton, Essex where this card was produced. At the time I had only been collecting postcards for a few years and was still only buying Animal related postcards (which was how I started out on my Postcard collecting journey). This silver, glittercard image of a black cat was my only postcard buy on that day (over 40 odd years ago!). It has been in my collection ever since and resides in my CAT album (yes, a whole album of cat postcards - for awhile they were extremely popular, especially in the early 1990's).

Now take a look at the cat image in the centre of the card above. Now you can see why I had to have the above card. I wanted it to sit beside this one. I thought they needed to be together. Now they are.    

WALT DISNEY WORLD

3D YEAR POSTCARD 2011 

Walt Disney World in Florida have issued a different year postcard every year for some time now. I visited in 2003 and this was the first time I actually picked up a card whilst on holiday in the actual year. That year I also found some 2001 year cards in a cheap Disney outlet store. I then went on to visit and collect year cards in 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2013. I also visited last year, in 2015 but I could not find a year card on my visit so I suspect one was not issued this year for some reason (unless anyone knows otherwise). This 2011 year card came from eBay and was a welcome addition to my Disney World collection. In the meantime I will seek out my missing years, which can be difficult as these do not often turn up.   

CANDIDA RIDGWELL

Recent Paintings

LIMETREE KITCHEN

14 Station Street, Lewes BN7 2DA

ARTWAVE Visual Arts Festival

23 August to 7 September

(the above text appears on the reverse side of this postcard - to be honest I just liked the painting) 

LONDON GUARDMAN

Published by

R. H & Co Ltd London

No 101

This is another novelty postcard where the red coat and black trousers and hat are all applied coloured felt. Even the building behind and the ground around the soldier are pieces of felt applied to the card. In fact the entire front of this card is in felt even the mans face and the title top left. This is really only a cheap card (It only cost me £1) but I liked it.  

R.N.L.I. JERSEY CENTENARY

THE HOUSE OF QUESTA

MAXI-CARD - JERSEY POST 1984

This is not an uncommon card but normally it just has a single stamp on it, the 20 1/2p value, the design of which is depicted on the actual card. These versions with the full set of six stamps applied are far less common and are worth seeking out. The card is very long (I apologise for the missing edge on the right side but my scanner seems to have cut through the stamps - the full stamps are obviously on the real card).

A nice card for those who collect shipping or for those specialist R.N.L.I. collectors.   

AVANT-CARD

AUSTRALIA

(Free Rack Card)

SHAPED ADVERT CARD

"SICARIO"

This fantastic skull shaped postcard is an advert card for the feature film 'Sicario'. The films basic story is described as follows "An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico". This American action crime thriller was released in 2015 (May 19th in Cannes with a limited release in the U.S. from September 18th, and a full release from 2nd October) and starred Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin and Victor Garber.  

The film was a critical success with critics praising the performances of Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro. The film grossed a worldwide total of $80.5 million.

REVERSE SIDE

CARD No #19175

J. ARTHUR DIXON

PHOTOGRAVURE

SHIPPING POSTCARD SERIES

SS.19

P&O CANBERRA

(45,270 tons)

When the Canberra came into Southampton on the last day of it's final cruise I was standing on a hill watching it sail past. I then drove down into the dock and walked along the side of the moored ship. I had also watched the Red Devil's parachute display team come down and was on the dockside when their commander stood with the ships officers and Captain whilst the Captain gave a speech. I collected their autographs (all but the Captain) on a Canberra postcard I had in my collection and had brought with me (not this one - but I will dig it out and post it in the future).   

SS. 116

P&O ORCADES

(28,000 tons)

SS. 2510

P&O CATHAY

(14,000 tons)

SS. 2174

P&O HIMALAYA

(28,000 tons)

ALYSON HANNIGAN

'Willow' in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

TAMKIN COLOR

I was a big fan of the TV series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' but unlike many who held Buffy as their favourite character I always preferred 'Willow'. This large, almost A5 sized postcard is a publicity promotional card for the actress Alyson Hannigan who played the character Willow. The actress has signed the front of the card and given it the traditional smiling face that she applies to her signature.

