31/05/2016
JANVRINS TOMB AND PORTELET BAY, JERSEY
VALENTINES POST CARD
VALENTINE’S “PHOTOGRAVURE” SERIES
Ref: 96997J.V
The tomb in question is that of ship’s captain Philippe Janvin who was the captain of the ‘Esther’. He is buried here on this small island in Portelet Bay because he and his crew had sailed to France, to trade and had been in Nantes but at this time the plague was an epidemic in France. As a result, ships that had been to France were not allowed to land in Jersey. Upon the return of the ‘Esther’ they had to stay moored in Bellecroute Bay. On the second day of quarantine the captain died. The problem was that his body could not come ashore onto Jersey itself. As a result, his body was buried on the small island of Ile au Guerdain in Portelet Bay.
The entry in the burial register at St Brelade reads:
"Mons Philippe Janvin , returning from Nantes, and being forced to undergo quarantine in the harbour of Belle Croute, died at the end of two days on board his ship. The Court ordered that he should be buried on an islet called the Ile au Guerdain, and he was buried thus on 27 September 1721"
The inscription on his tombstone reads:
"Here awaiting a happy resurrection lies the body of Philippe Janvrin of St Brelade's, who having been attacked by an ordinary fever, while returning from Nantes to Jersey, died in his vessel on 25 September 1721 aged 44 on the second day of quarantine, which he was obliged to undergo, because of the plague which desolated part of the Kingdom of France. The Magistrates of the isle having ordered that he should be buried in this spot, Elizabeth Orange, deeply touched by the death of her dear and faithful husband, has caused this tomb to be erected as a sad and pious monument of her love and to preserve his memory".
So although this simple view postcard appears to have no great interest there is still an interesting story behind this view. Having been here and seen this little island I now know the background behind its name – Janvrins Tomb.
31/05/2016
VISIT THE USA
US Postal Stationery Postcard – 11c value
According to my copy of ‘The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps’ – 28th Edition (issued in 2001) this card has the reference number UXC5 and in 2001 a mint copy was worth a whole 60cents. So it is not a very valuable card, but it is a nice little postal stationery card.
31/05/2016
FIRST NEPAL JAMBOREE
SPECIAL POST OFFICE – KIRTIPUR cancel
Nepal Postal Stationery card
Now I fully admit that I bought this card because of the special cancel that has been used on it. I have been to a couple of Jamboree’s and have enjoyed them and my visits have shown me that most of these have a post office on site and there is nearly always a special Jamboree hand stamp which is usually in use every day of the jamboree in question. At the event’s I have been too I have posted cards on most, if not all of the days to get each separate event date. As you can see this hand stamp was designed without a date but with a central boxed strip within which the date can later be applied. To me it looks like this cancel was applied first and then a date stamp was used second to apply the date – this can of course mean that the date strip can be a bit out of alignment (check out the one on the pre-printed stamp where the left side of the date is outside of the box). A nice little scout themed item though.
30/05/2016
PAUL STRAND
PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM FOR THE 20TH CENTURY
A MAJOR EXHIBITION
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
19March 2016 – 3rd July 2016
Published by
BOOMERANG (Rack Cards)
This is one of the V&As current exhibitions where they have 200 photographs taken by the American photographer Paul Strand. Strand has been described as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th Century, ‘whose images defined the way fine art and documentary photography is understood and practiced today’.
Clearly as a postcard collector I have a real interest in photographs but I do not see photography as an art form but can see that there is an art in taking great photographs. With me I have just always separated photography into a thing of its own. The great photographers have produced really fantastic photographs and the collections sometimes produced in books are always worth a look. There is tremendous skill in getting the shading right and composing and framing (an artist related word I know, but it best sums up the process) the photographic image and I am in no way looking to knock the dedication, skill and difficulty concerned with the entire process – I just don’t consider it art – it is smashing and skillful photography, and none the worse for being that.
Paul Strand seems to have been best known for his images taken in the American Southwest but many different locations are included in this set of free advertising cards distributed to promote this exhibition.
These postcards were mentioned in my article in Picture Postcard Monthly – June 2016, No 446 (£3.75)
The six photographs are titled as follows:
BLIND WOMAN, NEW YORK, 1916
WALL STREET, NEW YORK, 1915
WHITE FENCE, PORT KENT, NEW YORK, 1916
THE FAMILY LUZZARA (The Lusettis), 1953
COUPLE RUCAR, ROMANIA, 1967
ANGUS PETER MACINTYRE, SOUTH ULST, HENRIDES, 1954
30/05/2016
TRANSPARENT POST CARD
“HOLD TO LIGHT”
PATENT – Estililes, Urgell 243, Barcelona, Spain
In England – V. V. Penso, Regent St, London W1
No. 6 BUCKINGHAM PALACE – BY DAY AND NIGHT – HOLD TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
Known to novelty collectors as ‘Hold to Light’ postcards these are what at first look to be simple images, here it is a photograph of Buckingham Palace. But, when the card is held up to a strong artificial light (the sun will not do it) then hidden extra images are displayed. With this card here it is the then King and Queen depicted in portraits with the king top left and the queen top right.
