03/12/2018
“THE GREAT WAR, 1918”
ROYAL MAIL PHQ STAMP CARD SET
PHQ Set 448
(postcards that reproduce the Royal Mail’s stamp releases)
Stamps issued – 13TH September 2018
(As always, I have my copies used with the appropriate stamp applied to the front of the card and cancelled first day of issue with a special hand stamp)
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
This was the fifth and final segment of this Great War series which commenced in 2014. As with each of the other four sets there are six designs including a poppy art design, a piece of prose, an actual person from the great war, a painting, a memorial and an artifact from the war.
100 POPPIES
Artwork by
ZAFER and BARBARA BARAN
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 448 (1) 9. 18
I believe this piece contains the images of 100 poppies all stacked up on top of each other. Like the other poppy designs, it is another really-great Royal Mail stamp design.
SECOND LIEUTENANT WALTER TULL
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 448 (3) 9. 18
Walter Daniel John Tull was a professional footballer who had played for Tottenham Hotspur and had been only the third mixed heritage top division player in the football league. Tull joined the army in WW1, 1914, and was in the Footballers Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. He took part in the Battle of the Somme. He was commissioned in 1917 and was the first mixed heritage infantry officer in a regular British Army regiment. Tull fought on the Italian front from November 1917 to early March 1918 and returned to France where he was killed in action on the 25th March 1918 in the First Battle of Bapaume.
LIEUTENANT FRANCIS HOPGOOD’S GOGGLES
MUSEUM OF ARMY FLYING
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 448 (6) 9. 18
These are the custom-made goggles, complete with prescription lenses in triplex safety glass, belonging to one of the first RAF pilots to be shot down behind enemy lines. He survived as a prisoner of war.
03/12/2018
DISNEYLAND
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA
Printed for Walt Disney’s DISNEYLAND by
PLASTICHROME (COLOURPICTURE)
“At DISNEYLAND the leisurely pace of yesterday is set by the horse-drawn trolley as it circles DISNEYLAND’S Town Square”
(Text from reverse side of postcard)
This is the oldest DISNEYLAND postcard I have in my collection (I believe). It was posted from Los Angeles in 1959, just four years after the park opened (opening day was the 17th July 1955).
03/12/2018
REPENT YE
FOR THE
KINGDOM
OF HEAVEN
IS AT HAND.
CHRIST DIED FOR YOU
Photograph taken and Postcard Printed by the:
BOROUGH STUDIOS, DEWSBURY
I love these photographic studios family photographic postcards. Before the days of easy photographic access families would visit the local photographic studios and have a photograph taken with a backdrop and sometimes some props, which here in this photograph is a cycle and a banner, both of which have religious messages on them. The only thing I am probably ever going to know is that the family depicted here probably lived in or near to Dewsbury, where the studio was located (but I am willing to admit that there is a small possibility that they were on holiday and had a photograph taken as a souvenir, it’s just that this does not feel like a holiday or trip picture, it feels and I think looks like a proper family image designed to be sent out to family and friends on a specific occasion, New Year’s Eve, or New Year’s Day in this case as that’s what the hand written message on the reverse side relates to).
03/12/2018
LIGHTHOUSE SOUTHWOLD
Published by
ERNEST JOYCE & Co., Ltd (Norwich)
Printed by
PLASTICHROME – COLOURPICTURE PUBLISHERS, INC (BOSTON)
Ref: EJS 224
P35480
I have visited here, and it is amazing how you turn a corner and there is the Lighthouse in the town itself. It has a strong military history as well as I visited here as part of a WWII tour. Having been here, when I saw this postcard in a cheap box, I picked it out. It was posted from Southwold in 1966.
02/12/2018
WESTMINSTER BY NIGHT
THE EMBANKMENT AND WESTMINSTER BRIDGE WITH BIG BEN AND THE ABBEY
Published by
GOODPRICE (NOVELTIES) LTD
Ref: GPS 35
I know London postcards are common and modern ones are not highly collectible or valuable, but I have always picked them up and I like seeing the monuments, buildings and famous landmarks of my favourite city. This one is a little more unusual because of the night time scene, it is also one I had not seen before despite looking like a 1970’s issue.
