12/08/2019

“HE SAYS JOHN O’ GROATS IS THAT WAY”

FIRST AND LAST HOUSE IN ENGLAND

By

TOM KERR

Published by

VALENTINE & SONS, LTD (DUNDEE & LONDON)

Ref: “ART COLOUR” POSTCARD

No. A2411

What appealed to me most is the depiction of the side of the white painted building with the black letters ‘GIFTS’ and ‘POSTCARDS’, which when I visited here many years ago was painted on this building as shown (and I suspect it may still be there). The joke here, if you have not already worked it out, is that this is Land’s End in Cornwall, the other end of the country from John O’Groats. These people have a very long drive!

This was one of the few non-military postcards that I picked up at Saturday’s military themed fair. It cost me just 25pand in my consideration was a bargain.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The ‘Wilding’ Queens Head 2 ½ d definitive stamp has been cancelled with a ‘SENNEN & LAND’S END, PENZANCE – 20^TH AUGUST 1958’ wavy line machine cancellation

12/08/2019

COMMANDO MEMORIAL

SPEAN BRIDGE

Published by

THE WHITE HEATHER PUBLISHING CO., LTD

Printed in ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND

‘A WHITE HEATHER PICTURE’

Ref: 638

The surrounding country around the location of this commando memorial was where the WWII commando’s trained. This well-known local statue is a fitting memorial to the brave soldiers who volunteered for the commando unit. The statue appears on a number of postcards published by different Scottish based publishers, this one I think is probably from the 1960’s.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Standard reverse layout for this publisher

 11/08/2019 

UNTITLED

ZEBRA

By

MAL WATSON

Published by

BEECHWOOD PUBLICATIONS LTD

Ref: 553591

This one goes really well with the Panda art card by the same artist and published by this company which I depicted on the webpage only the other day (possibly yesterday!) Both designs are straight out of the 1980’s art postcard scene.

11/08/2019

THE SALVATION ARMY BAND AT HADLEIGH, ESSEX

Painted by 85 years old

EILEEN GODSAVE

Used as the Salvation Army Christmas Card, 2009

Autographed and dated by Eileen Godsave on the front of this card, bottom right corner (in black ink)

Published by

THE SALVATION ARMY

This would have a plain back if it were not for the three lines of hand-written text which are depicted below. So, I suspect this is half of one of the Christmas cards mentioned in this same text and that someone has then taken the picture half of the card and used it like a postcard, although the applied stamp on the front has not been cancelled with and type of handstamp, as I suspect was the original intent. Really, this is just a postcard sized piece of card which I found interesting because of the front signature and the unusual, you cant see it clearly here on the scan, but on the original you can see the feint pencil drawn lines on which the text has been placed, aspect behind the hand written informative text.

ENLARGEMENT OF TEXT AREA FROM REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE (POST)CARD

The original text is in the bottom left corner

11/08/2019

TO JUDGE THE HEALTH OF A NATION

DON’T COUNT THE HOSPITAL BEDS,

COUNT THE WATER PUMPS

Quote: Source Unknown

Published by the charity:

OXFAM

Ref: OXFAM DEVELOPMENT POSTCARD No.2 – HEALTH

“Oxfam works with poor people in their struggle against hunger, disease, exploitation and poverty in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East through relief, development, research and public education”

(Text from reverse side of above Postcard)

Another of the many charity promotional postcards used to make you donate to the charity or organisation sending out the card, here its Oxfam. As I stated on a recent posting (an Ivory trade related postcard I think), these were very popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and I think this is one from the 1980’s although it was a recent postcard fair acquisition for my collection. I wonder what the Oxfam Development Postcard No. 1 looked like. Something to hunt down (if I’ve not already got one in my collection somewhere and had not noticed, but I suspect not as it does not ring any bells).

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

11/08/2019

DARLING I WANT YOU…

By

GRAHAM HIGGINS

Published by

SPLASH CARDS

Printed by

MacPrint

A very sexualised front image which leads you to suspect that this postcards image is leading down a certain pathway, but one which changes instantly and is dispelled by viewing the reverse side…

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

“TO GIVE UP SMOKING!”

A nice and unexpected turn around. The image is also well drawn (as is the front one as well). Some might say that this is not a true postcard as there are no address lines, stamp box, centre dividing line or use of the words POST and CARD, but I like to be controversial and say that this is a postcard, maybe not a conventional one, but one very cleverly, and artistically, constructed.

