23/12/2018
Count Down to Christmas
The 10th of December has passed, and Jo has put our Christmas decorations up, so I decided to start my Christmas Postcard countdown – I shall depict at least one ‘Xmas’ themed postcard each day until we reach Christmas Day itself.
Nearly there now…
DAY FOURTEEN
FROHLICHE
WEIHNACHTEN!
“Happy Christmas!”
By
HANS BORGHORST
Published by
CARTOONKAUFHAUS (MODERN TIMES)
Ref: Best.- Nr. 1115-8932
I loved this card when I came across it in a shop in Nuremburg. The Germans certainly have some great postcards.
FRIEDE FREUDE WEIHNACHTSGRUSSE
"Peace Joy Christmas"
Design by
R.LOOIJ / A. BIRKENSTOCK
Published by
CITYPRODUCTS
Ref: ART. NR. 3600
NOVELTY SHAPED POSTCARD
I bought a selection of interesting Christmas postcards published by this company whilst in Nuremberg and most of them had some sort of novelty element. This one has a curved cut to the top of the card.
OH TANNENBAUM
“Oh Christmas Tree”
Design by
R.LOOIJ / A. BIRKENSTOCK
Published by
CITYPRODUCTS
Ref: ART. NR. 3594
NOVELTY SHAPED POSTCARD
This card also has a curved top to it, and, also like the card above it has some shiny surface areas as well although its mainly silver on the above card and gold on this one.
22/12/2018
DEUTSCHE LUFTFAHRTSCHAU
(German Airshow)
FLUGHAFEN HANNOVER
(Airport Hannover)
Official Plain Backed Card
A simple printed postcard designed to receive the special hand stamp for an Airshow which was held at Hannover Airport. Two stamps have been applied and cancelled thus:
HANNOVER FLUGHAFEN
DEUTSCHE LUFTFAHRTSCHAU
5-5-63
(5th May 1963)
22/12/2018
OVILLERS-LA-BOISSELLE
(SOMME)
L’EGLISE AVANT LE BOMBARDEMENT
Pauchet-Rouvillain, Mercerie-Epicerie a Pozieres
Photo by
G. Lelong, a Albert
“Ovillers-la-Boisselle
(Somme)
The Church before Bombarding
Pauchet-Rouvillain, Haberdashery in Pozieres”
Printer unknown
But it seems this card was published for
Pauchet-Rouvillian
A postcard from the First World War period which depicts the church in Ovillers-la-Boiselle, a commune located in the Somme area of Northern France. This location was the site of intense and sustained fighting between the German and Allied forces between 1914 and 1916. The front line ran through the commune. The war first reached the town in September 1914 with the Germans who were approaching the town being attacked by the French. The town was all but erased through the subsequent fighting and this church all but destroyed. The pencil marks scrubbed across the location across the top and bottom was a form of censorship and was done on cards before they were sold to soldiers, it was done to save them having to do this.
22/12/2018
GAND: LE RABOT
Plain backed card
This is an unusual item. It is a plain backed card which has a small image of the Rabot, part of the old fortifications which were located around Ghent in Belgium (GAND being GHENT). The card has received a lion definitive (40c) stamp (this is not a pre-printed stamp but an actual applied stamp – so this is not a postal stationery card). The stamp has been cancelled with a special hand stamp that’s reads:
GENT
INT LE JAARBEURS DER VLAANDEREN
“The Annual Fair of Flanders”
This is dated 14th September (9) 1963 [possibly 1968, but I think it is a 3 rather than an 8]. Someone clearly produced this a philatelic souvenir, a card to get the special event cancel. I don’t know the source of the card itself, but it’s a very simple design.
22/12/2018
Count Down to Christmas
The 10th of December has passed, and Jo has put our Christmas decorations up, so I decided to start my Christmas Postcard countdown – I shall depict at least one ‘Xmas’ themed postcard each day until we reach Christmas Day itself.
