21/01/2017

THE ROYAL WEDDING

29^TH JULY 1981

ST PAULS CATHEDRAL, LONDON

Published by

FINCOM PUBLICATIONS (U.K.) LTD, LONDON

It has been said, in some postcard books and periodicals, that the Royal Wedding in 1981 was the spark that initiated a new era of modern postcard publishing and collecting. It is a theory that I happen to agree with, in a way, as it was the wedding that got me into collecting more than just wildlife postcards. The Royal Wedding was extremely popular and a wide and expansive range of commemorative postcards were issued, much like the one depicted here. The postcard world was also helped by the many events which proceeded the wedding in the following years, all of which resulted in a plethora of postcard issues and public interest, such as The Falklands War, The Miner’s Strike, The ‘Green’ movement, Greenham Common and the Nuclear cruise missile campaigns, Margaret Thatcher’s era as Prime Minister and Ronald Reagan’s Presidency. These themes can be collected and would require some searching for any completions as all had many related postcards issued (and some mad people, or possibly just me, collected them all).      

21/01/2017

GRAND HOTEL, SCARBOROUGH

Published by

A VIEWCARD

Ref: 82/D1754

45^TH PHILATELIC CONGRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN

SCARBOROUGH

1963

The postcard features a black and white photograph of the Grand Hotel in Scarborough. This is where the 45^th Philatelic Congress of Great Britain was held. Therefore, this postcard was an ideal item for someone to collect the special hand stamp on, the hand stamp produced especially for the event.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Special Hand stamp

“45^th PHILATELIC CONGRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN”

JUNE 13

1963

SCARBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE

With any event like this it is not unusual, especially with a philatelic event, to arrange for a special handstamp to be designed and used. If the event is over more than one day, then it is also normally the case to have the handstamp available each day. The date used on this hand stamp is the 13^th June 1963, I have not been able to confirm it yet but I suspect that this might have been the first day of the Congress, and thus the first day of use for the hand stamp.

REVERSE SIDE OF A SECOND POSTCARD

Special Hand stamp

“45^th PHILATELIC CONGRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN”

JUNE 14

1963

SCARBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE

I have a second postcard, with the same front image and used by the same person who produced the above postcard, but which has been used to receive the hand stamp with the date 14^th June 1963 (except for the date the hand stamp is identical to the one used on the above postcard).

Items like this are collected by philatelic collectors rather than postcard collectors. But, for anyone interested in the annual ‘Philatelic Congress’s’ then it is nice to find that previous collectors have produced items like this.

19/01/2017

WONDERGROUND GALLERY

WALT DISNEY WORLD

FLORIDA

Original Artwork of

“FUZZBALL”

By Artist

Kristin Tercek

I thought it was time to post some more ‘Wonderground’ postcards, so here we are.

The Star War fans amongst us will immediately recognise that this is a cartoon like drawing of the character ‘Chewbacca’, although I do like that fancy boarder. Disney ‘Wonderground’ produce a range of Star Wars postcards and they are probably amongst some of the most collected of these postcards. This one here I bought in Disney Springs in the specialist ‘Star Wars’ shop that they have there.

WONDERGROUND GALLERY

WALT DISNEY WORLD

FLORIDA

Original Artwork of

“SPARE PARTS”

By Artist

Steven James Daily

This painting depicted on this postcard is far more realistic than the one posted above. It is quite a popular postcard and copies were selling well when I was in the Disney Springs ‘Star Wars’ shop. Although the image is completely different in its concept I still thought it went well with the postcard depicted above, and not just because the same character is depicted.  

18/01/2017

LONDON BUS

Shaped Postcard

Printed by

KARDORAMA

(KARDORAMA 50 – 50^TH Anniversary 1964 – 2014)

Ref: SV – 429

My love of shaped postcards should be well known by now. This one is still on sale in London today, but for me it was the very interesting ‘KARDORAMA 50^TH ANNIVERSAY’ mention, and company logo displayed on the reverse side that I liked. It was nice to see that this well-known postcard company celebrated their 50^th Anniversary with the addition of this logo being applied to all postcards issued that year, 2014.

ENLARGEMENT OF LOGO

From the reverse side of the above postcard

18/01/2017

PARROT 17^TH CENTURY

Circle of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)

Oil on panel

Published by

THE COURTAULD GALLERY

THE SAMUEL COURTAULD TRUST

COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART GALLERY, LONDON

Ref: C-41520X

This is the sort of postcard I would seek out when as a young boy, I started out collecting postcards but was only collecting postcards on the theme of ‘Wildlife’. After I had bought lots of the more traditional photographic postcards I was looking for some different approaches to my theme, and paintings of wildlife fitted that need very well. This one here would have done nicely.     