11/08/2019

GARDEN OF THE GODS

COLORADO

POSTCARD AND BOOKMARK

Novelty Postcard with attached Bookmark

Published by

IMPACT PHOTOGRAPHICS

Ref: 40147

These are not common, but I have seen a handful in my travels in America. This lovely photographic view one is from Colorado and I bought it last year on my train holiday across the United States. As a collector of novelty postcard’s, I had to have a couple of these for my collection.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD & BOOKMARK

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

POSTCARD AND BOOKMARK

Novelty Postcard with attached Bookmark

Published by

IMPACT PHOTOGRAPHICS

Ref: 40161

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD & BOOKMARK

COLORADO

POSTCARD AND BOOKMARK

‘MAROON BELLS, ASPEN, COLORADO’

Novelty Postcard with attached Bookmark

Published by

IMPACT PHOTOGRAPHICS

Ref: 40162-4BK

Another of these postcard and bookmark combinations. This one is as nice as the ones above, but I bought it because although it is by the same company it has very different distinctive reverse text layout – see below.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD & BOOKMARK

11/08/2019

“CLAN LESLIE” Mk1

THE FIRST TANK USED IN ACTION (1916)

Published by the

TANK MUSEUM, BOVINGTON CAMP

I have a ‘particular’ interest in the tanks of WW1 and at the fair I attended yesterday I found a selection of postcards depicting them, both contemporary and modern, like this one. The Tank Museum at Bovington has an amazing range of tanks from all era’s and I have always wanted to visit it. This postcard here, and the one below, have again boosted my interest in going.

“THE FLYING SCOTSMAN”

A Mk II TANK OF 1917 WITH DUMMY CREW

Published by the

TANK MUSEUM, BOVINGTON CAMP

Another of the museums older postcards showing another WWI tank from the museums extensive collection. I have seen a WWI tank like this one at the Imperial War Museum in London, but I do want to see this museum’s extensive collection.

11/08/2019

LOHMEYER’S

POSTAL CARD CIRCULAR

No. 10

FEBRUARY 1895

A. LOHMEYER

922 N. GILMOR STREET, BALTIMORE, Md., U.S.A.

When I was at the fair yesterday there were some items around on stands which were not military related. One of the items I found was this slim advertising circular from a dealer in America who was specialising in postal stationery post cards in 1895. For me this was a lovely piece of early postcard ephemera. I have never seen one of these before and it was not cheap, but then it is 124 years old. The original price on this was £35, from a specialist dealer in postal history and ephemera. After I had been looking at this for some time the dealer offered it to me for £30. It was still a lot of money, but when will I ever see another one of these and I do love related ephemera, and you have to remember that this is from the Victorian era, although obvously from the US (but I think this adds some interest).

So, clearly, I have bought this. I do collect the early postal stationery post cards myself so there some real interest for me in this item, also I do have the item of postal stationery – the Victoria Letter Card – pictured on the front of this circular (it has been previously depicted on this webpage). It may be that seeing this item displayed on the front is what pushed me that little bit nearer to having to buy this.  

ORDER FORM

Inside the above circular I found this unused order form. It is an interesting addition to the circular and is another piece of ephemera to add to what I already have.

11/08/2019

THE BATTLEFIELD,

BATTLE ABBEY

Published by

SWAIN, CASTLE SERIES, HASTINGS

Ref: 1981

“Sepia Style”

How many of you, on first view of this postcard images caption, read it as if this was a photo from 1981? No, it’s got to be the cards reference number as this card was issued decades before 1981.

Also, this is the type of postcard which I suppose someone visiting this area at the time this card was on release would pick it up as a souvenir, but which now, many years later would have to be picked up by someone who had a real interest in the area and, or the Battle of Hastings and the death of King Harold and the rise of William the Conqueror. That’s me really, because I have a family link to the Battle of Hastings, which I think I have mentioned before, where my ancestor fought as a knight who was quite highly placed in the army of William.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Nice locally produced postcard with a set reverse layout style for this company.

11/08/2019

“SO ONCE MORE IT WAS BUNDLE AND GO!”

James Scott Anderson

Promotional Book Advert Postcard

Unknown Printer

“From Scotland in 1914 through Egypt, Salonika and finally to the horror of war-torn France in 1918, James recalls the moment the guns fell silent on 11 November and the fighting stopped. His experiences are vividly brought to life in this wide ranging book”

(Text from reverse side of above postcard)

This was a free postcard which was available at the military themed fair I attended yesterday. It promotes a book about the personal experiences of a soldier in WW1. I like the look of this one and may pick up a copy to read. If you also fancy trying this one, I show the reverse side of this postcard below which has some details of where to get it via an applied sticker.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

11/08/2019

ACHTUNG MINEN

MINEFIELDS WARNING SIGN

Published by

GERMAN MILITARY UNDERGROUND HOSPITAL,

ST LAWRENCE, JERSEY

Copyright 1979

I have just returned home from our weekend away in Surrey, where I attended, for the first time, a Military themed fair titled ‘WAR & PHILATELY’ (held in the ton of Banstead). Now, I have always been interested in history, it was one of my ‘O’ level subjects at school, and as a result I have always collected military, and other history related postcards, but I had never heard of this theme specific fair. This is a shame as it was a smashing fair and I obtained some ‘really’ nice cards for my collection, and cards from all types of military conflicts and periods, especially WWI and WWII, but I also picked up some nice Falklands War material for my specialised collection.