Alyson Hannigan went on to appear another long running American TV series called 'How I Met Your Mother' and also appeared in some of the 'American Pie' series feature films.

TAMKIN COLOR (with the American spelling used here) was/is a company that have produced promotional cards for television stars and stars related to specific American TV programmes. I have a number of these from the 1980's so they have been going for a number of years. Their normal format used to be that the front would depict a star, or stars, from a programme, normally on a vertical printed photograph whilst the reverse side would have the programme title (often in the style of the main titles used on the programme) and the printed facsimilie autographs of those depicted (again in a  vertical format on the card). These are very collectible and appear on eBay regularly and can reach prices between £5 and £15 depending on age and the popularity of the persons or programme depicted.  

NURSERY LAND, SOUTHEND ON SEA

(Now called 'Adventure Island')

This is another postcard image of the area now known as 'Adventure Island' on the seafront area of Southend (see previous Blogs). This black and white photograph card was published by 'ST. ALBANS SERIES'. This has a 'Deckle Edge' which is the name for curved wave like edging around the edge of the card. Depicted bottom right is THE CROOKED HOUSE which is stil here. I have fond memories of this attraction which has floors that are tilted to the side and up and down and which is very hard to walk through. The last time I walked through here was when my kids were young and I was wearing smooth soled shoes. As a result I slipped over constantley and at one point 'Shoe Skied' down one length of floor that was tilted downwards and hit the wall at the other end. I seem to remember that my kids found this highly amusing!!!   

PHOTOGRAPH

Taken on 16/01/2016

This was as close as I could get to the position from where the original photograph used on the above postcard was taken. It is further back on the sea wall area but the skyline is about right although only the Palace Hotel, the large building top right, is still up there. The almost Pagoda like central structure is a lift which takes people from the level of the High Street down to the seafront level.

Unfortunately, as you can see, they are building a new ride immediately in front of where I was standing to take this image. In fact there was a man welding part of this structure as I watched. The cross beam obscures The Crooked House (its roof can just be seen). So the view today is fronted by new construction but things move forward and views change and this is what makes local history so fascinating.   

PHOTOGRAPH

Taken on 16/01/2016

Here I have moved to the right to try and reveal The Crooked House and it can be seen centre right, partially obscured this time by an existing ride (yellow tracks). This idea, by no means new, and not my own, of matching up old pictures to current views of the same area is fascinating and quite enjoyable. It is another facet of postcard collecting which should not be overlooked.

ROBERT OPIE - LARGE SHAPED CARD

'HOUSEHOLD TREASURES'

1940's Gas Mask

Ref 02 HOT 27

Photograph of an original item from The Robert Opie Collection. If you image that all of the white areas around the card are cut away then you have the actual shape of the card itself. As stated in an earlier Blog these large shaped cards are not popular with collectors, but the general public do like them and they are being bought. When this trend for shaped cards fades away in the future examples in collections may not number many. I think these will be the collectible items of the future when people look back at the 1990's and 2000's and seek out the postcards of this era.

COLIN WELLAND

(Colin Edward Williams)

AUTOGRAPH

(4th July 1934 - 2nd November 2015)

Colin Welland was an actor and a screenwriter. On television he is best remembered as playing PC David Graham in the BBC series 'Z - Cars' between 1962 and 1978 but he also appeared in The Sweeney' and in Dennis Potter's 'Blue Remembered Hills' (1979).

As a film actor he won a BAFTA Award for his part as the teacher Mr Farthing in the 1969 film 'Kes'.

As a screenwriter his credits include 'Yanks', which starred Richard Gere and 'Chariots of Fire' for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Colin Welland has signed this postcard and written a short message which reads "This is my boyhood hero!".

Royal Mail PHQ Stamp Card PHQ 174 (e) - Rugby League Centenary - Brian Bevan

Stamp designed by Christian Birmingham (stamp issued on 3rd October 1995) 

COLIN WELLAND

(Photograph)

THE HARLIN BROTHERS

TV and RADIO Artists

Nice American postcard printed by Teknitone Process by E. B. THOMAS. This is an advert for the Harlin Brothers who appear to have been called Win, Jay and Herb and who apparently (according to the internet) were inventors of the now famous Kalinda-Multi-Kord, the world's greatest Hawaiian guitar. They originated from Indianapolis. It was the mention of TV on the front that caused me to buy this postcard.  