17/01/2017

HAVING A DIRTY WEEKEND IN WALES

Cyfarchion o Gymru

GREETINGS FROM WALES

Cartoon by

Rupert Besley

Published by

J. ARTHUR DIXON LTD

Ref: PHU 26613

A typical Rupert Besley cartoon, although perhaps a bit darker in colouration than the norm, but it has Rupert’s little people wearing glasses in it. Rupert Besley’s work is collected by a wide range of collectors and has been popular for many years. Serious collectors look for all the different reverse layouts available for each single design, and in some cases, there are a few. I have been collecting these for a long time and have always liked them.

17/01/2017

Postcard

APOLLO 11 LIFTOFF

FROM OFFICIAL NASA FILM

Ref: CC25905

American issued official postcard depicting the launch of the Saturn 5 rocket on 16^th July 1969

EUGENE CERNAN ….. RIP

Eugene Andrew Cernan

14^th March 1934 – 16^th January 2016

Naval aviator, fighter pilot and astronaut on Gemini 9A, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17. Cernan was one of the twelve men to walk upon the moon’s surface, he was in fact the last human to walk on the moon, in 1972.   

PHOTOGRAPH

EUGENE CERNAN

16/01/2017

ELEPHANT HOTEL

MARGATE, ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. (New Jersey)

Printed by

Jack Freeman, Inc

Ref: K-3864

“The only elephant in the world you can go through and come out alive. This famous building was erected in 1885. The elephant contains ten rooms; its interior is visited by thousands”

(Text from reverse side of postcard)

It seems that this is better known as ‘Lucy the Elephant’, a six-storey example of novelty architecture. It is constructed of wood and tin sheeting and, despite the postcard text saying 1885, seems to have been built in 1881. In 1881 the U.S. Patent Office granted James V. Lafferty a patent which allowed him to exclusively build animal-shaped buildings for a period of seventeen years.

In what was called South Atlantic City, but which is now called ‘Margate’, he constructed his first elephant-shaped building, this one. The architect hired to make the design was a William Free and the construction cost somewhere between $25 - $38,000. The structure was originally named the ‘Elephant Bazaar’ and was built to promote building sales and to draw in tourists.  

The structure stands at 65 feet in height and is 60 feet in length and has a width of 18 feet. There are 22 windows and a ‘Howdah’, a type of carriage, on the top, from where potential customers were shown parcels of land available for sale.

In 1887 the structure was sold to Anton Gertzen and remined in the Gertzen family until 1970. The story goes that in 1902 Anton Gertzen’s daughter-in-law, Sophia Gertzen, called the structure ‘Lucy The Elephant’ and the name stuck, this is despite the elephant previously having been referred to as a male, and the fact that it has male tusks (it is also shaped as an Asian Elephant).

During the 20^th century ‘Lucy’ went on to be a restaurant, business office, cottage and a tavern, which was closed down, due to the’ Prohibition’ era.

Interestingly there is information that the postcards depicting the elephant refer to it as the ‘Elephant Hotel of Atlantic City’, as it does here on this one, despite the hotel being nearby and not in the elephant itself.      

 In the 1960’s the structure had fallen into disrepair and was scheduled for demolition. But, local citizens of Margate formed an association in 1969 which was called the ‘Save Lucy Committee’. The building either needed to be destroyed or moved, so the money was raised, much of it via house to house calling by volunteers. The committee was given a 30-day deadline. In 1970 the structure was moved 100 yards to the west-southwest, and inward from the shoreline. At the same time ‘Lucy’ was completely refurbished.    

One fact that I did find out, which appealed to me, is that ‘Lucy the Elephant’ appears on a postcard in the opening credits of the film ‘National Lampoon Vacation’.

Now ‘Lucy’ is the oldest surviving roadside tourist attraction in America. So, there you have it, a simple postcard, but one with a fascinating back story.     

NON POSTCARD ITEM

The patent for the Elephant structure  

15/01/2017

COCA COLA

SHOP

DISNEY SPRINGS, FLORIDA

I visited the Coca-Cola shop in Disney Springs, Florida in November of last year. It has an impressive, and massive, stock of all things Coca-Cola related and which included, to my delight, an impressive array of postcards. These were only 75cents each (there were some shaped ones at $1 each but more about those another time – although I seem to remember that I have posted one already).

Because they were so good I ended up buying one of each of the whole range, no surprise really. Displayed here are the ones I bought. These are all from adverts from all periods.