Clearly it is difficult to actually show this process of revealing the hidden images but I have done my best here with photographs of the card held up against a light bulb (a process perhaps not recommended as the bulb can be very hot and the card is flammable!! But it is the only way to see the images).
30/05/2016
ALICE REMEMBERED
No. 1 of 5
“after Tenniel”
Published by
PH Topics – No. 291
Artwork by Brian Partridge
Limited Print Run of 500
“In commemoration of Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1832 – 1998 whose influence remains with us one hundred years after his death”
(Text from reverse side)
The new Alice through the Looking Glass film is now out, with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, so I thought I would post an Alice postcard here. This is a nice design created to look like the old WORD and year Date postcards designs created around images trapped within large letters or numbers. These were popular in the golden age of postcards back between 1902 and 1918.
This card was issued in 1998 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the death of Lewis Carroll
30/05/2016
SNARK ISLAND
WONDERLAND
FANTASY POSTCARDS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
These are probably best described as ‘Cinderella’ fantasy postcards created in design to resemble the early Victorian postal stationery postcard (several of which real ones have been posted on this site). Simply produced and often quite small – with the exception of the two depicting a girl posting a letter into a postbox, which are 130mm x 94mm, the postcards here are roughly just 117mm x 75mm.
On the little girl & postbox two cards I liked the fact that the pre-printed stamp design is denominated in ‘Winks’, the green print version is 1 wink whilst the red design is a whole 3 winks! All the other fake stamp designs are either for 1 Penny or ½ pence.
These are curiosity items rather than real collectibles and obviously have, and had no postal validity, but, they have a nice little quirky feel to them and a number of Alice in Wonderland collectors have copies in their collections. I depict eight different versions here – but there are many more.
30/05/2016
GAME OF THRONES
JASON EDMISTON
“MOTHER OF DRAGONS”
SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON
Exclusive (2013?) San Diego Comic-Con free postcard advertising that Jason Edmiston was on booth #5015 at this show. Jason is the artist who has created this quite fascinating image titled ‘MOTHER OF DRAGONS’, which was created for Mondo Gallery’s Game of Thrones group show, 2013.
The image shows the character Daenerys Targaryen in the scene from the television series where she emerges from her dead husband’s funeral pyre with the hatched dragons from the eggs she took in with her.
With the popularity of this show I bet copies of this postcard were snapped up. I do know that if you want one expect to pay more than £5 for a copy (I have just had a quick look on eBay and there is only a single copy available on a ‘Buy it Now’ price of nearly £13 – with an additional £16.50 postage cost to add, as it is from the US). Makes the £5 I paid at Memorabilia here in the UK last year seem a bargain
30/05/2016
MAY YOUR BIRTHDAY BE LUCKY!
“OLD FATHER TIME SPINS ROUND THE YEARS
AND ONCE AGAIN I GREET YOU
AND WISH ALL BIRTHDAY JOYS BE YOURS
AND ALL GOOD FORTUNE MEET YOU”
A German printed postcard (SERIES # 14418) showing a lovely image of a motor car made with blue flowers for wheels (they look like ‘Forget me Not’s’ to me). Although printed in Germany the postcard is clearly designed for sale in Britain as all reverse text is in English.
The card has not been posted but there is a hand written message in ink on the reverse side which has been date 21.05.11, so this dates around 1911.
30/05/2016
THE HOUSES OF HOGWARTS
HARRY POTTER
HUFFLEPUFF
RAVENCLAW
GRYFFINDOR
SLYTHERIN
At Memorabilia, at the NEC Birmingham, last year I came across an artist’s stand where the young lady was selling a set of four postcards depicting her own artwork of animals wearing scarfs in the house colours from the Hogwarts houses. I really liked these and I bought a mint set and bought a second set which she kindly signed on the front for me. Unfortunately, she did not provide me with any details of who she was and the details are not printed on the postcard and at the time I did not realise this and did not ask for her name. This is a shame as I would love to give her some publicity as the postcards are smashing and very cleverly done (no mention is made of Harry Potter anywhere on the cards and without some prior knowledge a non-Harry Potter fan might not know their otherwise obvious, to a fan, source).
Here I first show a mint Hufflepuff Badger design without the artist’s signature added.
29/05/2016
KARNAK – EGYPT
Published by
EDITION LASSAVE
“LASSAVE PHOTOGRAPHE”
ALEXANDRIE
The world is full of unusual coincidences and one occurred when I took this postcard out of my box to consider posting it here. As I held it up to look at it the documentary on the television, one about Cleopatra, moved to the presenter and he was walking along amongst the columns of Karnak. So clearly this was destined to be posted here tonight.
