10/05/2016

SALUTI DA S. PIETRO

GREETINGS FROM S. PETER

ST PETER’S SQUARE, ROME

I visited here two years ago and there is definitely something amazing about this square (although my wife did not enjoy the visit – and thinks otherwise than me). I loved it here and the atmosphere is intense, and the queues extreme.

On the right of the card you have Pope St John XXIII who held the position between 28^th October 1958 to 3^rd June 1963, he was known as ‘Good Pope John’.

On the left you have Pope Paul VI who followed Pope St John XXIII. Pope Paul VI held the position between 21^st June 1963 and the 6^th August 1978.

Both of these Popes appear on many postcards (although all modern Popes make postcard appearances – but somehow these two seem to have a greater postcard presence – possibly because Pope Paul VI held the position for over 15 years).

Pope John XXIII appears on the Madame Tussaud’s postcard I posted yesterday so it seemed appropriate to post this one today.  

10/05/2016

ANN RUSNAK

LIBERTY VISITS IRAQ

The first Gulf War took place between 2 August 1990 and 28^th February 1991 and resulted in a large number of related postcards, many issued during and after its conclusion.

This postcard here is one of Ann Rusnak’s contributions. The card was produced for Walt Waldau and is an issue that was issued for the National Postcard Week 1991 (May 5^th – 11^th). The yellow ribbon around the neck of the Saddam Sphinx was a symbol for the returning soldiers in America and it appears on a number of postcard designs.

My copy pictured here is signed on the reverse side by Walt.  

Reverse side of above postcard with message and signature of Walt

10/05/2016

VICTORIAN POSTCARD ALBUM

The postcard was invented during Victorian times and they eagerly took upon this new item and not only sent them by the millions they also collected them in huge numbers as well. They were in fact the very first postcard collectors. As the Victorian age came to end the collecting of postcards became a national family obsession and most families had their postcard album in which went all the postcards sent to them by their respective relations and friends who travelled and sent back cards.

The period between the end of the Victorian age and the first years of the First World War were perhaps the height of postcard production and use, and for this reason it is called by collectors ‘The Golden Age’ of postcards.

This album here is from my collection and is a typical family collection and contains postcards from the early 1900’s right through to the 1920’s. The most poignant perhaps being those depicting the soldiers in the family who went off to war. I have often wondered if they came back.

The inscription across the front of the album.

These albums, or similar types of collections are often auctioned and bought by dealers and broken up for separate sale of individual postcards contained within. For me this is a shame. I believe the separation of the cards breaks up a story, the story of those who put such a collection together. This album here will be kept as it is.

The quality, and size of this album is obvious and the person who bought it clearly expected to obtain a number of cards as there are many pages contained within. And in this particular one all the pages are full. I will admit that many of the postcards contained are of a low monetary value (there are one or two exceptions, and one particular Canterbury one which may be worth £30+, but this is an extreme exception to the mainly 20p - £1 valued cards contained here).               

09/05/2016

MADAME TUSSAUD’S, LONDON

Printed in Gt. Britain by Photo Precision Ltd

Ref: R4405

Sir Winston Churchill – John Fitzgerald Kennedy – Pope John XXIII

I have only been to Madame Tussaud’s in London twice. Once when I was young with my parents and my brother and then many years later when we took our own children on a visit. I remember the postcards from the second but I was only collecting wildlife postcards when I went as a child so have no memories of what was available then – but possibly this one might have been.

The exhibits change often and therefore the postcards have also changed with them. You can make quite a collection of celebrities out of the Madame Tussaud’s postcards but it might be difficult as they are not extremely common (I think people tend to keep them), but occasionally odd ones turn up.

09/05/2016

TROG & RIDDELL

You are invited

to a Private View

on

Saturday, 3^rd August 1996

from 11am – 1.30pm

Stark contrasts in

style promise a

lively and entertaining

festival exhibition of two of

Britain’s top newspaper cartoonists

Exhibition continues until 31^st August

Specialists in Contemporary Cartoons

Rogues’ Gallery, 58 St Stephen St, Edinburgh, EH3 5AL

(Text from reverse side of postcard)

Advert invite to a private viewing of a cartoon exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1996. The cartoon depicted shows the then Prime Minister John Major looking like a rather well-worn Britannia beside a very scraggy lion. A nice political related postcard and one which may be quite hard to find as I have only ever seen this one copy.