POSTCARD

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES (1929)

Ref: #16332

POSTCARD

ALWAYS COCA-COLA (1993)

Ref: #10007

“YOU CAN’T BEAT THE FEELING!”

POSTCARD

COCA-COLA GOES ALONG (1939)

Ref: #12946

“GO REFRESHED – DRINK COCA-COLA”

POSTCARD

YOU CAN’T BEAT THE REAL THING! (1990)

Ref: #10577

POSTCARD

COKE IS IT! (1980)

Ref: #12945

POSTCARD

COKE ADDS LIFE (1976)

Ref: #10578

‘Always the real thing – Always Coca-Cola’

POSTCARD

HAVE A COKE AND A SMILE (1980)

Ref: #10004

‘Coke is it!’

POSTCARD

I’D LIKE TO BUY THE WORLD A COKE (1971)

Ref: #15883

‘I’s like to teach the world to sing…’

‘…in perfect harmony, I’d like to hold it in my arms and keep it company.’ Who else remembers this advert? If you do, then you probably started singing the song in your mind (or possibly out loud!) almost straight away (I did). I first saw the advert on the big screen in the cinema. Later it appeared on television as well. It is, in my opinion, the best-known Coca-Cola advert amongst people of my age.

POSTCARD

OPEN HAPPINESS [There was no year printed on this one)

Ref: #15879

I thought this was a fantastic card. Anyone who collects Coca-Cola material would love this one as it depicts different Coca-Cola bottles down through the years. A nice collectible.

POSTCARD

OPEN HAPPINESS (Again there is no year date)

Ref: #12036

This is clearly a companion to the above postcard, it has the same title after all. Again, you have the Coke bottles from different eras.

POSTCARD

ALWAYS COCA-COLA (1993)

Ref: #15882

This is from the famous ‘Polar Bear’ television advert (and until I had just typed this I had not thought about the viability of putting some of these into my Television collection – but some could definitely fit in there)

POSTCARD

OKE REFRESHES YOU BEST (1960)

Ref: #16333

‘Coca-Cola – Yes’

A cracking glamourous advert image, so typically American.

So, congratulations to Coca-Cola for producing these smashing postcards, and for keeping their cost down as well, especially in an area where postcards are generally very expensive.

15/012017

AVENUE Q

A REAL THRILLER

Published by

BOOMERANG (free rack-card)

“The Tony Award winning AVENUE Q is London’s funniest show! The characters on this downtown street in New York are out of work, out of luck and desperately seeking their purpose in life; just what are you supposed to do with a B.A. in English? With its hugely talented cast of performers and puppets – you’ve never seen a show like AVENUE Q before! So, don’t let your life suck – book your tickets today!”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

This is one of a pair of postcards I found which advertise this theatre show. This advert is clearly based on Michael Jackson (and if any collector specialised in Michael Jackson collectibles this would be a very unusual addition) and his ‘Thriller’ track and his stage show clothing.

AVENUE Q

NOBODY PUTS KATE MONSTER IN THE CORNER!

Published by

BOOMERANG (free rack-card)

The text on the reverse side is the same as with the above postcard. This image here is clearly based on the feature film ‘Dirty Dancing’.

Avenue Q is an American show which is a musical, apparently in two acts. It was conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx with a book written by Jeff Whitty and with the show directed by Jason Moore. The show looks at the problems associated with entering adulthood, it’s a sort of ‘Coming-of-Age’ story. I like the fact that the characters are moving from a childhood world where their parents assure them of everything and where the television, via shows like Sesame Street (here you have the puppet connection) tell them they are in a ‘Could do anything’ world. Now they are in the adult world they are finding that their options are very limited. The show is best known for having puppets (operated by unconcealed puppeteers) performing alongside human actors.

The idea was originally that this would be a television series (and this of course brings the cards into the arena of my ‘Television’ themed collection), but it was developed as a stage production instead. It was at the 2002 National Music Theatre Conference, held in Connecticut. It opened Off-Broadway in March 2003 but moved to Broadway in July 2003.

It has won three Tony Awards, including ‘Best Musical’ and subsequently branched out to shows appearing in Las Vegas and the West End (thus the postcards shown here). There have also been two national tours and a variety of international productions as well.    

15/012017

GUERNSEY

Published by

THE GUERNSEY PRESS Co.

Ref: G5

A very typical late 1950’s early 1960’s multi-view black and white photograph postcard. As the popularity of multi-view postcards increased the companies producing them upped the number of images that appeared on them. The two most common layouts are the ‘FOUR IMAGES’, each one taking up one quarter of the front, and the ‘FIVE IMAGES’ version where a fifth image is placed in the centre, often either in a circle or a diamond shape, but also in normal boxes. This one depicted here has EIGHT IMAGES, but companies went on to issue NINE and even TWELEVE IMAGE postcards as well.

