L’ACROBATE
Paris versus New York by Vahram Muratyan
An interesting art piece which takes the wire crossing between the Twin Towers of New York (of course destroyed by the terrorist attack on 9/11) by Philipe Petit and the same sort of thing from a Spider-Man (aka Peter Parker) point of view. Very simple but still an interesting postcard.
Both of course have been subject of a feature film so this again reaches out to various theme collectors.
THE GUINNESS WORLD OF RECORDS
At the TROCADERO, PICCADILLY CIRCUS, LONDON
Printed by BERIC TEMPEST & Co. Ltd
Described on the reverse side as London’s newest, most exciting and extraordinary exhibition which ‘brings to life’ hundreds of the amazing facts and feats from the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s best selling reference book.
The interesting thing about a postcard image like this is that it can fit into so many themes. Here we have space (space-craft), Transport (Aeroplane, Zeppelin, the Wright Brothers ‘Wright Flyer’, Concorde, land speed record craft and tractor), Animals (snake – bottom right, Whale skeleton) and you also have Mount Everest and the Grand Canyon along with Elvis Presley and other tallest and smallest to largest people. An amazing collection of record holders and a very interesting postcard.
WALT DISNEY WORLD
THE VACATION KINGDOM OF THE WORLD
OPENING OCTOBER 1971
A number of postcards were released prior to the actual opening of the Walt Disney World theme park in Florida. These are artist’s impressions of the area and these image postcards are highly collected and as such reach prices between $10 and $20 dollars each on eBay.
This particular postcard depicts a woman water skiing on the lake (I believe this would have been the lake behind the Contemporary Hotel where you can still do water sports – last year I went para-gliding here).
The building depicted is the Contemporary Hotel, which is famous as the hotel that the monorail actually passes through. I had always wanted to stay here and finally convinced Jo to try it for the last week of last year’s holiday. We booked a room overlooking the Magic Kingdom park and I spent several enjoyable nights sat on the balcony watching the firework display (I love fireworks)
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
Posted 1972
These postcards were obviously still on sale after the park opened as this one was sent by someone staying at the Contemporary Hotel, as they mention in their message. They also write: “The Monorail goes right into the lobby”. A lovely card and highly collectible.
WESTMINSTER
NEW ISSUE COIN RELEASE ADVERTISING POSTCARDS
Westminster is a company that specialize is new coin and stamp first day covers for collectors. I have bought a few covers from them myself and as a result I sometimes receive advertising material promoting their latest material for sales. They have issued several coin related postcards of which I depict four here.
2011 UK COUNTDOWN TO LONDON 2012
£5 Brilliant Uncirculated Coin
Items relating to the 2012 London Olympics have become very collectible and there is a specialized Olympic Collectors Society and all stamps and postcards are eagerly sought out. This is why this particular coin advert card is so good. It is an item from before the actual games when in all honesty the games were not really sought out. It was the tremendous success of the Torch Rally and then the actual games themselves which initiated a whole enthusiasm for 2012 Olympic related material. I myself got caught up in this and as a result I have a collection of postcards of the London Games. This card is part of this collection.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES £5 COIN
This is another London Olympic Games 2012 postcard and the coin depicted has the 2012 Olympic games logo on it. The coin also has a picture of Winston Churchill on it which places it into another collecting theme. This is a very unusual London Games postcard and one worth seeking out.
CENTENARY OF THE TITANIC £5 COIN
I have a specific RMS TITANIC collection (of which I will post items from in the future) and any new or different postcard I eagerly snap up. This one was a very unusual one. This coin is from Jersey and the coin has a smashing image of the RMS Titanic upon it. This coin was issued for the centenary which occurred in 2012. The actual centenary of the sinking fell on a Saturday and knowing this in advance I set out to reproduce the final meal served on board in its entirety. It took months of planning and days of pre-preparation but on the night we served 18 people with the menu options. It was a cracking night and one I will long remember.
FLYING SCOTSMAN COMMEMORATIVE COIN
50p BAILIWICK OF GUERNSEY
Railway is one of the top transport collected themes and any type of postcard which in anyway depicts a train will be snapped up. This is a nice example of a coloured coin. These have become quite popular over the past few years and more and more of them have been issued. This is the first of the new range of coloured coins that I found depicted on postcard.
FIRST SPACE WALK
Drawing by Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov
Intourist postcard
This Russian issued postcard depicts a drawing by Alexi Leonov of himself during the very first space-walk. Classed as an ‘Extravehicular Activity’ Leonov’s spacewalk lasted for 12 minutes. A highly decorated cosmonaut Lenov is now a celebrity and has been to the UK and has attended signing events.
INTOURIST issued this postcard and they were the official state Russian (Soviet Union) travel agency. The organization was founded in 1929 and was staffed by NKVD and later KGB officials.
Having posted the Apollo card earlier it seemed only right to immediately post a Russian space postcard, after all they were the first to place a man into space.
MAN ON THE MOON
APOLLO
A DIXON-LOTUS PRODUCTION
Ref L6/9196/T
An Authentic N.A.S.A. Transparency
This is a single postcard from a series issued to coincide with the Apollo 11 space mission to the Moon. This was the first manned mission to successfully land men on the moon’s surface and here you can see an official photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the moon’s surface taken by astronaut Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon followed by Aldrin. This was back in 1969 when this postcard was issued.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
This particular copy of the postcard depicted above was used in 1973 to receive a MACCLESFIELD, CHESHIRE single ring cancel dated 16 NOV 73. This was the date of the SKYLAB 4 LAUNCH and there is a straight line text cachet explaining this with the date. Above this is a larger cachet for the ‘UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER’ explaining that this card was ‘POSTED AT JODRELL BANK’. The large dish located at Jodrell Bank is pictured within this large cachet.
Skylab 4 was the third manned mission and it placed the final crew aboard the first American space station. The launch took place at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida and the mission lasted 84 days. The astronauts orbited the Earth 1214 times. The three-man crew consisted of Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson and William R. Pogue.
Another card with cachets and markings which fits into my philatelic collection but it also has a nice space theme connection as well. I am not a massive space collector but I do specialize in the 1969 Moon Landing cards and the Space Shuttle.
INNOCENTS ABROAD
From an oil painting by
Vernon Ward
ROYAL PUBLICATIONS LTD, LONDON
Ref PC.87
This fits nicely into my wildlife collection which does have a very strong bird selection in it. This particular card was posted out in late 1958 (cancelled 13th Aug – message hand dated as 12th Aug) from St Albans. Royal Publications Ltd published a range of paintings on postcard including many bird images but also landscapes and other subjects.
DEFENDERS OF THE EMPIRE
Dedicated to the Army and the Navy
By the Kings Publishers
“Raphael Tuck & Sons”
A superb early military postcard depicting a painting by the well-known military artist Harry Payne who had a large number of his paintings published as postcards.
This postcard was published by the famous postcard issuing company ‘Raphael Tuck & Sons’ who produced huge numbers of postcards in the early years of the 20th century. This is one of their ‘Oilette’ produced postcards and is numbered 8761.
This postcard was published by special request and was sold entirely in aid of The Prince of Wales National Relief Fund.
BOOMERANG
Free Rack Card
Illustrator – Hannah Carty
Untitled
This rather unusual piece of art was published on this Boomerang rack card some years ago now and at first glance it would perhaps escape any great interest. For me it was the inclusion of the Thunderbird crafts, Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2, which made this a very interesting addition to my television collection. I also suspect that this is a card missing from many Thunderbird collections. I love these unusual postcards.