THE GREAT BRITISH NAVAL VICTORY IN THE NORTH SEA

THE FIRST BATTLE BETWEEN DREADNOUGHTS

JAN. 24TH 1915 

On this date, 24th January 1915 the Battle of Dogger Bank took place whereby the British Navy confronted the German Navy. Decoded radio intercepts had given the British Navy advanced information about the German raiding party that was heading to Dogger Bank. British forces were sent out to intercept them. Surprising the smaller German force they forced them to retreat but chased them for several hours before engaging them with long range guns. The British 1 Battlecruiser out of action, 1 destroyer out of action and 15 killed (32 wounded). The Germans had 1 armoured cruiser sunk and 1 Battlecruiser heavily damaged with 954 killed, 80 wounded and 189 captured.         

This postcard was posted around the 1st August 1915 with the stamp being cancelled with a 'Dumb Cancel' (a postal cancellation with no location or date shown which was used during wartime to prevent the enemy gathering information about troop, ship or other movements through captured mail). The use of the Dumb Cancel seems redundant in this case as the sender has written the date - 1.8.15 - and their posting of 'H.M.S. NOTTINGHAM' at the top of their message. Regardless of this the card has been passed and has the cachet 'PASSED BY SHIP'S CENSOR' in red across the top with red initials of censor underneath.  

MAGPIE

THE MODERN HOME PLATES

An advertising postcard for the company called 'Magpie' which depicts four of the designs which appear on plates made by them...yep, thats about it, unusual but nice free postcard

Magpie is stocked by EDITED

EDITED, Brighton & Tunbridge Wells

www.edited.co.uk

ELVIS PRESLEY

SAKS - SOUTHEND

OK, these are not technically true postcards. They are promotional card flyers, but do I care? No. They are well produced and have some excellent images on them and Elvis Presley has always been popular and will remain so. 

SAKS was a club in Southend-on-Sea and they used to run nights called 'RARE STAMPS' where certain selections of music were played by the DJ's present. These cards advertised these nights. I believe I obtained these cards in 2012 (both the 21st September and the 23rd November occurred on fridays in 2012 - and these are the dates advertised singularly on the reverse side of these cards).

This first card has a nice monatge of Elvis related images including two of the King himself, one in a very flashy gold suit (a VERY gold suit!). There is also a staircase of guitars and the outside of Graceland, Elvis' home (the guitar staircase depicted is inside Graceland). The image at the top of the staircase is actually the music note covered main gates to the Graceland estate.      

The reverse side of the above postcard:-

RARE STAMPS

Friday 23rd November

Soul Afro Jazz Funk

DJ's Glen Ratcliff/Tony Hayzer/Richard Francis

£5 Entry

I quite like addition of the two small (much smaller than in reality) US stamps that have printed in the top right corner cancelled with an American red postmark (all I suspect a colour copy of a real stamped pair of stamps). I know these are constructed to have a 'Postcard' look to them, what with the stamps, centre dividing line and address area which has the printed (as if hand written) address of the club's location (it was actually an underground club I believe) but some true traditional collectors might discard them because they are advert non-postcards. But as stated above I believe that Elvis collectors would snap these up if for no other reason than they are unusual.    

Although I like the card above very much it is this card here that I believe is the more unusual one and perhaps my favourite. It depicts an Elvis portrait on a lighter. Smoking is an unusual theme but does have its collectors (personally I don't smoke, and thankfully never have, but I can not deny that historically this has been a popular habit). Another nice Elvis card for any fan but one I suspect that had a very small circulation (in fact I wonder if any more survived other than the small bundle of these I picked up and put to one side).

The reverse side of the above postcard

RARE STAMPS

Friday 21st September

Rare Groove / Modern Soul / Paradise garage Classic / Afro / Disco

with:DJ's Chet Osman (?)/ Glen Ratcliff / Tymmi G

£5 Entry 

GERMAN MILITARY WORLD WAR 1

FIELD POSTCARDS

A FIELD POSTCARD was a card used by soldiers on the front line to send back a free message to their family or friends. These were used by both German front line soldiers and the allied soldiers on the other side. Here I am going to display two German types.