All the images on this postcard depict the coastal areas, always popular on postcards, especially with people who do not live by any coastline themselves (so logically not me then – as my home town does have a beach). I have never been to Guernsey, I have been to Jersey, but somehow Guernsey I have not got around to visiting yet. Looking at this postcard I might have to consider it.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This has one of the simplest hand written message I have seen for some time, just four words. The 2 ½d Wilding postage stamp (so called because the photograph used for the design was taken by Dorothy Wilding) has been cancelled with a machine applied wavy line mark with a date of 1^st July 1960. The stamp is obviously British, although marked up for Guernsey, the little flower crest bottom left, but it could be used anywhere in the UK. Guernsey did not issue its own unique postage stamps until the 1^st October 1969.      

14/01/2017

SCHEVENINGEN

Lighthouse Shaped Postcard

Published by

CARDSELECT PUBLISHERS (Quality Cards)

Ref: S 151

Scheveningen is located in Holland, and is one of the eight districts of the area known as ‘The Hague’. It is a seaside resort with a long beach, which is popular for water sports including kiteboarding and windsurfing. They also have a pier and an esplanade and, coincidently, a lighthouse.

I have read that local politicians have been trying to re-brand ‘Scheveningen’ as ‘The Hague Beach’, apparently because Scheveningen is difficult to pronounce. Understandably, in my opinion, the locals (well, the non-politician locals) have been up in arms about this as they are very proud of their name.

PHOTOGRAPH

This is the real Scheveningen Lighthouse which in a perverse sort of way I was pleased to see is red in colour, like the shaped postcard image. The lighthouse was completed in 1875.

14/01/2017

BFG

(Big Friendly Giant)

ROALD DAHL

Published by

STAR EDITIONS LTD

Ref: RD225 BFG

The three postcards depicted here were bought in London from a bookshop. I have been a fan of the twisted stories written by Roald Dahl. The books were of course illustrated with drawings by Quentin Blake. These three here are drawings for the story ‘The BFG’, which was filmed by Steven Spielberg last year. My interest in the story is the fact that it had previously been animated into a film which was shown on television on Christmas Day in 1989. This means I can place these postcards into my television collection without any worry.

BFG

(Big Friendly Giant)

ROALD DAHL

Published by

STAR EDITIONS LTD

Ref: RD234 BFG

BFG

(Big Friendly Giant)

ROALD DAHL

Published by

STAR EDITIONS LTD

Ref: RD236 BFG

14/01/2017

BALOO AT DISNEYLAND

Disneyland Official Postcard

Ref: 01110489 (DT-35934-C)

“Enroute to further antics in Disneyland, the jungle’s laziest, silliest and most hilarious creature, Baloo the bear, pauses for his friends”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

I need cheering up and some Disney postcards are always capable of doing this. This is an older postcard which features the well-known ‘Jungle Book’ animated film character.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Black Printing

GOOFY ABOUT DISNEYLAND

Disneyland Official Postcard

Ref: 010322 (DT-35928-C)

“Where to start his tour of Disneyland’s many adventures is a problem confronting Goofy as he pauses in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

One of the famous Disney ‘five’ characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto). Goofy was of course often in the early cartoon shorts having adventures with Mickey and Donald and as such he is a very popular character. If you visit any of the theme parks, I have only done the parks in Paris and Florida but at each I see boys, teenagers and fully grown men walking around with massive Goofy’ hats, which have his drooping ears down the sides. Yes, he is most popular (but, no. I have not bought one of these hats myself).

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Blue Printing

13/01/2017

UN BONJOUR DE BRUXELLES

Et puis nous sommes alles a la Porte de Namur a la

Rotisserie – Snack

COUCOU

“Hello from Brussels

“and then we went to the door of Numur who have the Rotisserie

CUCKOO (the name of the restaurant)”

The front of this postcard depicts a number of famous buildings, and monuments, in the Belgian city of Brussels, including, bottom right, the restaurant for which this postcard was produced as an advertisement.