08/05/2016

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Trolly-Bus Shaped postcard

Published by

NUCOLORVUE

AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL SOUVENIR COMPANY

Ref: NCV 15382

Nice souvenir shaped card which was posted to the UK in, I think, 2007 (the date on the cancel is a bit hard to discern).

This is another entry in my ongoing publicity for shaped postcards. I know I have mentioned my like for them in the past, and I have posted a few as well, but somehow they seem to lack popularity. This I think is a shame. Hopefully really nice shaped postcards like this colourful one will help change collectors minds (as clearly the tourists seem to like them!)

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The sender used an INTERNATIONAL POST $1.25 stamp depicting a Flatback Turtle, a vulnerable species. The stamp has been lightly cancelled with a blue coloured hand stamp (some of the details of which can not be made out). Not sure about the senders message where they say it is ‘Very Cold!’ – does it get cold in Melbourne?

08/05/2016

GOOFY SERIES

POSTCARD No 6

(Actually a trade card – trade card sized – but with a full postcard back)

Size 90mm x 64mm

Issued by Topps (a well known American Trading Card issueing company) in 1957 the series contains 60 cards and according to the 1^st Edition of Paul Hart’s GUM GUIDE catalogue a full set is valued at £100.

I only have one card from the set and I have this because it has a Television theme:

“Herman’s trying to break into television!”

Could this be one of the smallest of all postcards? I know that other trade cards have been issued to look like postcards since but this is such an early issue I wonder if it could not at least be the first of the smallest. It is cetainly unusual.

REVERSE SIDE

To give you an idea visually of how small this card is I have scanned it here over the top of the reverse side of a normal sized postcard (a Disney one). Now you can get a really good idea of just how small this item is.  

08/05/2016

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

I have previously posted this Disney postcard depicting an early line up of the dwarfs. That copy was posted from New Zealand (see previous posting for details). Because it was posted I could not give details of the reference number as it was in the stamp box.

I later updated the posting to say I had found a mint copy and gave the reference number details – DT-35922-C. Otherwise the reverse side of both cards were identical.

It was only later when I put the two cards together that I noticed one small difference between the front two designs. It may seem trivial but if you look closely you will see that the top card (the used one previously posted) has plain yellow lettering across the top with SNOW WHITE AND FRIENDS… Whilst the second card (my mint one) has the same yellow lettering but this time edged in black. This may mean that the top card actually may have a different reference number … so more work is still needed here (but this is a good example of never assuming that you already have a design because you have seen it before – there may be a little subtle difference, like here)

“HI-HO!” “HI-HO!”

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Doc – greet guests in the Walt Disney World Magic Kihgdom”

(Text from reverse side of postcard)

Ref: 0111-0370

I thought I may as well post this postcard as well as it shows the same seven dwarfs although here the costumes and faces have ben updated and are more modern and better looking. Collecting postcards of the same characters from different years can show up how Disney have chanaged the look of the costumes used (I showed this with a previous post outlining differences with the Mickey Mouse costume and face – see previous post)

08/05/2016

EARLY TV MEMORIES

UNITED STATES POST OFFICE

Pre-Paid Postal stationery Postcard from postcard book

POSTCARD BOOK OF 20 INDIVIDUAL POSTCARDS

All postcards shown here, a complete set, have been postmarked ‘First Day of Issue’ –

August 11^th 2009 – NORTH HOLLYWOOD CA 91605 special cancel

Here I am gpong to show you the reverse side of all of the twenty cards and the front side of a few. The image on the front of these postcards is as per the stamp design printed on the reverse side in the top right corner, with one exception. The front images have the value on each as 44 (44 cents) which was the correct value that apperead on the individually issued separate stamps. The stamp imprints, the pre-paid stamp print, on the reverse side of each of these cards has the value as 28 (28 cents). It is this that makes these cards collectible because it is the only source of the stamp design with a 28 value. Stamp collectors will sometimes include these cards in their collection for this very reason.

A large number of the television shows depicted here are little known in the UK, but all are extremely well known historically in the US. For UK collectors therefore this set allows the television theme collector to add some more unusual and lesser known programmes to their collection.

The first two cards are depicted here and this is the front of the designs.

TOP

KUKLA FRAN AND OLLIE

Not shown in the UK so a rare one for the likes of me (although I have a couple of other American cards related to this series). This was a children’s puppet show hosted by Fran Allison, thus the ‘Fran’ part of the title. Kukla was a clown like character whilst Ollie was a dragon.