This Field Postcard is from 1914 and was posted out with a field post cancel dated 30th October 1914 in a double ring with 'K.B. ERSTAZ - DIVISION' across the bottom. Unfortunately the text across the top of this cancel is too feint to read so some information is missing (this may simply be where the equivalent  of 'FIELD POST' which appears here on British versions of their cancel). There is also a blue cachet which may be some sort of unit censor mark, or unit confirmation cachet (if anyone does know what this is any information would be appreciated - around the edge I can read the following:- 'K. W. LDW. JNF, RGT. Nr. 120 III. D [or C] AT...and along the bottom 'KASS......'  

This is the message side of the above Field Postcard. If you have any understanding of German you may like to try and translate this for me as it would be interesting to know what the soldier was saying as this was early on in the war, which officially started on 28th July 1914. I unfortunately have no ability with languages so have no idea what is said here. 

GERMAN FELDPOSTKARTE

FIELD POSTCARD - 1916

This Field Postcard has a cancellation for the unit 'd. Garde - Kav. Div' with the posting date of 25th November 1916. There is also a circular mark 'SOLDATEN-BRIEF' which means SOLDIERS LETTER and which is a confirmation mark that this was sent by a soldier who had the right to use this card and receive the free postal transmission of the card. This one was addressed to Berlin.   

Again you have the message side and although quite feint it could possibly still be translated if anyone has that ability. But as with early british written messages on postcards the style used can make this quite difficult for us 100 years later.

LAUREL and HARDY

EDITIONS F. NUGERON

I can remember when on Christmas mornings on TV they used to show the old black and white silent pictures and the later talkie Laurel and Hardy shorts and feature films. The film 'Babes in Toyland' was one of my favourites although it was very different in format to their bowler hatted comedy shows. If your wondering why I am talking about 'Babes in Toyland' when clearly this poster is for 'March of the Wooden Soldiers' it is because this film had a number of different titles including 'Laurel and Hardy in Toyland', 'Revenge is Sweet' (the 1948 European reissue title) and 'March of the Wooden Soldiers' (or sometimes just 'Wooden Soldiers'). The film was originally released on November 30th 1934. The film is based on Victor Herbert's 1903 operetta 'Babes in Toyland' (thus the use of his title - but despitev the use of some of the characters from the original play and several of the songs the actual plot is very different). The film was in black and white but computer colourised versions do exist.

Although the film was critically well received it apparently lost money on its initial release (so it was later released under a number of different titles to try and gain money). The film was not actually a success until it was shown on television, where it received the title 'March of the Wooden Soldiers' (so another TV card for my collection). It became a staple holiday period movie.

The postcard was published by EDITIONS F. NUGERON a French publisher who released a wide range of film poster postcards and art cards. This card is reference number E8.

MAITRES DE BALLET

(THE DANCING MASTERS)

LAUREL & HARDY

This Laurel and Hardy film was released in 1943 (19th November). The film featured a small uncredited appearance by the actor Robert Mitchum who played a gangster.

Again this postcard is published by EDITIONS F. NUGERON with the reference number E 51.   

CLAUDE

IN A GORILLA THRILLER

"CLAUDE: LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!" 

One of the best sources of free and unusual postcards is bookshops. Over the last two or three years I have noticed that this is one form of postcard promotion that has not died down much. Every so often you will find a new card on the counters of such stores as Waterstone (there is one in my home town). This book - Claude: Lights! Camera! Action! - is by the children's book author and illustrator Alex T. Smith. Claude is a dog and is the star of a series of books:-

CLAUDE ON HOLIDAY

CLAUDE IN THE COUNTRY

CLAUDE DOODLE BOOK

CLAUDE SETS SAIL

THE SHELL COTTAGE

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

The Harry Potter beach scenes from the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (both parts) were filmed at Freshwater West on the Pembrokeshire coast. A special cottage built of sheels was constructed on the beach for the film. This local postcard depicts the cottage and was issued by 'Dilys Hackett Photography'.

www.dilyshackettphotography.vpweb.co.uk

SUNSHINE COMIC POSTCARD

"BLIMEY! ANOTHER ATOM BOMB TEST!"