REVERSE SIDE OF THE ABOVE POSTCARD

This has almost as much interest to it as the front. I do like the image of the rotisserie and how the heat is shown by use of the colour red. This postcard was also used so we have a date for it, the cancel on the stamp is dated 20^th July 1962. I actually picked this up really cheaply but I think it is a smashing postcard.   

close up of cancellation and the postage stamp (which has been applied upside down)

13/01/2017

HOTEL DE PARIS

Prop (Proprietor). Hetto Gust

Place de Paris, Luxembourg

Tel. 248.23-248-24

Printer –

Edit. Photolux M. J. Feltgen – Luxembourg

Ref: Echte foto – 4481

Across Europe, and to be fair the rest of the world, hotels have, and some still do, issue their own postcards. It’s obvious if you think about it. Give someone a postcard of your hotel and then when they send it out its free publicity. Got to be worth the small expense of having the cards printed. This one from Luxembourg was not posted so may have been saved as a souvenir. But, this does not mean it did not do its job. I am sure the original owner showed it to people, hopefully saying “This is the fantastic hotel we stayed at”.

PHOTOGRAPH

The hotel is still here, and it does not look like its changed much on the outside, although no big hotel sign

13/01/2017

THE MONKEES

Courtesy of ‘Billboard’

I recently posted an old postcard depicting the pop music group ‘The Monkee’s (see under ‘Dec Blog 2’ under December Blogs 2016). When I was bidding on that card this card was also up for auction via the same seller. I thought I might as well try for this one although it was not a true postcard. I show it here for your information. It is at least from the era.  

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE CARD

13/01/2017

THE IRISH GUARDS WITH THEIR REGIMENTAL PET BRIAN BORU MARCHING THRO’ THE PARK

Published by

RAPHAEL TUCK & SONS

REGIMENTAL BANDS Series

“OILETTE” Printed series

Ref: Postcard No. 8770

Painted by

Harry Payne

Harry Payne was a well-known military artist and Raphael Tuck & Sons issued a ‘large’ number of his paintings on postcard, some of them in quite large series’. This one is a typical example of his work. This would clearly fit very nicely into my military collection but, in my early days of wildlife only postcard collecting I could have added this to my collection because of the addition of the regiments mascot, the Irish Wolfhound called Brian Boru.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARDS

Postcards in this series came with a small potted history of the regiment on the reverse side (top left). This copy here was posted from Leeds on 24^th November 1915, during World War I.

PHOTOGRAPH

St Patricks Day 1908

The Guard has both of the regiments mascots here, Dennis, a new recruit at the time, is on left, and Brian Boru, who appears on the postcard, is on the right

13/01/2017

PICK ME UP

…IMMUNISE FOR YOUR KIDS, YOURSELF AND YOUR COMMUNITY

IMMUNISE MELBOURNE

“ARE YOU WONDERING ABOUT IMMUNISING YOUR CHILD?”

phn NORTH WESTERN MELBOURNE

Published by

AVANTCARD AUSTRALIA

Ref: #20026

Issued 2016

Avantcard Australia are still producing a superb range of free postcards, in my opinion some of the best in the world. They cover all sorts of themes and some of them have very important messages, like this one. But, also, I am bit confused as to why they made the nasty little green microbe look so cute. He, or possibly she, also appears in the stamp box on the reverse side.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

13/01/2017

GIBRALTAR

ROYAL WEDDING – 29^TH JULY 1981

£1 STAMP

Published by

GIBRALTAR POST OFFICE

Printed by

THE HOUSE OF QUESTA, LONDON

Ref: Stamp Card Set No 1 (1 of 1)

“Wedding of HRH The Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer – Stamp issued 27^th July 1981”

This Gibraltar stamp card is clearly in the same format as the British Royal Mail’s PHQ Stamp Cards (all of last year’s issues were of course posted on the webpage). I believe that this one here was the first of Gibraltar’s output in this format. It is now a very popular postcard, as all ‘Diana’ related postcards became after her sad death. Before this you could pick up copies for less than they originally cost on release, but not now. Mint copies of this postcard can be found but I think the best versions are those which have a copy of the actual depicted stamp applied to the front and cancelled with the first day of issue hand stamp (dated 27^th July 1981). In 1981 £1 was a high value stamp so the release cost was high for the first day used cards, but none the less a reasonably high number were produced. Before 1997 you could pick up copies for around £1 still. These days it will cost several pounds (anything under £6 is still reasonable in my opinion)

13/01/2017

LONDON

WORLD TIME CLOCK

TRAFALGAR SQUARE – ST PAULS CATHEDRAL

BUCKINGHAM PALACE – BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Published by

RMT

RUPERT MAGNUS TRADING Co

Ref: PT9948

I openly admit that it was the unusual addition of the ‘WORLD CLOCK’ that first caught my eye when I saw this postcard in a cheap box. I had not seen one of these before and I wonder if the company RMT were the only people printing one at the time. Companies were always (and still are) looking for something unusual to catch the eye of the buyer. Buyers would have a large range of tourist postcards to choose from so anything different would help with them being picked up from the stands.