05/01/2019

PRINCE HARRY & MEGHAN MARKLE

ROYAL WEDDING

19^TH MAY 2018

Published by

JUDGE SAMPSON LIMITED

Ref: ROYPOS002

I have been watching a number of those yearly event round up television programmes and all of them have mentioned the wedding of Prince Harry to the actress Meghan Markle in May. Here on ‘marks-postcard-chat’ I think we covered the postcard side of things quite well depicting all the photographic and artist designs I could find at the time. This one here was from a series I found on sale in London, although this design was the one I could not source in the UK. So, imagine my surprise and delight to discover this copy in the Grand Cayman Islands whilst on a cruise. Even better, this one had the CAYMAN ISLANDS 80c royal wedding postage stamp applied which had been cancelled with the special ‘Royal Wedding – 18 July 2018’ first day of issue cancellation. Also, interestingly the image on the stamp is the same as used on the postcard. I bought this card in a stamp shop on Grand Cayman and I strongly suspect that the owner of this specialised shop produced these maxi-cards himself. I also suspect that there were not many done as this one seemed to be the last one and it was early August (the first week) that we visited here. I think this is a great card, a great maxi-card and a smashing souvenir of my visit to the Caymans.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

A strike of the special handstamp has also been added to the reverse side, something that is not uncommon in some countries, and especially with philatelic maxi-cards (this happened frequently with French maxi-cards).

05/01/2019

I SAW HAL & ELVIS

AT THE

14^TH ANNUAL WICHITA SHOW

Design by

RICK GEARY

Published by

HAL OTTAWAY

Limited Edition of 300

(Individually numbered – my copy is number 169)

Hal Ottaway published a range of ‘I SAW…’ postcard designs by Rick Geary which depicted and named a selection of famous people (I believe I have already placed at least one on the webpage somewhere). This ‘Elvis’ one is very popular because of the inclusion of the singer.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

05/01/2019

50 YEARS OF GAMBLING IN NEVADA

“NEVADA’S LEGISLATURE LEGALIZED GAMBLING ON MARCH 14, 1931”

Design drawn by

ANN RUSNAK

Published by

ANN RUSNAK

Copyright 1981

One of my favourite Ann Rusnak designs. This one came with rounded corners and an image which can be viewed either way up (technically there would be no ‘upside-down’ with this image). Somehow Ann always managed to pick unusual topics for her personal card releases and this one is no exception.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This is another of the many postcards I had signed by Ann when I met her in London in 1994. The signature is under the cards informative text top left. Also, as a collector of moon landing material, I liked the print of the moon landing stamp depicted top right.

05/01/2019

HARRY POTTER

MAGICAL CREATURES

POSTACRD COLOURING BOOK

20 BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE POSTCARDS

Published by

STUDIO PRESS

(Original Retail price £7.99)

This postcard book (or ‘Book of Postcards’) came out during the craze for ‘Colour-In Images’ which happened a couple of years ago (its copyrighted 2016). The craze has now pretty much died off, but this book can still be found in some Waterstone Book Shops (I saw it in store in the Bluewater Shopping Centre two days ago). It has also turned up in some cheaper book shops at reduced price so it’s worth a look.

This copy of the book was a Christmas present from my eldest son and his family.

I like to keep my books of postcards intact and complete, which means I do not remove cards from them. This also means that it is difficult to scan or copy, even photograph, the contents, but I can show you the cover and a small selection of the cards included.  

PHOTOGRAPH

Dumbledore’s Phoenix – Fawkes

PHOTOGRAPH

Aragog the Acromantula

An argument could be made that this is not Aragog but one of his many family members because you don’t see Aragog outside of the cave in the film, but you do see all the other spiders chasing Harry and Ron through the night forest, and this one can be seen amongst tree roots with a dark night sky in the background – but, I am sure Aragog must have left his cave on occasions and I think it depicts that, and I liked Aragog.

PHOTOGRAPH

Thestral

These pull the carts which take the schoolchildren from the Hogwarts Express station to the Hogwarts school building. They are invisible to all but those who have witnessed death.

PHOTOGRAPH

Cerebus, the three headed dog. The pet of Hagrid who calls him ‘Fluffy’  

PHOTOGRAPH

Merperson, from the film ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’

(You should be impressed as none of these cards are titled. I knew each of these depicted without looking them up, a true Harry Potter fan or what?)

Other creatures depicted include, an Owl (2 x cards), Dumbledore and Harry with a young Fawkes the phoenix, baby mercreatures, pixie’s, Hermione’s cat, Dementor’s, Nagini the snake with Voldemort, Dobby the house elf, Centaurs, Hippogriff being ridden by Harry, Ron and Hermione, Werewolf and a Dragon, amongst a couple of others.