02/12/2018
SOMERSET
MAP POSTCARD
Published by
PHOTO PRECISION
COLOURMASTER INTERNATIONAL
Ref: PT6127
I have mentioned before how I like all the little drawings that are included on these map designs. These also open-up these map cards to all sorts of different theme collectors. This one has some birds on it including a kingfisher. On the left side there is a deer hunt, something which is becoming a lot less common and only three registered hunts chase red deer with hounds in England now. With the law changes that came into place in 2004 this style of hunting is vastly becoming an historic activity and postcards depicting will, and have, become more interesting as a result.
This postcard was posted from Taunton, which appears on this map, in 1972.
02/12/2018
Now that I have signed up to the ‘postcrossing’ craze, where you send postcards out to randomly chosen addresses across the world and receive a postcard from a randomly picked person also on the ‘postcrossing’ webpage site, I am receiving unusual postcards from all over the world.
You have no idea what you are going to receive, and I think that is part of the fun of this craze.
I will be depicting the cards I get here on the webpage.
ALICE’S ADVENTURES
IN WONDERLAND
Published by
FLORASTUDIO
This is the type of postcard which makes postcrossing worthwhile, which is a bonus as I have had one or two lesser items arrive recently, so to get really-good one like this boosts my postcrossing feelings. This one came out of Russia
01/12/2018
LONDON
GOLD FOIL PRINT
Police Officers on either side
Published by
COLOURMASTER INTERNATIONAL
Printed by
PHOTO PRECISION LIMITED
Ref: HERALDIC GF10
Clearly this appealed to me because of the two police officers, one on each side of the central image of London. I also of course like novelty items and I this has some great gold foil printing which almost gives an embossed look and feel to this card. The addition of the gold and the two police officers does add a little more value to what would otherwise be a basic London scene postcard.
01/12/2018
POLAND – POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
OLYMPIC GAMES
MONTREAL 1976
Official Air Mail Postal Stationery Post Card
This nice official Olympic Games, Montreal Polish postal stationery post card was used to post a message regarding work options to the Ford Motor Company in Dagenham [spelt here as DOLGENTHAM] here in the UK. This was used some years after the year of issue, which was 1976 to obviously coincide with the Olympic Games in question. The card was used in 1981 and has a nice clean look to it for a used card.
01/12/2018
“CONGRATULATIONS”
GOLDEN JUBILEE
CELEBRATIONS
50 GLORIOUS YEARS
1952 – 2002
Design and artwork by
ROSALIND WICKS
Printed by
THOUGHT FACTORY
Published by
ROSALIND WICKS
Ref: Mixed Media Card No. 3
Issued 2002
I was always a big fan of the postcard artwork of Rosalind Wicks and I had the great pleasure of meeting her several times. This postcard here is one of her more unusual ones as it is mostly a montage of Queen Elizabeth II material although there is a typical little girl drawing bottom left which is straight out of the Rosalind Wicks art work book.
01/12/2018
MICKEY’S FILM EXPRESS
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
Published by
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Ref: Account #7020
Copyright 1978
Every so often you come across a postcard within your collecting theme which you have never seen before and which is a real cracker and you know, when you see it, that you have-to have this card because you know there is every likelihood you will never see another one.
This is exactly what happened when I found this card on eBay. I really believed that I was going to be spending a lot of money to get this one, but as luck would have it, I was the only person who placed a bid on it. I can only assume that somehow no one else found it. Anyway, as you can see it became mine and I am delighted with this card.
The postcard is one which was used by the Mickey’s Film Express to tell clients that their photograph order was ready and how much the bill was. This copy is a mint unused copy which may even be scarcer than a used-copies which would have been sent out.
01/12/2018
WELCOME HOME
OPERATION DESERT STORM
16TH ANNUAL GATEWAY SHOW
1991
Artwork by
RICK GEARY
Published by
METRO-EAST PRODUCTIONS
Limited Edition of 500 individually numbered postcards
Another appropriate postcard for today as this one also depicts the late President George Bush who passed away yesterday (see below posting from earlier today).
500 is quite a reasonable number for a Rick Geary postcard publication, but because of the popularity of all postcards related to the first Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm it is one of the more expensive ones now. There were a lot of very patriotic celebratory postcards issued in America after the conclusion of operation Desert Storm and they were popular and highly collected at the time. Because military related postcards have maintained their popularity these cards still sell well.
01/12/2018
I have placed a card on the CENSORED page today. It is one which has caused a lot of condemnation since the death of Lady Diana. It is a highly inappropriate one of her which came out in France prior to her passing away.