BOTTOM

THE LONE RANGER

This one we did know about in the UK where it was also a popular programme and a popular character. Clayton Moore played the Lone Ranger and is depicted here on the stamp with his almost as famous horse named Silver.

As you can see here the special hand stamp used for First Day Covers etc was from North Hollywood and depicts a TV set within the design. The covers, or cards in this case, had be sent off to be cancelled in this way. All of the cards depicted here have the same hand stamp.

On the far right side is a cartoon which includes images of the Lone Ranger, Phil Silvers as Sgt Bilko and the puppet Howdy Doody. This was not printed on the postcards as originally issued by the US Postal Service. This is a cachet specially designed and created by a company called ‘ARTCRAFT’ and individually applied to the postcards. This cachet was designed to enhance the postcard and to make it a separate collectible in its own right. A full set of the postcards with this cachet is more expensive but they looked so much more attractive that when I saw these I knew I had to have a set.      

TOP

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

This was an anthology series, naturally enough presented by Hitchcock, which was also shown in the UK. Hitchcock appeared at the start and at the end of each programme addressing the audience directly.

BOTTOM

I LOVE LUCY

An unusual one this because although it was not shown in the UK (before the days of cable – satelitte and pay as you go services) it is still a show which is known in the UK. I suspect that Lucille Ball is probably the most well known television celebrity of all time. Whilst in America on various holidays I have caught some of the shows and they are funny.

THE REVERSE SIDE OF BOTH OF THE ABOVE POSTCARDS

With cancels and the special cachet

REVERSE SIDE OF THREE FURTHER POSTCARDS

All with cancel and cachet

THE TONIGHT SHOW

BURNS AND ALLEN

OZZIE AND HARRIET

These are three shows which are all but unknown in the UK and which, to my knowledge, have never been shown here (although more modern versions of The Tonight Show may have appeared). The first presenter, Steve Allen is pictured on the ‘The Tonight Show’ stamp used here.

The second stamp depicts Burns and Allen from ‘The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’. Initially popular on radio they moved to television.

Although again unknown in the UK I do have a couple of other postcards related to the long running programme titled ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’ in my collection.

TOP

THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW

“The subversive comedy, set at a fictional army base in Kansas, made a hero of conniving Army Master Sergeant Ernest T. Bilko, a conman who flourished even in the confines of the military. With a highly developed sense of irony and acerbic wit that kept his essential decency hidden, Bilko (Phil Silvers) saw through the American dream”

(Text from reverse side of postcard)

BOTTOM

HOPALONG CASSIDY

I suppose there had to be at least one western TV series included in this set and it seems Hopalong Cassidy beat Gene Autry and Roy Rogers the post.

THE REVERSE SIDE OF BOTH OF THE ABOVE POSTCARDS

With cancels and the special cachet

TOP

HOWDY DOODY

Famously well-known and popular puppet character from a children’s show of the same name. But, again never shown in the UK and unknown here. Howdy Doody memorabilia is highly collectible in the US and related postcards are quite expensive.

BOTTOM

LASSIE

This one we did get in the UK and is quite possibly the most well-known of all of these depicted programmes in the UK. Lassie made her TV debut in 1954.

THE REVERSE SIDE OF BOTH OF THE ABOVE POSTCARDS

With cancels and the special cachet

REVERSE SIDE OF THREE FURTHER POSTCARDS

All with cancel and cachet

THE DINAH SHORE SHOW

THE RED SKELTON SHOW

THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW

Dinah Shore was apparently one of the first popular singers on US television. She used to end her shows by sending the audience off with a farewell kiss, as depicted here on the stamp.

Red Skelton was already famous when he brought his store of funny faces to television. One of his most popular characters was Freddie the Freeloader who is depicted on the stamp.

The Ed Sullivan Show ran for more than 20 years and is famous for introducing stars like Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

All three of the above shows were not shown here in the UK so will be little known outside of documentaries on TV history in the US (which is where I have seen segments of all three of these shows)

REVERSE SIDE OF THREE FURTHER POSTCARDS

All with cancel and cachet

PERRY MASON

YOU BET YOUR LIFE

DRAGNET

Ah, another one of the few with a UK showing. The star was Raymond Burr who portrayed the lead character and on the stamp he appears on the right side talking to the character of District Attorney Hamilton Burger (as played by William Talman)

YOU BET YOUR LIFE is probably best known for being presented by Groucho Marx. According to the text on the reverse side the show was less a quiz than a focal point for Groucho to let lose his wit and banter.