04/01/2019

GREETINGS FROM UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

UNIVERSAL CITY CALIFORNIA

Left – The Parting of the Red Sea

Center [sic] – Visiting Sound Stage; Deadly “Jaws” menaces tour visitors;

Right – Overview of Back Lot; Screen Test Theatre

 Official Universal City Studios., Inc Postcard

Distributed by

MITLOCK PUBLISHERS INC (Hollywood, California)

Printed by

MIKE ROBERTS COLOR PRODUCTIONS (Emervville, California)

“THE CONTINENTAL CARD”

Ref: B10936

(219 appears in the stampbox)

Copyright 1981

This park and studios, back here in 1981 it was more a working studio which you could tour, which had some attractions, like the Jaws ride, is not one I have visited. I have been to the sister park in Florida and I remember their Jaws ride very well, although sadly it has long gone having closed in January 2012. I buy any old postcards which depict the Jaws ride from either of the American parks.

04/01/2019

TORBAY

TORBAY LIFEBOAT

Torquay – Brixham

Paignton – Cockington

Published by

EUROPA CARDS

Ashton Reed, 21 Cecilia Road, Paignton

Ref: E11

What would otherwise be a standard local multi-view postcard of almost no monetary value is lifted by the central inclusion of a superb photograph of the Torbay Lifeboat. There are many lifeboat postcard collectors out there, and although this would still be a cheap postcard it would have its followers.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Posted using a 12p Queens Head Machin stamp which has been cancelled with a slogan machine cancellation: ‘COLLECT BRITISH STAMPS – WORLDS GREATEST HOBBY – SOUTH DEVON – 27 OCT 1980’

04/01/2019

RED ROSE MOTIFS

ON TOURIST MULTI-VIEW POSTCARDS

LOVE AND GREETINGS FROM

CLIFTONVILLE

The Winter Gardens – Foreness Bay

Walpole Bay – The Lido

Published by

ELGATE POSTCARDS, FORT MOUNT, MARGATE, KENT

Printed in Ireland

Ref: ET 6086

There was a real fascination with publishers for the placement of something eye-catching in the centre of multi-view tourist postcards. Lots of things have appeared here, but cats and dogs were once the main creatures, although seagulls were also popular. Where plants were concerned the red rose was by far the most common. This painting of a rose was used by the Elgate Postcards company.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This copy was posted in August 1977 using a 7p Queens head Machin stamp.

LOVE AND GREETINGS FROM

GREATSTONE AND LITTLESTONE

Sand Dunes and Beach – Shopping Centre

The Parade – The Sands

Published by

ELGATE POSTCARDS, UNIT 1, HOPES LANE, RAMSGATE, KENT

Printed in Ireland

Ref: ET 6088

This card shows that the rose was a standard central motif for this company to place in the centre of their multi-view cards. Also, this is the only time I have ever come across mention of the places called Greatstone and Littlestone. Also, the companies address has changed

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This copy was posted in July 1984 using a 12 ½ p green Queens head Machin stamp. There is a different address here for the company to the card depicted above.

GREETINGS FROM

RAMSGATE

Published by

VALENTINE (PRINTERS & PUBLISHERS, DUNDEE & LONDON)

Ref: ET. 4914

Here you have four red roses, one as a small unopened bud. This is an older card than the two depicted above and has the deckle-edging that was so popular of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This one has a 3d Queens head Machin stamp cancelled with a RAMSGATE, KENT slogan cancellation dated August 1968. The slogan used here reads:

THE BRIGHT CHOICE

FOR

FAMILY HOLIDAYS

RAMSGATE

GREETINGS FROM

MARGATE

Published by

ELGATE POSTCARDS, FORT MOUNT, MARGATE, KENT

Ref: ET. 4917

This later issue uses the same rose images as appear on the card above, although this is by a different company. This card also has the Kent shield top left, something else which became popular and appeared on tourist postcards in the 1970’s (although this was not a new idea and can be found on golden age cards from the turn of the last century, its just that in the 1970’s the idea really picked up and these shield could be found on more and more such cards). Also, the card has straight edges, far more normal, and has the reference number printed on the front.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This card was posted using a 6 ½ p blue Queens head Machin stamp which has been cancelled with an ASHFORD, KENT – REMEMBER TO USE THE POST CODE! Slogan cancellation dated 20^th April 1976. This ‘Remember to use the Post Code!’ slogan is perhaps one of the most commonly used slogan cancels used by royal mail.

BEST WISHES FROM

EASTBOURNE

Published by

ELGATE POSTCARDS, UNIT 1, HOPES LANE, RAMSGATE, KENT

Printed in Ireland

Ref: ET. 5059

Here you have a painting of a different set of roses, but on a card again published by Elgate Postcards. The set up for the photographs is different to the above card, but I think you can see from the similarities in set up that the cards are from the same publisher, although the reference number details really gives the game away. Interestingly this card has a different address for the company.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This card is mint, but I have shown this one as well because again there is that change in the companies address, shown in the top bar, which could be seen on the Greatstone and Littlestone card depicted above.  

