01/03/2020
1 ½ d PRE-PAID POSTAL STATIONERY Post card
UPGRADED TO 2d BY THE ADDITION OF AN ORANGE COLOURED ½ d PRE-PRINTED POSTAGE STAMP
Official ‘WEIGHTS AND MEASURES DEPARTMENT’ Dorchester, Dorset Pre-Addressed postal stationery post card
Official Coal/Coke Fuel Contract Delivery Confirmation Card.
When official pre-paid postal stationery postcards are produced, they obviously have a certain postage paid amount covered by the pre-printed stamp. When the cost of postage increased rather than dispose of the cards official organisations either added a real postage stamp or sometimes printed an additional stamp beside the pre-printed stamp already applied to the card.
29/02/2020
TOURVILLE
Published by
ARTAUD Freres –
Editeurs – Avenue de la Close – NANTES
‘COULEURS NATURELLES’
Ref: 2
I bought this card, and the one below, from a cheap box in an antiques shop in France some years ago. The person depicted here is Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, Comte de Tourville (24/11/1642 – 23.05/1701) who was a French naval commander who served under King Louis XIV and who was made Marshal of France in 1693.
DUPERRE
Published by
ARTAUD Freres –
Editeurs – Avenue de la Close – NANTES
‘COULEURS NATURELLES’
Ref: 4
A companion card to the above and clearly from some sort of set, this card depicts Guy-Victor Duperre (20/02/1775 – 2/11/1846) who was also a French naval officer and Admiral of France. He also has an inscription on the Arc de Triomphe.
29/02/2020
BARROW HOSPITAL SATURDAY DEMONSTRATION 1937
Printed by
K LTD (I believe this to be KODAK)
Published by
SANKEYS
Ref: 10
This was a very recent eBay acquisition and I will admit I probably paid close-up to the top end of its value, but it’s a ‘King Kong’ themed postcard and I could never resist anything ‘Kong’ related. When I saw this, I had to have it and thankfully it didn’t go up into the immensely silly price range. This is a marvellous piece of local history and social history and depicts an age when the representation of natives by blacked up white people was acceptable, if in fact not the norm. As time moves forward there will be a lot more interest in this sort of history and this will result in increased prices for this type of postcard so grab them whilst you can.
29/02/2020
UNTITLED
‘LIGHTHOUSE’
COMPOSITE SET OF THREE POSTCARDS
Top Postcard
Design by
MARIE-ANNE FOUCART
Published by
CORRESPONDANCES
Ref: BF 4
I thought this was a superb set of artistic postcards and although you could buy each one of these separately, I suspect most people, myself included, would have bought all three. I obtained this set in France quite a few years ago and at the same time I bought a similar set for the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower which I will depict below.
UNTITLED
‘LIGHTHOUSE’
COMPOSITE SET OF THREE POSTCARDS
Bottom Postcard
Design by
MARIE-ANNE FOUCART
Published by
CORRESPONDANCES
Ref: BF 11
I cannot explain why the reference number on this bottom postcard is out of numerical sync with the two cards which complete the front image. This is not the case with the other two sets, as shown below, which makes it even more unusual.
UNTITLED
‘LEANING TOWER OF PISA’
COMPOSITE SET OF THREE POSTCARDS
Top Postcard
Design by
MARIE-ANNE FOUCART
Published by
CORRESPONDANCES
Ref: BF 39
I think I preferred this one over the above Lighthouse set, but then I have been to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, although I bought this set many years before getting to see the Tower for real.
UNTITLED
‘EIFFEL TOWER’
COMPOSITE SET OF THREE POSTCARDS
Top Postcard
Design by
MARIE-ANNE FOUCART
Published by
CORRESPONDANCES
Ref: BF 36
This set is by far my favourite, but then I have collected Eiffel Tower postcards for many years because of the structure’s connection with the early story of French television. On top of the tower in this image you can see the TV mast at the very top.
28/02/2020
“STAR WARS”
ROYAL MAIL PHQ STAMP CARD SET
PHQ Set 465
(postcards that reproduce the Royal Mail’s stamp releases)
Stamps issued – 26TH November 2020
(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
If you recognise this format, then that’s no surprise as this is the Royal Mails third (and they say ‘Final’) issue of Star Wars characters. Over the years these stamp designs have caused some consternation with stamp collectors, but there is no denying that they have been popular with the general public, and more important to Royal Mail also financially successful. Personally, I love these.