For police officers this is an historical programme because it was the first to show the general drudgery of day to day investigations and enquiries that have to be made by detectives. The stamp depicts Sgt. Joe Friday, who was played by the show’s creator Jack Webb.    

REVERSE SIDE OF THREE FURTHER POSTCARDS

All with cancel and cachet

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

TEXACO STAR THEATER

THE HONEYMOONERS

The Twilight Zone is well known all over the world and was an anthology show which was intended for an adult audience and which focused on stories about bizarre and imaginary subjects. The creator and presenter of the show, Rod Serling, appears on the stamp.

Comedian Milton Berle was probably the first superstar of the then new medium of television. Berle hosted the TEXACO STAR THEATER TV show and through this became known as ‘Mr Television’ and was credited with driving up television sales – all of which is of course totally unknown in the UK where the show never aired!!!

I have a number of Honeymooners postcards in my collection and if you look the series up on the internet it is famous. But again here in the UK……nothing. Never showed. So I have never seen an episode. I have seen segments in documentary programmes but just that. The two male stars were Jackie Gleason (left side of stamp design) and Ralph Kramden (right side of stamp).  

07/05/2016

 ANN RUSNAK

American Modern Postcard Artist

‘BE A DOLL’

TRADE YOUR CARD WITH ALL COLLECTORS!

NATIONAL POSTCARD WEEK 1990

Ann was a prolific postcard artist who drew designs for the American National Postcard Week for many different collectors from early on in the 1980’s right through to her very sad death in 1998. I had the pleasure of meeting Ann when she came to England in 1994 and attended the Picture Postcard Centenary show. She was a delightful person and was fascinated with how many of her cards I had in my collection and had brought along for her to sign, and she kindly, and gladly signed all of them for me.  

Ann also produced her own long series of postcards which were often printed in limited edition’s which could be quite low. She also issued some handmade lino-cut printed issues.

I have long been a fan of her work and I love her very obvious and distinct style which can clearly be seen in this private commission piece. Again, expect more of her work to appear here in the future.      

07/05/2016

 MONACO

ROYAL WEDDING STAMPS 1956

Published by

Philatelie PECHITCH, Palais de la Scala, Monte Carlo

Ed’t. DETAILLE – MONTE CARLO

Postcard depicting one of the Royal Wedding stamp designs depicted in black and white but with three of the actual issued stamps applied to the front and cancelled first day of issue – 19^th April 1956.  

The marriage was of course between the then actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III. I have always liked these stamps, and I wonder if this is partially because of my love of film related material, but either way this card here is attractive with the three stamps applied (this is only part of the stamp set as there was also 5f, 15f, 100f, 200f and a 500f value in the set)

1F value – SG 578

2F value – SG 579

3F value – SG 580  

07/05/2016

 DORIS DAY

Published by

KRUGER

Ref: 902/12

A nice slight deckle edged postcard depicting a promotional photograph of the actress and singer Doris Day (Jo, my wife is a fan and has some of her films on DVD).

Born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3^rd in either 1922 or 1924 (I love the fact that she has managed to cause confusion here and has made her year of birth a bit contentious. It appears Doris herself gave the later year during her career but apparently census records and her biographer have stated it is the earlier year – actors eh!)

07/05/2016

 CONAN IL BARBARO

Unknown Publisher / Printer

Ref: XX 900/62

A nice film poster artwork design but without all the smaller credits added. This is also a foreign language postcard but despite being titled as IL BARBARO this does not mean that this postcard was actually printed and issued abroad. During the 1990’s (and into the 2000’s) many postcards were printed without any indication of who actually produced them. This was because they were illegally using the images without copyright permission. This is also typical of many such cards actually printed here in the UK whereby they have a reference number that actually means very little and which has some sort of XX (as in this case) or Z letter with a following number, often with a forward slash splitting the numbers apart. Any combination of these factors along with no indicated printer or publisher almost guarantees that the card was issued without copyright permission.

