28/09/2018

SNAPE MALTINGS CONCERT HALL AND OPERA HOUSE

Published by

J. ARTHUR DIXON LTD

NATURAL COLOUR PHOTOGRAVURE POST CARD

Ref: SUFFOLK 7167

If you check out my posting dated 30/08/2918 (August 2018 Blog 4 tab) then you will see that I attended the concert hall here for a concert being recorded for BBC Radio. So, when I came across this postcard at the weekend I recognised the location depicted immediately and knew that I wanted it for my collection (but lets be fair here, if I had not been here last month this postcard would still be in the dealers box – sometimes it’s not the collectability of a card, or it’s connection to a certain theme that leads to it being bought, it is, more importantly, it’s connection to something in your life, recent or past and for me this is some of the most interesting postcard collecting that someone can do).

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

SNAPE MALTINGS

SUFFOLK

J. ARTHUR DIXON LTD

NATURAL COLOUR PHOTOGRAVURE POST CARD

Ref: SUFFOLK 6772

“These premises were built in 1859 and have been used as a maltings since that date. The Maltings Concert Hall and Opera House is situated at the rear of these buildings and was opened by Her Majesty The Queen in June 1967”

Text from reverse side of postcard

When I saw this postcard, with the one above in the same box next to each other, I also recognised the buildings. I had been fascinated by these when we visited here and took a load of pictures of them. I really liked these and again this postcard had to come my way.

28/09/2018

FIVE TREES, SIX MALLARDS

From an Oil Painting by

PETER SCOTT

Published by

ROYLE PUBLICATIONS LTD, LONDON

Ref: PC.187

Sir Peter Scott (he was made a Sir after the issue of this postcard) is one of my wildlife heroes and someone I was fascinated in as a young man. Because of my interest in wildlife I read his books and watched his programmes on television. When I started collecting postcards I came across these ROYLE issued cards depicting his paintings. When I find these I always pick them up. I also like the simple title of this one.

28/09/2018

CHINS AT WAR: CAPTAIN BRAND AND HIS LEVIES FROM THE KAMHAUS TRIBE

By

ANTHONY GROSS

Published by the:

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

Ref: Cat. No. LD 3155

I have collected this long running series of war painting postcards issued by the Imperial War Museum for many years. They appeal to me because of my interest in military history. Although I have seen lots of these cards on dealers stalls I had not previously seen this one before picking it up on a dealer’s stall at the Charring Cross Collectors Fair last Saturday.

The ‘Chins’ mentioned in the title of this painting were the Chindits who were special operations units in the British and Indian armies fighting in the Burma Campaign of 1943 – 1944. Their official designation was ‘Long Range Penetration Groups’. They were created and trained for operations far behind the Japanese lines, often deep in the jungle areas of Burma.

28/09/2018

‘POSTCROSSING’

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.   

UNTITLED

Night Time view in the city of Seoul,

South Korea

Unknown Publisher – Printer

The only postcards I have from Seoul are sport related cards related to the Seoul Olympics back in 1988. I think this card here may be my only city view postcard from this area. I assume this Seoul as this is where the sender resides, seems a fair conclusion.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

I do like bird stamps, I don’t collect them as such, but if I find any on postcards I do tend to pick them up, so these two owl stamps appealed to me. I also like the unusual LONDON themed sticky tape that the sender has stuck down through the centre of the card. It does seem that the 'postcrossing' community like sticking things on this side of their cards, and I approve of this a bit as it can making for some interesting and pretty additions. 

JOHN CUNLIFFE ….. RIP

John Arthur Cunliffe

16^th June 1933 – 20^th September 2018

Children’s book author who is perhaps best known for his characters Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim

POSTMAN PAT

Published by

Royal Mail

PHQ CARD Ref: D17

Commemorative Stamp Booklet sheet

27/09/2018

NORWICH

THE MARKET PLACE AND GUILDHALL

Photograph by

EDWIN SMITH

Published by

GORDON FRASER

(A GORDON FRASER CARD)