This is also the last issue of 2019. I have received the first two sets for 2020 this morning so will need to post these soon to catch up with myself.
COUNT DOOKU
(Christopher Lee)
1st Class Stamp
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 465 (1)
Funnily enough, as I type this, I am watching Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, which features Count Dooku.
LANDO CALRISSIAN
(Billy Dee Williams)
1st Class Stamp
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 465 (2)
The last of the stars from the original films, although not the very first one as the character first appeared in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and then ‘Return of the Jedi’. The main image here shows the character as he appears in the earlier films, but he did make a brief appearance or two in the most recent film ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’. It was good to see him again.
GRAND MOFF TARKIN
(Peter Cushing)
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 465 (5)
A character from the very first Star Wars film. This evil character was superbly portrayed by the actor and he added some star gravitas to the film. Although Peter Cushing died back in 1994 the character of Grand Moff Tarkin was required to appear in the 2016 Star Wars film ‘Rogue One’. This was achieved by creating a CGI version of the character, which was very well done.
DARTH MAUL
(Ray Park)
1st Class Stamp
Published by
ROYAL MAIL
Ref: PHQ 465 (6)
When Royal Mail issued the first set back in 2015 obviously this design was not included, but it did come on a limited-edition print card, A5 size, which was sent out to Royal Mail subscribers one Christmas (possibly that year). This A5 print has been depicted here on the webpage but back when I received my copy – as it featured my favourite character I decided to show it then, so clearly, I am delighted it has now appeared on a stamp. This has become my favourite of the set (or sets)
27/02/2020
UNTITLED
LETTER BOX & LETTERS
Novelty ‘SHAPED’ Postcard
Published by
PAPERCHASE
This one is a few years old now and I have not seen a copy on sale in any paperchase store for a year or so. Followers of our facebook page will know that post boxes fascinate me, and I have posted images of all sorts of different sized and shaped ones on the facebook page. So, it should come as no surprise that I like finding them on postcard as well. This shaped one, although showing a very simplified postbox outline, appealed a lot, but then I also love novelty shaped postcards as well.
27/02/2020
75 EVE SZOL A MAGYAR RADIO
’75 Years of Hungarian Radio’
Published by the Hungarian Postal Authority
Kiadja a Magyar Posta RT. AZ. ANTENNA
HUNGARIA RT. ES A MAGYAR RADIO RT
TAMOGATASAVAL
ARA: 34Ft
This multi-layered design depicts a selection of different images all related to the history of Hungarian radio. It is an official postal stationery post card as it has a printed postage stamp on the reverse side.
26/02/2020
FOUR APPONENTS
ONE ARENA
‘ASSAULT YOUR SENSES’
WU-TANG
TASTE THE PAIN
Published by
BOOMERANG CINEMA CARDS
Advert postcards for what I assume is a computer game, not that I am any expert as I am not a computer game fan. But I notice the ‘Play Station’ logo bottom left, which normally indicates a computer game. I have quite a selection of computer game related postcards, many of which, in fact nearly all of them, were free advertising cards. I think this is going to be a big future category for collectors, especially as the current youth grow up and look for collectibles related to their childhood.
26/02/2020
STATUE OF LIBERTY
‘PICK UP YOUR PHOTO AT THE BLUE KIOSK’
Published by
SHOWTIME PICTURES
Free Postcard
When you attend the Empire State Building to visit the Observation level you go through several levels of introduction and entertainment which includes a King Kong experience and a small museum and film area. You also get a chance to have your photograph taken against a green screen which places you with a photographic background. As is normal with these things you get a card which can be scanned at the booth so that you can see your photograph and if you like it, you can buy it. Unusually, here they give you your barcode via a postcard, the one depicted here. This one is the postcard that we received, although we did not opt to buy the picture, possibly because I was afraid that they might take or write on the postcard if we did! Anyway, what this means is that I ended up with a great free postcard for me collection (a rare thing these days)
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
Hundreds if not thousands of these must be given out, so I am surprised I had not seen one before. It did come as a surprise to me when the postcard was handed over, it was a delight, but definitely a surprise as well. I would guess that some people keep it as a souvenir, but I also suspect many also bin theirs, and of course some must hand them in and get their photographs. I checked on eBay and there are no copies of this card currently being offered!