The film ‘CONAN THE BARBARIAN’ came out in 1982 (released March 16^th in Spain of all places – America had its initial release on 14^th May) and starred a then little known Arnold Schwarzenegger in the main title role. His features can clearly be seen here on the poster artwork. The female character depicted was called Valeria and was played by Sandahl Bergman.     

07/05/2016

CLIPPER PASSING STATUE OF LIBERTY

A. MAINZER

P.A.A. PHOTO

Ref: 80

As with many postcards of this type the Clipper flying boat is probably superimposed on this image and was not actually in the original photograph. This particular copy was posted to England and is cancelled 20^th September 1950 from NORTH DARTMOUTH, MASS (Massachusetts). I quite like the message from the sender which commences:

“As promised here it is! Since our ship arrived in daylight it was possible to see the statue [The Statue of Liberty I assume]. It was impressive indeed.”   

A nice simple postcard which is indicative of 1950’s American postcard production where the cards were printed on photographic card and then a simple ‘POST CARD’ reverse print, and often, as in this case, marked up as ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH, because, pretty much that is what these are, posted photographs.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Here you can see the Duplex styled NORTH DARTMOUTH, MASS cancellation number 6. The cancel has been used on a 1950 Centenary of California 3 cent stamp (SG 994). The design on the stamp features early pioneers who went to California. The stamp is not very valuable but has been nicely used and cancelled here.

07/05/2016

EAMONN MARTIN

1990 COMMONWEALTH GAMES 10,000M GOLD MEDALLIST

FORD CREDIT – “WE GET YOU MOVING”

Published by

‘walkerprint international’

SIGNED POSTCARD

The company ‘walkerprint international’ printed, for many years, the personal publicity postcards that celebrities would use to send out to people who wrote into them. This is the case with this card here.

Martin was born on 9^th October 1958 in Basildon, Essex (which is where I work) and was a long distance runner. As a junior runner he won a title at the English schools cross-country championships in 1973 (he beat Steve Ovett). He then completed in many top level racing in track, cross country and road racing. As this postcard states he won the gold medal at the 10,000 metres race at the 1990 Commonwealth Games (in a time of 28:08:56). He was also the National Cross-Country Champion in both 1984 and 1992 and also won the 1991 Belfast International Cross Country race. Martin went on to win the 1993 London Marathon in what ended up as a sprint finish against another runner (the Mexican runner Isidro Rico – Martin’s time was 02:10:50 and it was his first marathon competition). Martin later also won the Chicago Marathon in 1995 with a time of 02:11:18.

Martin went on to become the English Cross-Country team manager. So he had success and deserved to be written to for a request for a signed picture. The image Martin picked for his personal card depicts him winning that gold medal in 1990 in Auckland, New Zealand.       

07/05/2016

FAGA

ROYAL BURGH OF EDINBURGH

SHAKESPEARE 1564 – 1616

400^TH ANNIVERSRY

Ref: No. 13A (6P/7/64)

For those who specialize in FAGA cards, like me, this is card No 13A which was a version of card No.13 reduced down to a smaller size and on which was added the image of Shakespeare along with added text relating to the 400th anniversary and printed for the Shakespeare Exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1964. According to the ‘bible’ for FAGA collectors titled ‘COMPLETE WORKS OF FAGA 1961 – 1985’ a total of 5000 were printed for a commission by W.H. Smith, but at some point after the exhibition the remaining 4310 postcards not sold were destroyed. This has therefore made this a highly sought after card as my simple math tells me that there are only 690 which could remain (and I suspect many have been lost since).

As you will have worked out by now I collect a whole range of different themes, topics, artists and other postcard related items. Some of my collections are quite good and a couple could even be classed as very good (my Television one certainly). But I only have one collection/theme that I would be able to hold my head up and say “I have possibly one of the top two or three collections of this in the world”. My FAGA collection is this very thing. For those who do not know, or have not heard of, FAGA he was an artist who produced a long running series of early map postcards which progressed into history cards, often around the theme of transport, military subjects and anniversaries. You can expect many more FAGA cards to appear here in future blogs (and it is a bit strange it has taken me this long to post my first one – but at least it is a cracking first one).        