We are getting close now…
DAY THIRTEEN
BAH, HUMPUG
Artwork by
GEMMA CORRELL
Published by
OH DEER LTD
Another one which I found this year in paperchase shops. It makes a simple word-pun joke through-the-use of a connected illustration. My daughter has always wanted a Pug dog as a pet, but I am not a fan.
EIN GUTES
NEUES JAHR
(A Good New Year)
Published by
EDITION TAUSENDSCHOEN
(Copyright – Behr Design)
Made in Germany
Ref: PK 638
This is the superb postcard sent to me from America by my ‘postcard’ friend Frank Roche (otherwise known as the ‘Postcardist’). It’s a cracking design with a touch of glitter and a nice deckle-edge, which makes it look older than it is as I assume this is a recent card. I love the montage artwork of snowmen images and the little stamp like bit top right.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
Frank sent this one to me via the North Pole, or to be more precise the North Pole postal area in America so it has received a NORTH POLE postmark, which can be clearly made out top centre.
Another of the US circular shaped Global stamps has been used here, one which depicts a blossoming Poinsettia, a flowering plant that is linked to the Christmas season (my wife Jo buys one every year, although this year’s plant has yet to arrive for some reason!). I have been collecting these round global stamps since they have been issuing then, but this is the first of the new Poinsettia ones I have received since their issue on the 27th August this year (2018).
My thanks to Frank for yet another great postcard and another stamp for my collection.
21/12/2018
SOUVENIR D’ AMITIE
Novelty Postcard with Applied Little Metal Gems and Silver Glitter
& Embossed Image
Unknown Publisher
(but there is a nice little logo on the reverse side of a sail ship with a beacon on top and the letter E on the sail)
Ref: M. S. i. B. 13623
(The M. S. i. B. could be the Publisher initials or similar)
I like novelty cards, which must have become clear by now, and anything applied to the front of a postcard turns it into a novelty item. Here you have an early French postcard which has had some small shiny metal gems, which are designed to look like jewels. There is also some silver glitter stuck down to some of the cards surface.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
This has a French 5c stamp applied which I think means this card was posted sometime between 1909 and 1917 (the rate went up to 10c in 1917), unfortunately the cancel on the stamp has not been applied clearly so I cannot make out the year of postage. Here on this side you can also see that this image is embossed on the card
21/12/2018
BATMAN & ROBIN
Published by
BK EDITION (bk edition)
Ref: Best.- Nr. 0214-261398
I love television themed postcards and I am always looking out for new ones. I also really like cards which depict images from the programmes from the 1960’s, although new modern recent issues are not that common. So, imagine my surprise when I came across this one whilst in Nuremberg recently. It’s a cracker in my mind.
21/12/2018
GRUS AUS NURNBERG
(Greetings from Nuremberg)
Unknown Publisher
Ref: 104 C
This is another old postcard I bought at the museum shop in the German History museum in Nuremberg. This one has an undivided reverse layout so would have been issued around the turn of the last century. I really liked this one.
21/12/2018
CRIME SQUAD
BATMAN MOTORCYLE TOY
This is a great postcard and one I was delighted to receive from a work colleague some years ago now. Thankfully, because of this I know the source of this card. There is nothing on the card itself which would indicate where it came from, so anyone buying this from a dealer would probably assume this is an advertising promotional card, but in fact it came in the box that this Batman toy came in. It was therefore part of the toys packaging contents, a sort of freebie. My friend knew I collected postcards and believed that his son would have thrown the card away with the box (which apparently, he nearly did!), so he brought it in to work for me. I suspect many were lost as children threw away their boxes and this postcard inside it.
21/12/2018
HENRY !!!
By
FITZPATRICK
Published by
BAMFORTH & CO., LTD (HOLMFIRTH)
Ref: “COMIC” Series No. 2375
It is Christmas so I suppose the pantomime Horse is a topical theme, although what is suggested to be going on here is probably less than festive, although when this card was released it was considered amusing (it would be considered otherwise in today’s climate with all the sexual harassment cases in the press, but this card had its day and it is now an historical item of a time now passed).