25/02/2020
GRIM REAPER
By
ROB HODGSON
URBANGRAPHIC. CO. UK
Published by
PAPER PLANES
Ref: PAP051
The Grim Reaper should always arrive on a motorcycle! The funny thing is that I have just watched the Grim Reaper arriving on a motorcycle in the television adaptation of the sci-fi-fantasy book ‘Good Omens’, which I have read and which was co-written by one of my all time favourite authors, Terry Pratchett (who co-wrote the book with Neil Gaiman who wrote the TV Series version/adaptation). The TV series was very good whilst the book is of course excellent, and this postcard, which has no connection with the book is also superb.
25/02/2020
UNICEF
PADDINGTON’S JOURNEY SET
‘WANTED ON VOYAGE’
“GREETINGS FROM LONDON”
Large sized individually addressed Postcard
Printed exclusively for UNICEF
Those who follow our facebook page will already know about this one as we posted about it about a month ago. UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) currently have this subscription offer where if you subscribe for a certain monthly donation you receive a package each month which contains a postcard from Paddington Bear (in his movie’s persona). Each postcard will be from a different location. There is also a sticker sheet and in this first package a travel journal book which is designed to receive the stickers which I assume come with each sending and which are based on the destination of that months sending. There is also a little activity sheet as well with the first one being a large fold out map.
Let’s be quite clear here, the postcards are not compatible to the amount you are required to pay/donate each month to get this Paddington Bear offer, which is £8.99, but this is not about value for money, this is about donating money to a really good cause and as a bonus getting something unusual to add to your collection.
As each postcard arrives, I will post a copy of it here on the webpage so that you can see what each of these looks like.
REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
Each postcard will have a message which is supposed to come from Paddington on his journeys. I also like the fake Paddington themed stamp like design top right.
ORIGINAL ENVELOPE
This is the envelope that the first sending arrived in
24/02/2020
LOURDES
Published by
EDITION YAN.P CHAMBON
EDITEUR, 6 RUE DE L’HOTEL-DE-VILLE, LOURDES
Ref 81
An early to mid-modern era multi-view postcard for the Lourdes, a town in southwestern France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. This town is best known for the Sanctuaires Notre-Dame de Lourdes, a major Catholic pilgrimage site which is visited by millions of people.
24/02/2020
MICKEY MOUSE AT OLD IMPERIAL PALACE
By
MARTIN KERS
1982
Published by
ART UNLIMITED AMSTERDAM
Ref: C 717
Disney as a theme is one of my top collected themes, and although I specialise in Disney Theme Park postcards I do have a lot of other Disney postcards. I have a particular liking for what I would describe as the more unusual Disney themed illustrations and photographs, which is probably why I like this one so much.
24/02/2020
“ROYAL NAVY SHIPS”
ROYAL MAIL PHQ STAMP CARD SET
PHQ Set 462
(postcards that reproduce the Royal Mail’s stamp releases)
Stamps issued – 19TH September 2019
(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
I am a bit behind with this one as it got lost in the post, you have already seen the couple of sets which came out after this one, up to the Xmas 2019 set, but I needed to get this one out of the way to catch back up (although I also have one last 2019 set to depict before I can start the 2020 issues, not that I have received these yet).
This set here has some lovely paintings and would be a great set for anyone interested in our maritime history.
MARY ROSE 1511
1ST Class Value
Published by
Royal Mail
Ref: PHQ 462 (1)
HMS BEAGLE 1820
£1.60 Value
Published by
Royal Mail
Ref: PHQ 462 (8)
This one is a ‘particular’ favourite of mine because I studied the voyage of the HMS Beagle when Charles Darwin was onboard for a school project. I have always been interested in the life of Charles Darwin and I have put together a nice little related postcard collection themed around Charles Darwin as a result.
24/02/2020
PIER HEAD,
SOUTHEND ON SEA
Unknown Publisher
(I assume this was a local production)
This is a very recent acquisition and one which I could not resist when I saw it on eBay. It is a photograph of the far end of my local pier. It is a picture I had not seen before and one so packed with people that it clearly is not a staged photograph. The other thing that appealed is that looking at the cloths of the people in this photograph it would be possible that my mother and father could be here, although they are clearly not, I’m just saying that time wise we are in the right period.