Here we have a seaside comic postcard, probably the most common form of postcard known to non-collectors. The saucy humour used on these cards has made them extremely popular and they are considered to be iconic. Not all the designs depict scantily dressed females or stupid males, some can be historically relevent in their mention of events. This one makes mention of atom bomb tests within the text. 

Operation Hurricane was the name for the first United Kingdom Atom bomb test which occurred at Montebello Islands, West Australia in 1952 (3rd October). The UK was the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon. The yield was equivalent to 25 kilotonnes of TNT. This was a plutonium implosion device and it came about as the result of the 'British Atom Bomb Project'. The plutonium was produced mainly at he Windscale nuclear plant (now better known as Sellafield). The bomb was actually exploded within the hull of a ship, HMS Plym (a 1,370 ton Frigate), this was to test the effects of a ship-smuggled bomb (apparently this was something that was considered a threat at the time). The ship was anchored in 12 metres (approx 39ft)  of water and the resulting blast left a six foot depression in the sebed which was 300 metres across (980ft). In all the UK made 45 test detonations. The last was on 26th November 1991.

And that is the story behind the comic remark on this saucy seaside comic postcard.        

Visit To

BATTLESBRIDGE ANTIQUES CENTRE

17th January 2016

R.M.S. TITANIC

Postcard published by 'VINTAGE AD GALLERY'

No. 2 Titanic - The Three Tugs (card reference SP73PC).

Artwork by Jim McDonald (and Titanic Art) - www.titanicart.co.uk

A nice piece of artwork depicting the extremely popular theme of the RMS Titanic. There are a lot of Titanic collectors, like myself, and ll related postcards are eagerly snapped up. I will be writing more about this ship in future blogs when I depict some of my more interesting cards.  

ROBERT OPIE

Robert Opie Trading Company Ltd, Bath

"A collection of brands available to consumers in the 1970's". This a companion card to the one I posted earlier in the month which depicted a wide range of toys and games from this same period. Here you have a wide range of producy branding including many which were favourites of mine when younger (although many are still available today, but with updated wrappers or boxes). Rice Krispies were my cereal of choice when young and through to adulthood but then I also liked Ricicles (mainly because they were sugar coated - the inclusion of a packet of these bottom left allows me to add this card to my TV collection as it has Florence and Dougal on the front of the packet. There is one more TV connected package within this selection and thats the OAT KRUNCHIES box which is along the top of the card. This one had a promotion around the Gerry Anderson series 'UFO' . It is always worth checking cards just to see if they fit into your theme). Just before I finish here I must mention that I have just noticed the ARCTIC ROLL as well. I loved these.  

VINTAGE AD GALLERY

AUSTIN A35 VAN

This artwork design is copyrighted to 2006 and has the reference number COA4PC. Depicted is an Austin A35 5cwt delivery van which appears to be on some sort of brochure or advertising poster/leaflet. It is a nice image and Transport as a theme which has always been collected although cars come in well below trains, aeroplanes and ships in popularity.

The Austin A35 van was produced between the years 1956 and 1968. The A35 was also of course a small family car and between the car and the van in total 280,897 models were produced. This is also the model of van that appears in the Aardman Animations movie 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' (I had to add a little TV connection)

VINTAGE AD GALLERY

VW BEETLE - HERBIE

This postcard has a copyrighted year of 2003 and has the reference number VW228PC. The card is titled No. 86 VW Beetle - "Herbie" - Originally constructed in 1957.