21/12/2018
Count Down to Christmas
The 10th of December has passed, and Jo has put our Christmas decorations up, so I decided to start my Christmas Postcard countdown – I shall depict at least one ‘Xmas’ themed postcard each day until we reach Christmas Day itself.
DAY TWELVE
THE CALL TO ARMS RESOUNDED
THROUGHOUT OUR EMPIRE GREAT,
AND MANY A ONE RESPONDED
THEIR LIFE TO DEDICATE;
HOME SEEMS NOT HOME WITHOUT THEM
WHEN THEY ARE FAR AWAY,
BUT WE LIFT OUR HEARTS TO WISH THEM
A HAPPY CHRISTMAS DAY
(Sidney Neville)
Unknown British Publisher
This postcard was produced in the first year of World War 1 for the first Christmas of the war (this copy was posted in December 1914). It is an interesting and very patriotic card which manages to capture the early enthusiasm for the war, before the substantial battle losses started to mount up and it become clear the war would not be over before Christmas (clearly as this postcard had been produced) and would not be over in less than a year.
(UNTITLED)
“PEACE ON EARTH
GOODWILL TO ALL”
‘A police state-nein danke !’
By
RAY FRENCH
Published by
RAY FRENCH
This is another clearly anti-police postcard issue from my collection. Now, although I may not agree with the sentiment here, I do also collect postcards which are not nice to the police world as I believe a complete span of any theme should be approached.
Having said all-of-the-above, I also believe that there is a Christmas theme to this card as well as the people depicted are clearly carol singers, and therefore this is a Christmas card of sorts all-be-it a very unusual one.
UNTITLED
Multiple Robins design
By
KATY WELSH
Published by
USTUDIO DESIGN (PAPER PLANES)
Ref: XMAPAP 006
What could be more Christmassy than robins? This is another new issue for this year which has appeared in paperchase shops. This one could of course also fit nicely into a Bird themed collection.
21/12/2018
GRAF ZEPPELIN FLOWN CARDS
Official Postcards
I have scanned onto my computer the postcards in my collection which have been flown on the Graf Zeppelin, Graf Zeppelin II and Hindenburg Zeppelin Airships. The good thing about these items is that there is a lot of printed information relating to them which allows me to give you detailed write-ups on these items:
ENGLAND FLIGHTS
1931 – 1932
LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN (L.Z. 127)
AUF SEINEM
“DEUTSCHLANDFLUG”
Published by
KUNSTVERLAG FRANZ WALTER, MUNCHEN 19
Ref: LZ. 14
This is a nice black and white photographic postcard image of the Graf Zeppelin airship on what was its German flight (DEUTSCHLANDFLUG). This postcard was used on a different flight as can be seen by the reverse side below.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
ENGLAND FLIGHT 1931
This postcard was posted onboard the Graf Zeppelin on its 1931 England Flight using a 1 RM Zeppelin stamp (SG 433) which has been cancelled with the onboard special cancellation ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’ which is dated 18th August 1931. The card has then received the purple Tower Bridge pictorial ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN ENGLANDFAHRY 1931’ special exclusive flight cachet. This card has been hand addressed to a Birmingham location.
FRIEDRICHSHAFEN A.B. LANDING DES LUFTSCHIFFES
“GRAF ZEPPELIN” VOM FLUGZEUG AUS GESEHEN
“Friedrichshafen a.B. landing of the Airship
“Count Zeppelin” seen from the plane”
Published by
Granh Runft u. Berla??anfialt U. Weber & Co., Stuttgart.