This card is from the Jersey WWII German Military Underground Hospital and I have visited here, although it was some time ago back in 1983 or 1984, I think. When I saw this interesting card, I realised it is not one that was on sale when I visited, and I did not have it in my collection.

08/08/2019

LATE 18^TH CENTURY SILKWORK

PICTURE OF A RABBIT.

PARHAM PARK,

WEST SUSSEX

Printed for Parham Park by

THE HILLINGDON PRESS, UXBRIDGE

This is another of the type of unusual animal themed postcards that I would have loved to have bought as a child for my then exclusive wildlife postcard collection. It is an example of a postcard only available from the one location, and which otherwise would probably be hard to obtain.

08/08/2019

I ‘DEVIL/HATE’ POSTCARDS

By

RONALD & DONALD

1985

Published by

ART UNLIMITED AMSTERDAM

Ref: C1310

I clearly do not agree with the sentiment on this postcard design, but it is still an amusing design, although why a postcard publisher wanted to issue it is anyone’s guess!

08/08/2019

SMILE

IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Published by

FIFTYWAYS CARDS

Ref: PB 015

I had not heard of this postcard company before buying this postcard in Belgium several years ago. For me it was the look on the boy’s face that clinched the deal. If I had a few of these I would definitely give them to people on their birthday.

08/08/2019

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH

SS. ANNE AND JOHN THE BAPTIST

By

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Published by the

NATIONAL GALLERY (LONDON)

Ref: CARD No. 1325

This very large painting has its own little shaded area in the gallery. It is one of my favourite pictures in this part of the gallery and I have sat looking at it many times. The size of it always amazes me, it truly is a nice large painting. All Da Vinci’s works are historically important pieces of art, and this one is one of the galleries most popular tourist/visitor attractions. They still sell a postcard depicting it, although this one here is one of their older issues which I obtained from a postcard dealer (although somewhere in my collection I have a more recent postcard of this picture which I bought from the gallery gift shop).

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

08/08/2019

SAY NO TO THE POLL TAX

NO POLL TAX

Unknown Publisher

When the Poll Tax was implemented by the Thatcher tory government in 1990 it was heralded by protests, some so violent they turned into riots, and a strong campaign to have the tax overturned was set up in November 1989 called the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, amongst other organisations.

Many people used postcards to promote the anti-Poll Tax views and as a collector of political themed postcards I built up a fairly good, near complete collection of related postcards, although no matter how hard I searched at the time I could not find a copy of this card. For some reason it just eluded me. So, when I was in London a couple of weekends ago at a postcard/collector’s fair and I saw this card I was genuinely delighted and bought it immediately. I don’t know if it completes my ‘Poll Tax’ collection, but this was the only related postcard that I was aware of that I did not own a copy of… now I do (another reason to attend postcard fairs).

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

08/08/2019

STOP THE IVORY TRADE

THE SLAUGHTER OF THESE MAGNIFICENT CREATURES ‘MUST’ END

“Elephants, their faces cut off with chainsaws, illegally killed to supply the United States ivory market”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

Published by

IWC

INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE COALITION

Addressed to:

House of Representatives, Washington, DC

There was a period during the late 1970’s through to the end of the 1990’s, and with much less commonality into the early 2000’s, when campaign and political campaign postcards were in regular use. This is no longer really the case, thanks to email, but in their day some quite important campaigns were brought to the attention of politicians through postcard sending campaigns like this one.

As a wildlife officer I dealt with the illegal sale of ivory items here in the UK, and we did seize pieces of ivory, so I have had some personal involvement with this ongoing issue (and it certainly has not ended with more and more elephants being killed for their ivory each year)

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

08/08/2019

ONE MAN ON THE MOON

‘GREAT DISAPPOINTMENTS IN HISTORY’

“B-But… if they can ONE man on the Moon why can’t they put them all there?”

By

SPARK CERESA

Published by

CATH TATE CARDS

Ref: CT63

I only got this a couple of weekends ago at he London fair I attended, but if I had had it earlier I would have placed this one with the other comic ‘Man on the Moon’ postcards I posted last month during my Apollo anniversary daily postings. It follows in a similar vein to at least one that I posted then.

08/08/2019

UNTITLED

WOMAN AND CHILD

Published by

ENERET: RUDOLF OLSEN – KUNSTFORLAG

This is a nice postcard which is from the period of World War II and it was posted from Denmark to Gungvala in Sweden, which was of course a neutral country during the war. This side of the card is nice, but again it is something on the reverse side which lead to me buying this one.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

WORLD WAR II CENSORSHIP MARK

The two Danish definitive postage stamps have been cancelled with a Copenhagen (Kobenhavn) wavy-line machine cancellation dated 28^th December 1942. This would have been nice usage on its own, but this card also has a black circular “Ak” Copenhagen censorship mark. This censorship mark adds value to this postcard taking it from probably a £2 value up to something nearer the £5 mark.