01/12/2018
THATCHERISM
WILL LIVE
By
JACK FOLLOWS
Published by
RONFOL
Ref: No. 14
Limited edition of 500
(Individually numbered – this copy is No 18)
This cartoon is based on part of a speech given by Margaret Thatcher in 1992, which is printed on the reverse side of this postcard (see below). The postcards published under the RONFOL title were a joint project between the modern postcard dealer Ron Griffiths and the artist Jack Follows (thus the RON and the FOL). Although perhaps not as popular as they were there are still dedicated Margaret Thatcher postcard collectors, and some of them still reach some high prices. This one was issued not long after Thatcher stepped down as Prime Minister and was trying to say that we had not seen the last of her.
01/12/2018
YOU WANT ME TO LOOK AFTER A
FAMILY, WORKFULL TIME,
AND LOOK GOOD?
Artwork by
JACKY FLEMING
Published by
JACKY FLEMING under her company name:
SUGAR AND SPICE
Printed by
STATICS LONDON
Ref: JF 201
Jacky Fleming’s work, which was, as far as I saw, always about the position of women at both home and work from the point of view of the women’s rights movement of the 1980’s. Her cartoons were extremely popular and were not only released by her on postcard many were also published by LEEDS POSTCARDS.
01/12/2018
GEORGE H. W. BUSH…..RIP
George Herbert Walker Bush 12th June 1924 – 30th November 2018
The 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. Bush also served as the Vice President (1981 – 1989), as a Congressman, Ambassador and as Director of Central Intelligence.
BUSH TOSSING SOUVENIR TIE CLIPS TO THE TROOPS IN SAUDI ARABIA
Photo by: DIANA WALKER 1991
TIME MAGAZINE, USA
Published by
ART UNLIMITED AMSTERDAM
Ref: C 3635
I collected all the postcards which related to ‘Desert Strom’ or the first Gulf War, which this was the operation name for. This Dutch issued postcard depicts the then President George Bush on his visit to American troops then stationed in Saudi Arabia. This has become a hard postcard to source these days.
30/11/2018
PLAIN GERMAN POST CARD
Ref: C 154 (6. 20)
Used 1923
I bought this postcard quite a few years ago for what was even then a lot of money, but I thought this was an attractive looking stamp combination and I knew that at least a couple of the stamps were quite high value items, well, high value in my price range.
In all there are nine stamps, with seven different types, used on this card with the stamps, from top left across (SG catalogue values from 2014):
1) 100 marks (purple) x 3 (SG 261) – SG catalogue value used £2.30 – issued 1923
2) 5 marks + 100 m surcharge (miners) orange - – overprinted for relief fund for Sufferers in the Rhine and Ruhr Occupation Districts: ‘Rhein=Ruhr=Hilfe’ (SG 257) – SG catalogue value used £14.00 – issued 1923
3) 25 marks + 500 m surcharge (miners) bistre – overprinted for relief fund for Sufferers in the Rhine and Ruhr Occupation Districts: ‘Rhein=Ruhr=Hilfe’ (SG 258) – SG catalogue value used £35.00 – issued 1923
4) 1000 marks (grey) (SG 266) - SG catalogue value used £2.30 – issued 1923
5) 500 marks (orange) (SG 240) - SG catalogue value used £2.10 – issued 1922
6) 200 marks (blue) (SG 273) - SG catalogue value used £55.00 [not an error - £55] – issued 1923
7) 2000 marks (blue) (SG 242) - SG catalogue value used £3.00 – issued 1922
The stamps catalogue at a total of £118.30, but that’s catalogue price and not the real price these stamps would reach, but also, there is some value in the stamps all being used here together on this one card and being cancelled with this hand stamp. The hand stamp reads: ‘DRESDEN – JAHRESSCHAU DEUTSCHER ARBEIT’ [Dresden – Annual show of German Work] so, this is a special event cancel - dated 22nd September 1923. I suspect this was someone’s souvenir or someone’s way of sending the card to another collector. I paid £20 for this at the time, but I think it would sell for something between £40 and £60 now, which is not bad (not that I want to sell it anyway).
30/11/2018
HIGH STREET,
COLCHESTER
Printed by
RADERMACHER, ALDOUS & CO
(R.A. PUBLISHING COMPANY)
Sold by the
MOTUM’S BAZAAR, COLCHESTER
Although this photograph appears to pre-date the first world war it was posted sometime after the war ended (the year of posting is unclear in the postmark, but I am thinking sometime in the early 1920’s, or just prior to 1920 itself). It is a nice street scene from a large town in my home county, one which has appeared on this webpage before.