Another nice photographic postcard showing an aerial view looking down on the Graf Zeppelin airship
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
ENGLAND FLIGHT 1931
For this England Flight 1931 the UK London based philatelic stamp company STANLEY GIBBONS had a selection of postcards prepared and stamped up for posting onboard the flight. The address was typed onto the cards. This postcard was posted onboard the Graf Zeppelin on its 1931 England Flight using a 1 RM Zeppelin stamp (SG 433) which has been cancelled with the onboard special cancellation ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’ which is dated 18th August 1931. The card has then received the purple Tower Bridge pictorial ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN ENGLANDFAHRT 1931’ special exclusive flight cachet. These Stanley Gibbons addressed postcards are the ones I see the most of for this flight. The ‘MIT ZEPPELIN – ENGLANDFAHRT’ air label mark in blue had been printed on the card along with a black text print top left which reads ‘AN BORD “GRAF ZEPPELIN” FAHRT’ (On Board “Graf Zeppelin” Flight)
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
ENGLAND FLIGHT 1932
For this England Flight 1932 the UK London based philatelic stamp company STANLEY GIBBONS had a selection of postcards prepared and stamped up for posting onboard the flight. The address was typed onto the cards. This postcard was posted onboard the Graf Zeppelin on its 1932 England Flight on the outward-bound flight from Friedrichshafen to London. The two German stamps have been cancelled with the onboard special cancellation ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’ which is dated 2nd July 1932. The card has then received the yellow St Pauls Cathedral pictorial ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN ENGLANDFAHRT 1932’ special exclusive flight cachet. These Stanley Gibbons addressed postcards are the ones I see the most of for this flight. The ‘MIT ZEPPELIN – ENGLANDFAHRT’ air label mark in blue had been printed on the card along with a black text print top left which reads ‘AN BORD “GRAF ZEPPELIN” FAHRT’ (On Board “Graf Zeppelin” Flight)
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
ENGLAND FLIGHT 1932
This postcard was posted onboard the Graf Zeppelin on its return flight from London to Friedrichshafen using three Eagle airmail stamps which have been cancelled with the ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’ cancel dated 4th July 1932. As this was the return flight part of the England Flight this card also received the yellow St Pauls Cathedral pictorial ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN ENGLANDFAHRT 1932’ special exclusive flight cachet. Upon its arrival the card also received the arrival cancel ‘FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (BODENSEE) MIT LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’, which, because the flight took place on just the one day is also dated 4th July 1932. This has a typed German address.
GREAT BRITAIN POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
Official GB Postal Stationery Post Card
This GB postal stationery postcard has been used with the addition of a 1 RM Zeppelin stamp (SG 433) which has been cancelled with the onboard special cancellation ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’ which is dated 4th July 1932. The post card was posted onboard the Graf Zeppelin on the return flight segment of the 1932 ENGLAND FLIGHT. This card has received the yellow St Pauls Cathedral pictorial ‘LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN ENGLANDFAHRT 1932’ special exclusive flight cachet. Upon its arrival the card also received the arrival cancel ‘FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (BODENSEE) MIT LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN’, which, because the flight took place on just the one day is also dated 4th July 1932. This has a typed German address. This is such an unusual item and one which cost me £75, so it was not a cheap card, but it is a great one.
20/12/2018
Count Down to Christmas
The 10th of December has passed, and Jo has put our Christmas decorations up, so I decided to start my Christmas Postcard countdown – I shall depict at least one ‘Xmas’ themed postcard each day until we reach Christmas Day itself.
DAY ELEVEN
KELLEMES KARACSONYI UNNEPEKET
‘Merry Christmas’
Published by
LIZZY CARD
This is a nice Tigger Disney character postcard which has the title in Hungarian, which gives us the source country. I not only liked the front of this card I also liked the reverse side which you can see below.
MERRY XMAS
NOVELTY STICKER POSTCARD
Published by
INTRODUCT HOLLAND BV
DUTCH ISSUE (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)
Ref: 036001
Novelty postcards are amongst my favourites with sticker postcards being perhaps one of the more common forms available. This card has one large central sticker which just to the outside of the green boarder around the character of Tigger. I also immediately noticed that the Tigger drawing was the same as the one I had on the postcard depicted above and I like it when you find similarities in cards issues, especially ones from different countries. The two cards are together in my collection now.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
There are a couple of things I like about the reverse side details here. One is the little sign which appears top left and bottom right which shows that the card should not be sold to anyone between the ages of 0 – 3. I had not seen this before. Also, in the stamp box there is reference to a price group banding, this one being PRICE GROUP C. I am aware of this type of price marking being used regularly here in the UK for greetings cards, they use it in WH Smith for instance, but I had not seen it on postcards before.