08/08/2019

RELEASE

BELLE & BOO

Published by

NINETEEN SEVENTY THREE LIMITED

Ref: CARD: 2107

This one goes nicely with the little girl and rabbit postcard I posted on the previous webpage. This is another postcard that my daughter bought me for one of my birthdays. It is what I class as a ‘cute’ image, and none the worse for that.

08/08/2019

EN AVION

DELAHAYE/MARLIER

Copyright: CASTERMAN

Published by

BIZARR

Ref: 14194

Three or four years ago I visited Belgium and the city of Bruges. Needless to say, whilst I was there, I checked out the souvenir and collector shops for new postcards. This is one of the postcards I picked up. I have not seen this one here in the UK before or since, so I am glad I grabbed a copy when I did.

Postcards in themselves are not a reason to travel, but travel is an opportunity to look for new postcards.

A LA MAISON

DELAHAYE/MARLIER

Copyright: CASTERMAN

Published by

BIZARR

Ref: 14196

This one is clearly from the same series as the above card, and again it shows children in an adult arena. I also like the dog.

08/08/2019

“EAST ANGLIAN” (L.N.E.R.)

Published by

PHOTOCHROM CO. LTD, ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS

“ALL BRITISH PRODUCTION”

Ref: 12

Amongst steam teams this is a famous engine design, perhaps best known in the well-known record breaking the Mallard. There is also one called the Nigel Gresley’ which I had the pleasure of seeing and having it pull a carriage I was riding in up in North Yorkshire when it was a guest train on the North Yorkshire Moor railway.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Posted from ‘Eastwood, Nottingham’ on the 15^th December 1942. What I liked about this one was the addition of the SEASONS GREETINGS 1942 Christmas charity seal, the perforated stamp like label bottom centre left. I like to find these unusual additions properly used as with this card (you do find things like this used by collectors on cards and envelopes and these are described as ‘Philatelic Use’, but this one here is a genuine used label.

08/08/2019

NON-POSTCARD ITEM

POSTCARD SIZE HAND PAINTED ORIGINAL PAINTING

ORIGINAL PEN AND WASH PAINTING

‘QUEEN VICTORIA STATUE’,

SOUTHEND ON SEA

By

R. STIMSON

Postcard Painting Competition and Exhibition

Southend-On-Sea Library (the old library building)

Some years ago, there was a display and competition where local artists painted images from the Southend-On-Sea area on postcard sized pieces of card. These original paintings were then placed on display in the local library, this was in the old library building so it was definitely prior to 2013 because that was when the new library building opened-up, I also think it was several ears before that as well.

I visited this exhibition and enjoyed looking at the paintings, and I liked the fact that the competition was linked to the postcard with the size the artists had to use, and the word ‘Postcard’ also appeared in the exhibitions title. At the end of the exhibition each individual original painting was put up for sale. You could attend during the last weeks of the display and pick a postcard sized painting and pay the money (if I remember correctly these were not cheap, but not excessive at £20 each, but each is an original piece of artwork, so unique). I decided to buy one and the one that really appealed to me was this one, depicting the local Queen Victoria statue, which I have seen many, many times. So, I paid my money and reserved the painting, and then when the exhibition finished, I picked it up from the library reception. It has sat in my collection ever since as one of my more unusual additional items.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Queen Victoria Statue

Southend-on-Sea

This photo shows you what the statue looks like, almost from the same perspective as the painting.

These are before and after cleaning photographs  

08/08/2019

TRACTOR REPAIRS

Mr. ROBERT LOWE AND HIS SON OF FAIRBOROUGHS FARM,

NEAR RUDYARD STAFFORDSHIRE.

Published by

P. W. JUDSON & A. C. VEASEY

(JV CARDS)

Ref: 395M

When I was sorting out my stock earlier in the year, and placing it into themes, I included ‘Farming’. Jo thought this was an unlikely subject to be of interest, but I have been proven right as several people have asked us for this subject and we have been able to give them a selection of cards to look through. So, farming does have its collectors and I think this is one of the best photographic farming themed cards issued during the 1980’s.

08/08/2019

BRITISH MUSEUM

&

HOLBORN STATIONS

‘THE BUDDHIST APOSTLE’

Unknown Artist

1919

Published by the

LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM

Ref: LTM 492

I bought this one from the museum’s gift shop some years ago now, and it has not been on sale there for at least a few years and I have not seen it in the shop on my last three visits. I picked it up because I love the British Museum so much, I have visited it three or four times over the last year and a half. So, this postcard is more than just another museum postcard in my collection.