30/11/2018
PARIS. –
LE PALAIS DU TROCADERO,
VUE PRISE DU PARC DU CHAMP-DE-MARS
Printed/Published (?)
ANCIENS ETAB. NEURDEIN ET CIE. – IMP. CRETE, SUCC. CORBEIL-PARIS
52, AV. DE BRETEUIL. – PARIS. – B3
Ref: 3516
I have always picked up Eiffel Tower related postcards, and because there are so many, they also have the bonus of often being cheap. This one is a nice photographic one depicting the base of the tower. This one has an added- bonus where I am concerned as my point of interest with the tower is the top mast area as this was from where the first French television broadcasts were made. Being interested in the top end of the structure means that the added cachet on the front, which reads ‘SOMMET DE LA TOUR EIFFEL’ [Summit of the Eiffel Tower], makes this of special interest to me. I collect Eiffel Tower cachets and you might be surprised how many there are. This example is an early undated one.
30/11/2018
GERMAN POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
Official Stationery Card
Pre-Printed postage stamp
This has been used to receive a lovely pictorial special cancellation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Polar Flight of the Graf Zeppelin airship. I have some items which were carried on the Polar Flight so when I saw this hand stamp, I immediately wanted this item.
30/11/2018
ESTONIA POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
Pre-Printed EESTI 6.00 stamp
TARTU MANGUASJAMUUSEUM,
ASUTATUD 1994
(Tartu Municipal Museum
Established in 1994)
Official Postal Stationery Post Card
I liked this card because of the toy element, although I do not know if this museum is a specific toy museum or a more general museum known for its toy, or doll collection. The pre-printed postage stamp has been cancelled with a special hand stamp which celebrates the 10th Anniversary of this museums opening. The cancel is dated 28th May 2004. The image used within the special cancellation is the same as hangs in a sign above the museums entrance.
30/11/2018
NETHERLANDS POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
5 CENT BLUE ON BUFF CARD
Higgins & Gage, World Postal Stationery Catalog
Section 13
Netherlands - Page 1
Reference No: 9
Issued 1877 -1879
This example was posted from Dordrecht in the Netherlands on the 3rd December 1878 and is addressed to Antwerpen (Antwerp) in Belgium (although Belgium is not written into the address). There is a receiving mark dated 4th December 1878 for ‘PAYS-RAS – PAR ANVERS’ (Anvers being Antwerp).
30/11/2018
PHOTOGRAPH
8TH October 2018
NON POSTCARD ITEM
This is me on my visit to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, America. This large publicity item was just begging to be photographed, and yes, that is yours truely in my summer shorts (It was really hot that day!) If you are ever in Washington DC then I can totally recommend this superb museum .
30/11/2018
BARNSLEY
FOLDER – IN RUSSIAN
One of my charity buys, this is a pack (a folded sheet) which contained seven postcards and a sticker. What appealed to me was the fact that all the text on both sides of the folded sheet, all printed in red (which I thought an appropriate colour considering the language) is in Russian. The seven postcards all depict scenes around Barnsley. The circular large sticker is also related to Barnsley. Now, why would Barnsley need to promote itself buy producing a pack which is clearly designed to be sent to Russia?
Well, I have an opinion on this and this is that Barnsley is twinned with Gorlovka in the Ukraine and that this pack was designed and put together to be sent over to Gorlovka as an information pack connected to the twinning of the towns. I haven’t been able to prove this, but it seems sensible to me.
FRONT OF THE FOLDED PACK
POSTCARD
BARNSLEY TOWN HALL
Printed by
THOUGHT FACTORY
One of the questions I have is were these postcards only produced to be placed in these packs or were they also available separately, or as a set, locally in Barnsley as well. There are a lot of questions I have, but what I do know is that this is an unusual pack and one worth keeping together.
PHOTOGRAPH
EXPANDED FOLDER – INSIDE AREA
This is the information section which is spread across all three folded sections of the folder. I don’t know any Russian, but I assume this is all information about either Barnsley itself, or possibly it’s a description of the seven postcards and the sticker, which would coincide with the number of these items.
I think this is an unusual item and one which shows what postcards can be used for. I like that they used postcards and did not just put plain backed photographs inside this folder. If I am right, I hope it educated the people of the area it was sent to as to what there is to see in and around Barnsley. If this was connected-with the twinning of the town, then I wonder what Barnsley got in response?