Karnak is a fantastic, and large, temple complex and one which has to be visited if you go to Luxor. I visited here in 2008 (it was our 20th wedding anniversary and Jo knew I had always wanted to visit here so we booked a Nile cruise). It was everything I had read about and hoped it would be and it is also an UNESCO World Heritage Site
29/05/2016
ANN RUSNAK POSTCARD
“MARY SHELLEY PUBLISHED HER MOST FAMOUS NOVEL IN MARCH 1818. THE TALE WAS AN INSTANT BEST SELLER”
“This is Frankenstein’s Monster. I created it!
I promised some more Ann Rusnak postcards (see previous postings) and this one is one of my favourites and was hand made by the artist and hand coloured by her as well. The number produced is not recorded on the postcard but I suspect it was not a great number. The image is very typical of Ann’s artwork and who can possible resist a Frankenstein’s Monster postcard?
29/05/2016
LONDON & NORTH EASTERN
NEWCASTLE – LIVERPOOL EXPRESS
FAMOUS EXPRESSES Series
‘OILETTE’ Postcard No. 3569
Published by
Raphael Tuck & Sons
“Art Publishers to their Majesties the King & Queen”
This particular copy is postmarked 2nd January 1929
“The “Newcastle-Liverpool Express”. Here is another type of Pacific locomotive, designed for the old North Eastern Railway, shown with the Newcastle to Liverpool Express. These fine engines do much of the heavy work north of York on the L & N.E.R.”
(Text from reverse side of postcard)
I think the artist was R. Barnard Way
29/05/2016
GENERAL VIEW, SOUTHEND AIRPORT
Unknown Publisher / Printer
(Printed in Great Britain)
Ref: PT8357
I write a monthly column for the magazine ‘Picture Postcard Monthly’ which have done since the middle of 1992. This postcard here appeared in my very first column. I think I had recently acquired it and was really pleased to have won this in a modern’s only auction. It may only show a car park, actually the coach and bus area, but it is the car park at my local airport. I have flown out of here several times, to Jersey back in 1983, before all the modernization had taken place and again a couple of years ago to Barcelona. Also, from 1996, and for over 10 years, the airport was part of my beat and as such I many, many hours driving around and through it doing nightly checks and daytime security meets. As a result, I have fond memories of this airport and despite the rather unusual concept of producing a postcard of, what is after all, the car park, I like this postcard’s image. There is history here in this photograph because the area has changed pretty much 100%. The building to the right of the parked car was the original airport arrivals and departures booking in centre (this has now been replaced with a massive modern, all metal and glass, construction which has been built on another part of the airport away from this area). So everything you see here has changed, with the exception of the long three floored brown building that travels across the centre top of this image. So the image is thus very interesting and, despite living in Southend, I have only ever seen this one copy of this postcard.
29/05/2016
WALT DISNEY WORLD
EPCOT – SPACESHIP EARTH
“With the international cultures of World Showcase and the technological attractions of Future World, Epcot is a magical place with Spaceship Earth at the entrance”
(Text from reverse side)
The ‘Spaceship Earth’ globe as depicted here is normally clear all the way around without adornment. I have shown a postcard of the globe thus un-adorned. I have also previously posted an image of the ‘Spaceship Earth’ where it had the large numbers ‘2000’ added to the top for the millennium celebrations. The numbers were only there for a year before being replaced with the word ‘Epcot’. Having depicted the previous two images, it seemed only right to show one which depicts the ‘Epcot’ letters so that all three versions have been included. The globe is now again un-adorned.
28/05/2016
BELL[s] OF SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO MISSION, CAL [California]
Published by
M. RIEDER, PUBLISHER., LOS ANGELES, CAL
Ref: No. 4034
(Made in Germany)
Posted in 1908
The full location name is The Mission of Saint John Capistrano of Sajavit (La Mision de San Juan Capistrano de Sajavit). The depicted bells are now located at the end of the ‘Sacred Garden’ which was developed in 1920 in front of their position. But the four bells were placed here after The Great Stone Church’ they were originally located in was toppled by the 1812 earthquake. They were placed here a year after the church came down. The bells were important because they were rung at the mission to announce meal times and when it was time for religious services and during funerals and births and when missionaries returned and when shipping came in.
Novices at the mission were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the bells and their usage and they were important. The original bells were actually hung in a tree for the first fifteen years before being put into a completed bell tower at the chapel in 1791 (the original bells disappeared at some point). New bells were cast for The Great Stone Church and these came from Chile and they each had a separate name; San Vincente, San Juan, San Antonio and San Rafael.