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

If you are wondering what the 6P/7/64 that appears in the second lone of text means, and similar styled blocks of numbers and a P can be found on all the early FAGA map cards - it breaks down as follows:

6P - this means this is the sixth printing for this cared (it was the sixth printing of an Edinburgh card but the only one for this special sized overprinted Shakespeare version)

7 - the month of printing - so here it is July

64 - year of issue - so 1964 

07/05/2016

‘OLD WEST COLLECTORS SERIES’

GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER

1839 – 1876

“At 23, he was the youngest general in the Civil War. After the war, Custer sought fame in the Western Indian campaigns. Known as “Long Hair”, Custer led the attack on the camp of Chief Black Kettle and his Cheyenne at Washita. He and more than 200 men of the 7^th cavalry met their deaths at Little Big Horn in 1876.”

Photo: Brady Studio. 1865. Custer designed the uniform he is wearing

(Text from reverse side of postcard)

Card Reference 42b

Published by Kustom Quality – P.O. Box 3459 – El Paso, Texas 79923

This series of old western photographs has been around for some time and are still available as I saw these again on sale last year in Florida (being sold in a touristy ‘Leather Shop’ in Old Town Kissimmee – the cards in my collection were bought here two years ago).

It seemed appropriate to depict this card first because this year is the 140^th anniversary of the battle of the Little Bighorn. I read in my ‘Military History Monthly’ magazine (which I subscribe too) that more has been written about this small affair (the writers word – not mine) than any other single battle in American History (although I would expect the battle of Gettysburg is not far behind this). Often titled as ‘Custer’s Last Stand’ it was a massacre of the soldiers of the 7^th cavalry under his command. Opinions vary about Custer and his character, he definitely took risks and was brash and was disliked by many but he also had his successes and became a cult hero after his death.     

This card has rounded corners which cannot be seen here

06/05/2016

BRITISH BIRD POSTCARDS

Last evening was a long one as I went directly from work to a location where I do birdwatching. This area is called ‘Two Tree Island’ and it has some hides and two separate areas either side of a central small road. I have been birdwatching here for over 40 years. Last night I had an hour and half watching on my own before the cub scout pack that I am an assistant leader with turned up for a group session. We walked through to a hide on the far edge of the island where there is a very nice nice hide overlooking a secluded area which has small islands surrounded by water.

We did not see anything that would be described as unusual but we had a smashing evening and a long walk either side of the time in the hide. When I got back last night it was quite late but I wanted to post some postcards depicting the birds we had seen. So here some of those.

WOOD PIGEON

(Columba palumbus)

Painting by Kenneth Lilly

Published by

The Medici Society Ltd, London

Ref: P.C. 1790

The largest of British pigeons and certainly one of the most numerous (if you ignore the well-known common pigeon that infest most towns and cities).

We obviously saw a number of these but we had one spectacular moment when eight flew up in front of us all together. They are common, and easy to see, but they are still very beautiful birds which are often overlooked.

MOORHEN

Artwork postcard published by

MICHAEL STRINGER

(who is the artist behind the image)

Printed by The Granta Press

Postcard from a series titled –

WILDLIFE OF EAST ANGLIA

We saw only a couple of this river and water bird but the cubs liked them. This one depicted here is shown with young and we saw some baby moorhens during our walk.

ROBIN

Photograph postcard Published by

D. CONSTANCE LIMITED (SUSSEX)

Ref: 900/11

Possibly one of our best known birds, and forever connected with Christmas despite being an all year round British bird. I think it is fair to say that whenever I go birdwatching locally I always see several robins. In Ireland when I was there in March they were everywhere. This was also one of the birds that the cubs could name without any help. They are easy to find because they also very vocal, and can also often be found on top of small trees and bushes singing out in defense of their territory.

COMMON TERN

COMMON TERNS IN BROADLANDS

Painting by

J.C. HARRISON

Published by

THE MEDICI SOCIETY LTD, LONDON

Ref: P.C. 2049

As we live by the seaside we get lots of gulls, especially Black-Headed gulls (of which we saw many). We also get some Common Terns coming in off of the Thames. Whilst we were in the hide a pair of these agile diving birds flew across and danced in the sky much to the entertainment of the cubs.

BLACKBIRD

BLACKBIRD AT NEST

Painting by

Raymond Booth

Published by

THE MEDICI SOCIETY LTD, LONDON

Ref: P.C. 2037

Another well-known and common bird and another one which is overlooked as seen so often but they are very attractive birds with bright orange beaks. We saw a pair together and I was able to point out that the female was actually brown, a fact not known by them.