BEST WISHES
AND
MY GREETINGS
FOR CHRISTMAS
Novelty Embossed Postcard
Published by
B. B. LONDON
Ref: SERIES No. X.9.
Printed in Germany
This is an old postcard which was posted (and probably was sold there) in America in 1911. It has a nice mild embossing and was superbly printed, as were many such postcards across the world at this time, in Germany before World War I broke out.
HAPPY WINTER
Artwork by
FRIELINGHAUS DESIGN
Published by
KUNST UND BILD GmbH
Ref: Bestall-Nr.- 848142
(HAPPY LIFE)
BERLIN, GERMANY
NOVELTY – PRINTED ON THICK CARDBOARD STYLED CARD
This was one of several thick cardboard printed designs I bought whilst in Nuremberg two week ago. This one is not specific to Christmas, but what else is brought-to-mind by this image except for the joys of the Christmas season? So, I give you this card as one of my Christmas count down cards.
19/12/2018
HAI FIVE
Design by
R. LOOIJ
Published by
CITY PRODUCTS (HAPPY PEOPLE)
Ref: ART. NR. 3474
Made in Germany
This is an interesting cartoon (I bought it because I like shark cards). At first I assumes this was German for HIGH FIVE, as in the greeting where you hold your hand up and slap it against another’s, but I now know that HAI in German means SHARK, so perhaps its has a double meaning as in its similarities with HIGH FIVE with the additional visual connection with the meaning of the word HAI. If that is the case, then it’s a clever old card. I bought this one in Nuremberg two weeks ago on my visit.
19/12/2018
“I’VE NOT HEARD MUCH
ABOUT THAT BRAND”
Cartoon by
MEL CALMAN
Published by
ASH
(Action on Smoking and Health, London)
Signed on the front in pencil by
MEL CALMAN
MEL (Melville) CALMAN was a British cartoonist who is perhaps best known for his ‘Little Man’ character, who appears here on this postcard, who appeared in cartoons in various British newspapers such as the Daily Express, The Times, The Sunday Times and The Observer. Calman sadly passed away in 1994 and is perhaps not as well know today as he was in the 1980’s when this postcard was printed and signed on the front by the cartoonist himself. The signature on the front does make this a nice little item and obviously worth more than the unsigned versions. Having said this I should also point out that this card is hard to find even unsigned.
19/12/2018
BATHERS AT WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA
Unknown Publisher (probably local)
Ref: W. 175.
Westcliff on Sea is a suburb, so to speak, of my home town of Southend. It is located on the west side of central Southend and goes, as can be seen here, right down to the seaside frontage.
I know that I post a lot of Southend based topographical (view) postcards on this webpage, but this is my home town and thus the area I collect the most, so I use the examples from here to show you what can be found in this area of collecting, but of course you can look out for similar dated cards for the area that you either live or were brought up in.
There is a hut on the landside with a sign across the top reading R. OSBORNE which was and is a famous local family who still sell shellfish and fish in Leigh on Sea. Therefore, I believe that this hut was a shellfish stand where people could have got their cockles, the speciality of this area (still to this day).
I walk and drive along this stretch of the seafront quite a lot and as a result I love this earlier image of the area.
19/12/2018
CATHEDRALE STRASBOURG
Plate – formed de la cathedrale de Strasbourg
Published by
MAISON D’EDITION D’ART ALSACIEN, STRASBOURG, RUE GUSTAVE DORE
Original price 15 cents (as printed on the reverse side of this postcard)
This black and white postcard, purchased in August 1919, shows the ornate main front entrances to the Cathedral. This is a lovely detailed photograph which somehow seems better without the addition of people who were certainly absent when this photograph was taken.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
This cracking postcard was bought at the Cathedral and received the special cachet only available to visitors. The cachet reads:
TOUR DE LA CATHEDRALE
8 – AOUT 1919
STRASBOURG
It was this great cachet that caused me to buy this card in the first place because as has been mentioned before I do like cachets and marks and I had not seen this one before.