When the pre-mentioned earthquake struck two of the bells were damaged and no longer gave clear tones but all were kept and placed in the campanario depicted here on this card.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
Postmarked – OAKLAND, CAL – 20TH FEB 1908
The hand written message on the reverse side of this postcards reads:
“These bells have chimed their ring of praise for many years. I believe they were brought into California from Old Mexico”
If what I have found out is right, then the sender was wrong about the source as the bells were from Chile and were made especially for the mission so would not have been in Mexico at all.
28/05/2016
CALDEY AND ST. MARGARET’S ISLANDS
Published by
Alan Shepherd Publishing
Ref: CA18
Nice map postcard showing the island of Caldey and its little sister island of St. Margret’s. As the postcard states the islands are off the coast from Tenby. This is a nice modern map postcard of an interesting tourist island which seems to have a number of points of interest which are all listed here.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
Used with Local Post Cinderella ‘2 Dabs’ value St. David’s Church stamp label.
The island introduced its own stamps to pay for the transit of mail from the island to the mainland. This was required because Royal Mail do not operate on the island. You would also need to add a Royal Mail postage stamp to cover the rest of the mail items journey. This card here was posted on 24th July 1999 and has the 2 Dabs value postage label (the ‘Dab’ was used as a measure of currency on the island because the idea of batter was still common and Dab fish were used for this) and a 1st class machin head stamp. The card has received the CALDEY ISLAND TENBY – DYFED circular date stamp and the stamps have been cancelled by the inkjet applied welsh and English language PLEASE USE THE POSTCODE slogan cancel.
28/05/2016
BATMAN – COLLAGE
Published by
UNDERGROUND
Ref: 429
This is a nice collection of images backed by the Batman logo. There are a couple of behind the scenes images which are a nice inclusion and one of these shows Sammy Davis Junior looking out of a window as the dynamic duo climb up the side of a building (the photo nicely shows how this was done on the flat – image is top left). You also get a rare appearance of Stafford Repp as Chief O’Hara (bottom left) and Madge Blake who played Aunt Harriet Cooper (she appeared in 96 episodes – her image appears top centre right). With these unusual bits and pieces this card is really collectible and is not that common a find.
28/05/2016
OUTER SPACE RIGHT HERE IN FLORIDA
SPACE MOUNTAIN
Official WALT DIANEY WORLD postcard
Ref: 0100-10369
“Step right off the face of the earth and into deep uncharted realms of outer space when you board your own rocket in Walt Disney World’s exciting Space Mountain. With meteorites and planets flashing by at incredible speeds, you can experience all of this and more in the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland”.
(Text from reverse side of postcard)
I have ridden this many times and it is an impressive dark ride (dark because it is a roller-coaster which travels around in the darkness). It is also a favourite of my two youngest, Rebecca and Peter. It is a three-minute ride (although official timing puts it at 2min 30seconds) which reaches speeds of up to 45 km/h. The ride opened on 15th January 1975 and is recorded as now being the oldest operating roller coaster in the state of Florida. Take a good look at the rocket car depicted here because they have changed now and were replaced in 1989 with new ones and again in 2009.
28/05/2016
EASTER RISING
Here are the last of the Easter Rising postcards I bought in Dublin in March of this year on my holiday there. To be fair the selection I have left till end includes some of my favourites including the first card which I only found in one shop in Dublin.
EASTER RISING 1916 – 2016
Published by
qbaska 2016
(Untitled and no reference number)
Nice selection of original posters, artwork and memorabilia, including a commemorative Easter Rising Irish stamp.
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
OF THE
IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND
1916 - 2016
Published by
qbaska 2016
(Untitled and no reference number)
A lovely design using the flag colours and the shape outline of Ireland along with images of the seven signers of the proclamation. This design also uses the image of the Easter Rising Commemorative Irish postage stamp.
TOP POSTCARD
EASTER RISING 1916 – 2016
Published by
qbaska 2016
(Untitled and no reference number)
Easter Rising before and after black and white photographs of Dublin showing the area around the GPO Building
BOTTOM POSTCARD
DUBLIN 1916 – 2016
EASTER RISING
Published by
qbaska 2016
(Untitled and no reference number)
This collection of photographs depicts then and now images of the area around the GPO Building.
28/05/2016
BUTTERFLIES
Royal Mail PHQ/Stamp Card – PHQ 51 (a) 5/81
(picture card of stamp issued 13th May 1981)
Butterflies – Small Tortoiseshell
Autographed by the cast of the television series
‘Butterflies’
Wendy Craig (played the character Ria Parkinson)
Geoffrey Palmer (played the character Ben Parkinson)
Nicholas Lyndhurst (played the youngest son, Adam)
Andrew Hall (played the older son, Russell)
An unusual and topical signed postcard – the connection is obvious but it is still a clever use of the card.