OYSTERCATCHER

POST-OG SIMAMALASTOFNUNIN

5-1987

Tjaldur

COURVOISIER S. A. / SWITZERLAND

A single card from a set of cards showing paintings of different birds. Oystercatchers are common off the coast near me and you can see them from the hide we were in. The cubs were especially interested in these as they can easily be seen and have an attractive look about them. There were several small groups of these seen from the hide.

SHELDUCK

(Tadorna vulpanser)

Hand-coloured lithograph by John Gould and H.C. Richter from The Birds of Great Britain, 1862-73 Vol.5.

Published by

ALAN HUTCHINSON LTD

Britain’s largest duck and a very colourful one. There was a single one of these seen from the hide but I saw a couple more whilst we were walking back along the top of the seawall on the south side of the island.  

FAR LEFT – CHAFFINCH

(Fringilla caelebs)

Hand-coloured lithograph by John Gould and H.C. Richter from The Birds of Great Britain, 1862-73 Vol.3.

Published by

ALAN HUTCHINSON LTD

As depicted here we saw both female and male Chaffinch’s, although it would probably be fairer to say that I saw Chaffinch’s and the cubs saw small birds flying away as the trampled noisily along the path (but they were having fun)

NEAR LEFT – BLACKCAP

(Curruca atricapilla)

Hand-coloured lithograph by John Gould and H.C. Richter from The Birds of Great Britain, 1862-73 Vol.2.

Published by

ALAN HUTCHINSON LTD

Now, these were not seen by the cubs as you did need to be quiet and move carefully if you want to see these but prior to the cub’s arrival I did see two separate make Blackcaps with their very distinctive black areas on their heads with gave them their obvious name. I do not get to see many of these so this was a nice little spot.

MALLARD DUCK

(Anas platyrhynchos)

Picture by Martin King/Swift Picture Library

(Redwood Close, Ringwood BH24 1PR)

Printed by James Byrne Printing Ltd

Ref: WL-9

From a series of photographic bird images, all of which have a black boarder. The Mallard is certainly our most well-known duck and can be seen in most parks and waterways around the country. They are very common and for most people is the one duck they can name (and is of course a duck that can eaten as well so can be hunted). This is a nice image of a male Mallard.

So all in all it was a fun evening but a tiring one but then being a cub leader does take some work but the end result can be very enjoyable and rewarding.   

05/05/2016

PETER PAN

EURO DISNEY

One of my specialist collections is that relating to postcards which show the name EURO DISNEY on them. The park opened as Euro Disney in 1992, the official opening day was the 12^th April but the park had opened to some park employee visitors as test subjects in March. The theme parks name was changed to Disneyland Paris in 2002 so was called Euro Disney for just 10 years (and these were ten very troubled years with threatened bankruptcy, people walking out of jobs and lower attendance than initial expected – but these problems were overturned within a few years of the name change).

I have a real interest in the postcards that were issued in these first ten years and will obtain anything I see that says EURO DISNEY on it. This postcard here is a poster design for the 1953 animated Peter Pan film. Although the front makes no mention of any theme park the reverse side does have EURO DISNEY on it and this card was sold only in the park in this reverse side format.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Note the

EURO DISNEY

Top left

04/05/2016

LONDON ZOO

From the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, N. W.

The African elephant

Ref: No, 28

Photo, by F. W. Bond

This is just one card from a very large, and quite long running series of black and white photographic image postcards which were sold by London Zoo. I have long been a collector of these and have quite a few which includes some unusual animals not often seen on London Zoo postcards. This one here depicts the African Elephant, an animal no longer on display in the modern London Zoo (although I do remember seeing them myself on earlier visits in the specially constructed Elephant house which you could walk around and through).

I love the images on these postcards and will post more in the future.  

04/05/2016

BAMFORTH

SEASIDE COMIC POSTCARD

“IMPRIME EN ANGLETERRE”

EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBTOR FOR BELGIUM

EDITIONS LUX – Brussels

Ref: No. 2107

Hands up all those who knew that Bamforth comic cards were especially issued for use abroad! Well I was one of those who did not know. That was, I didn’t know until I came across this postcard here.

Nous avons une vue avec balcon sur mer;

We have a view with balcony overlooking sea.

(There are two main languages in Belgiun (There is also German which is spoken by a small proportion of the population). The top block of text is in French abd I believe the bottom block is in Dutch for the Flemish community and I assume this says the same in translation as the French text above)