Herbie, with his famous number 53 on the doors and bonnet, was a character from the Walt Disney films which introduced Herbie as a living car who drive around on his own and who had a mind of his own. There have been a number of films:-

The Love Bug - 1968 (I saw this one at the cinema as a child and remember it fondly)

Herbie Rides Again - 1974 (I seem to remember seeing this with The Love Bug in a double bill - remember those? Two films for the entry price to the cinema! It has been awhile since that happened)

Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo - 1977

Herbie Goes Bananas - 1980 (I have never seen this film - my interest in Herbie must have faded by this time)

Herbie: Fully Loaded  - 2005 (Lindsay Lohan starred in this updated version - same old car though)   

SOUTHEND ON SEA

THE PIER TRAIN

A 'SAPPHIRE CARD' issue with the reference number ES2154. Here you can see the old green coloured Pier Trains. Green trains first commeneced running on the pier in 1949. With a top speed of 18 mph these could carry 260 passengers and there were four trains, all of seven cars. This eletric railway closed in 1978 but there is one of the Green trains on display at the Lynn Tait Gallery in Leigh-on- Sea. The railway was opened again in 1986, but that is another story. For local historians this postcard image is also interesting as it also depicts the old Bowling Alley building which burnt down on 7th June 1995. In fact the pier has sustained a number of collisions and fires and as such it has quite an interesting past (I have previously posted an old pier damage card)

This card here cost me just 50p today.

There is a hand-written date on the reverse side '23rd Sept 1978' which is logically the date someone visited and bought this card - it is not unusual to find such dates on cards as people would like to remember just when they visited. I assume this card was bought in 1978 which is interesting because as mentioned the railway shut down in that very year. 

4TH BIRTHDAY SHAPED CARD

BRITISH ACADEMY MANUFACTURE

Small card shaped as a number 4 and produced by British Academy Manufacture. These shaped birthday cards were popular and obviously there are different numbers for different birth year celebrations. There could be an arguement that these are not true postcards as they were designed to be either placed in an envelope or handed to the reciever on their special day (not that they would last long if handed to a four year old!!) and they dont have the word POST or CARD on the reverse side. Regardless of this fact these do appear in postacrd dealers stock and do have some popularity with postcard collectors.

The images on these cards are often blac and white with the colour added by having the negative hand painted.      

'ON CANVEY ISLAND'

This is an old multi-view postcard depicting the Canvey Island Dutch Cottage (I have previously mentioned that there are two of these on the Island - but I think the images here are all of the same cottage) and the area around the cottage including the T junction in the road which now has the King Canute Public House located there. This particular postcard was posted on the 6th September 1904.   

This postcard cost me £1.

Reverse side of the above Canvey Island postcard which appears to have been posted from Romford receiving a boxed circular ring cancellationdated 6th September 1904. The card is addressed to a location in Chelmsford (in Essex).

1909 NEW YEAR POSTCARD

This is an American issued postcard which has an embossed area for the 1909 numbers (embossed means an area which rises above the level of the card. This is often pushed up from underneath and if you turn the cards over you can see the opposite effect where these areas now appear recessed). The raised area of these numbers have then been coloured with shiny gold ink. These year cards were issued for most of the early years of the 20th century.  

CARL HAGENBECK'S WONDER ZOO & BIG CIRCUS

This postcard was published by the well known postcard printing company 'Gale & Polden' from London. It is a publicity card for Carl Hagenbeck's Wonder Zoo & Big Circus. Hagenbeck was born in 1844 (10th June - he died on 14th April 1913) in Hamburg, Germany (he died here too). He was a dealer in wild animals and supplied many European zoos, as well as P.T. Barnum. He apparently created the modern zoo idea of having animal enclosures without bars that were closer to the animals natural habitat. It was in 1875 that Hagenbeck began to exhibit his animals in all the large cities of Europe and America. In 1905 he captured 1000 camels for the German Empire to use in Africa (these and other animal expeditions were written up in his book 'Beasts and Men' - published 1909). The Wonder Zoo & Big Circus appeared at Olympia in the UK between 1913 and 1914.

The card depicts 'Tilli Bebe and her Polar Bears'. I can find no mention of a Tilli but there was a Tilly Bebe who toured with a trained lion circus act around this time and I suspect this is her (real name Mathilde Rupp - born 27th March 1879 - dies 11th April 1932).  

Reverse side of above postcard. This has received what appears to be a black cachet (top left corner) which reads:-

'CARL HAGENBECK'S - WONDERLAND ZOO AND BIG CIRCUS - OLYMPIA'

It is probable that this cachet was applied at the event itself, the appearence of the Wonderland Zoo and Big Circus at Olympia. If this was the case then as this was the source of these postcards in the UK then you can expect this to be on most if not all of the cards sold here.