Ref: BEO1-14

There was something about this photograph which appealed to me when I came across it in a cheap box at a collector’s fair recently. It is clearly an old photograph, because of the cloths worn by those people that can be seen, but for me I think it was the darkness of the sky. From the people around the market, and the fact that the market is still going it seemed clear to me that this was taken during the day. This means, and it was how I saw it, that there is one hell of an extreme storm in the background. The sky is ‘definitely’ going to open-up and the rain was going to fall. It was this factor that made the card stand out for me.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The Gordon Fraser cards came in this unusual (for the UK) vertical format layout

CLOSE UP OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT ON REVERSE SIDE

27/09/2018

CIVIC CENTRE

SOUTHEND ON SEA

Published by

E.T.W DENNIS & SONS LTD

Ref: S.0448

I know this building well, I used to eat my lunch here in the building’s cafeteria for nearly a year, on and off. This was because this is next to the Southend Police Station, which can not be seen because it is in the area off to the right side off the edge of this photograph.

The Civic Centre is a very important building as it contains the registration offices for births and deaths and a number of other important local council offices and departments. Having said how important this building is I admit that I was still surprised to find this postcard depicting it! I can’t but wonder as to who would want to buy it and who would have wanted to send this as a souvenir of their visit! That said though, it does give me a nice unusual local history image, and it does also show that just about anything can be found on postcards if you look.

27/09/2018

MERRITT ISLAND

NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA

POSTCARD COLLECTION

When I am in America I always try and pay a visit to Merritt Island to do some birdwatching. It is one of my favourite places in Florida and I have seen some amazing birds and other animals here. On my most recent visit I discovered that they have produced a wide selection of new postcards, and there are some impressive issues here. I bought a complete collection of all the postcards available.

At the sales counter, where I have always had a nice chat with the staff about what creatures were currently being seen, they informed me that they had a cachet, three cachets in fact. They then gave me free reign with these to apply them to my postcard selection.

Normally I describe, or at least give full details with each depicted card, but there are quite a few here so bare-with me if I only write up something for one or two of these. I will depict both sides of each card as the reverse side descriptive texts give a lot of the information required:

These are two of the available cachets:

1 – MERRITT ISLAND – NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

2 – ST. JOHNS – NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

These are dated for day of my most recent visit – 25^th July 2018

There was also a third cachet:

3 – CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE – TITUSVILLE, FL

This cachet was applied in blue.

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

This is me using the cachet on one of my postcards

FLORIDA SCRUB JAY

This is an extremely rare bird in Florida, well, to be fair the rest of Florida. Here on Merritt Island they can be found along various points of the massive island refuge, but most commonly along the ‘Scrub Jay Trail’ a two-mile footpath which you can often walk along (unfortunately this year large parts of it were flooded, although I still walked it getting wet all the way up to the top of my knees!). Three times I have walked this path and so far, I have been extremely lucky and seen Florida Scrub Jays each time.

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

This is me using the cachet on one of my postcards

BOBCAT

This the rarest mammal that can be seen on the Island. This year we were driving along one of the refuges roads when one walked out in front of us and casually strolled across the road. It was one of the highlights of this year’s visit.

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

This is my cards, all having received their cachet’s and drying on the reception desk.

OSPREY

So rare here in the UK, but so common on Merritt Island that I usually get to see them in double figures on each trip. I even got to stop my car once just 10ft from one in a low tree eating. I watched it, without binoculars because it was so close, for over ten minutes.

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

This is me using the cachet on one of my postcards

These art-poster styled postcards were my favourite. Some of them, like this egret one, are really eye-catching.

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

This is my cards, all having received their cachet’s and drying on the reception desk. They were very kind and understanding here and let me use their work surface.

Another Bobcat one

Another beautiful Florida Scrub Jay photograph

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

The three cachet stampers that I was allowed to use on my postcards

I saw some Green Herons on my most recent visit, but not here on the Island. I saw one in the Disney Fort Wilderness Campground.

MANATEE

I have always seen at least three or four of these on the Island, but this year there were lots of them in the water off the Manatee Viewing Point, I saw at least fifteen. They are my favourite Florida mammal and a few years back I got to swim in the wild with the them, still my favourite Florida memory.

PHOTOGRAPH

25^TH JULY 2018

The postcard spinner in the Visitors Centre

I think these postcards are superb and if you ever get the chance to visit here then also visit the Visitors Centre where these postcards are on sale