STRASBOURG
La Fleche de la Cathedrale touchee
par un obus allemande pendant le
Siege de la Ville en 1870
STRASBOURG
‘The Arrow of the Cathedral touched
by a German shell during the
Siege of the city in 1970’
Published by
EDIT. CH. BERGERET, 11, MARCHE-NEUF, STRASBOURG
Original price 15 cents (as printed on the reverse side of this postcard)
On this postcard there was the space on the front for the special cachet to be applied here. This is the same cachet as appears on the reverse side of the above postcard, exactly-the-same as it happens as it has the same date as well. As I found these two postcards together, in a collection I bought some years ago I have always assumed they were acquired by the same visitor and had been kept together over all the intervening years. Having the cachet on the front makes this a great example for a display.
19/12/2018
PEARL HARBOUR
Film Poster
7Th June 2001
Published by
EDGAR MEDIEN AG
Ref: #4.634
(Free Rack Postcard)
This is German issue from what was a free rack postcard publisher from way back when these were popular postcards. This one is for the feature film version of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour which brought America into the Second World War. It is a long film wrapped around the story of three main characters. Personally, I think it is a bit long although I do think the actual battle scenes around the attack on the harbour are excellent and timed to what happened during the actual attack itself. The film is worth watching for this segment alone.
19/12/2018
NURNBERG
KONLGLICHE BURG,
SCHLOSSHOF MIT LINDO (?)
(Nuremberg)
Published by
230 HERMANN MARTIN, KUNSTVERLAG, NURNBERG.
NACHDR. VERBOTEN
This is a postcard I found in my collection before I left for Nuremberg, it is one that I have had for a long time in a box of miscellaneous cards which I had in storage. It was pure coincidence that I found it just before visiting the town.
19/12/2018
LA GRANDE GUERRE
ARRAS
L’HOTEL DE VILLE ET LE BEFFROI INCENDIES
PAR LES OBUS ALLEMANDS EN FLAMMES,
LE 7 OCTOBRE
CHARLES LEDIEU, ARRAS
Published by
LEVY FILS & C, PARIS
Ref: 5 – Vise Paris no 2557
The Great War – Arras – The Town Hall and the Beffroi (Belfry) Fires – by the German Obus in Flames – October 7
First World War French postcard depicting the Town Hall in Arras on fire after German shelling or bombing on October 7th . The year is not given, but the Town Hall was burnt badly by fires in October 1914, records say on the 8th , although this postcard says the 7th (but the fire could have carried over two days quite easily) and the bell tower collapsed a fortnight later, therefore I am happy this is from 1914.
19/12/2018
Count Down to Christmas
The 10th of December has passed, and Jo has put our Christmas decorations up, so I decided to start my Christmas Postcard countdown – I shall depict at least one ‘Xmas’ themed postcard each day until we reach Christmas Day itself.
DAY TEN
CHRISTMAS WISHES
By
ROSALIND WICKS
Published by
DAVID SHAW
Ref: CHRISTMAS WISHES (4)
DAVID SHAW 1990 (56)
David Shaw, who I believe was based in Haworth up in North Yorkshire, issued a range of postcards around this time, 1990, although most were of a philatelic theme. This one though used well known postcard artist Rosalind Wicks to create a great Father Christmas image, although the philatelic theme was still there with the inclusion of a red postbox.
RUSSIAN POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
WINTER (CHRISTMAS) THEME WITH
MADONNA AND CHILD
Official Postal Stationery Post Card
As with all the Russian cards in my collection I have little real knowledge re publishing details and exact titles etc., mainly because I have no knowledge of the Russian language, but I have mentioned before that this does not detract from my love of these cards.
UNTITLED
DOG WITH SANTA HAT
WINTER SCENERY
Published by
MOEPPI BAUMANN
(Moppi Baumann und seine freunde)
I found this great Christmas (toy) Dog postcard in the shop attached to the German History Museum in Nuremberg. There were a whole number of cards by this company which all depicted stuffed toy animals (which I did buy and which I will have to show in the future at some point), but this was the only one with a winter or Christmas like theme. I think it’s a great card.