04/01/2019

BUFFALO BILL’S WILD WEST

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

COOPER POSTCARD COMPANY

Printed and Designed by

JOHN HINDE CURTEICH INC

Ref: BBPT-3

USCO-926

All of yesterdays postings were A5 sized postcards. Today I am just going to post just this one A5 card, but then it goes well with the last card posted yesterday (and which appears directly below). It is another lovely poster art design showing a native American on his horse. This postcard is an exclusive one which can only be bought (I believe) at the Buffalo Bill Museum located close to his burial site. This, like the one below, I bought myself on my visit here. The gift shop here is superb and had one of the best postcard wall mounted rack displays I have seen. If you ever find yourself anywhere near here it is well worth a visit.     

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

03/01/2019

BUFFALO BILL’S WILD WEST

AND CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

COOPER POSTCARD COMPANY

Printed and Designed by

JOHN HINDE CURTEICH INC

Ref: BBPT-1

USCO-924

Yes, yet another large A5 postcard, but what a cracking one. This depicts a superb poster which shows the travels that Buffalo Bill took his Wild West Show on. This includes England where the show was seen by Queen Victoria. This postcard is an exclusive one which can only be bought (I believe) at the Buffalo Bill Museum located close to his burial site. This was another of the locations we visited whilst in America in October.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

I loved that they illustrated the reverse side with this great greyed out design, another museum exclusive addition.

03/01/2019

CAMERON TRADING POST

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

SMITH-SOUTHWESTERN (SSI)

Ref: 9984615

Yes, another large A5 postcard, but I wanted to show you this one because this was the trading post where I bought the three native American postcards previously posted below. This artwork shows the trading post in an older time and does not do justice to just how big the gift shop (or ‘Trading Post’) now is. I enjoyed my visit to here, but it is very commercialised. We were not the only coach party to be visiting and the shop area was very busy. They did have some nice postcards though, including this nice art one which I picked up as a souvenir. The history of the Trading Post is given on the reverse side (see below)

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

03/01/2019

RETURN OF THE BEAR HUNTERS

Photograph by

BEN WITTICK

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

BEAUTIFUL CARD COMPANY (FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA)

Ref: D6

“A group of Navajo hunters outside Sam Day’s Trading Post, Chinle, Arizona, ca 1890”

As I appear to be posting images of the larger A5 sized postcards this morning I thought I would show you some native American ones I picked up from a popular tourist ‘Indian Trading Post’ [their title] that we visited, and which sold loads of native American gifts. These postcards were on sale and this one was my favourite. I depict another two below by the same company.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

I like the use of the front image greyed out across the reverse side

ACOMA MAN

Photograph by

EDWARD S. CURTIS

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

BEAUTIFUL CARD COMPANY (FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA)

Ref: D230

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

CHIEF RED CLOUD, DAKOTA

Photograph by

BARRY

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

BEAUTIFUL CARD COMPANY (FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA)

Ref: D207

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

03/01/2019

BALD EAGLE

Photograph by

JOHN HYDE

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published by

BEAUTIFUL CARD COMPANY (FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA)

Ref: C800

I could not resist this one when I saw it. What a beautiful photograph. This is another of the many postcards I bought whilst crossing North America in October.

The little sign of the man with his arms and legs outstretched, which can be seen in the boarder area on to right side intrigued me when I saw it, but its presence is explained in text on the reverse side, see below for reverse image.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

03/01/2019

LUX AETERNA

A REQUIEM BY MORTEN LAURIDSEN

LARGE A5 SIZED POSTCARD

Published and Printed on behalf of the:

FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

126. E. CHESTNUT STREET, CHICAGO

This large postcard was a free postcard I found whilst I was in Chicago last October. I love walking around churches and cathedrals and when I see one, I normally enter and have a look around (Nuremberg was a place packed with churches and we found new ones every day of our visit).

The Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago is a traditional looking old church rather unusually placed now as it is surrounded by tall tower like buildings, many of which are major shopping centres and stores. This free postcard was extremely well printed, and I thought the image on the front was great.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

02/01/2019

UNTITLED

Sloth on the Empire State Building

Design by

PAUL FUENTES

Published by

LAGOM DESIGN

Ref: 3110

Copyright 2018

This is a new design which I first saw in the paperchase store in the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent on New Years Eve. This is also when I bought this copy. It is probable that ‘paperchase’ is currently the best source of interesting new and unusual postcards.

02/01/2019

GENERAL POST OFFICE

LIVERPOOL

Unknown Publisher

I have an interest in Postal History and anyone who follows our connected facebook page will know that I try and visit post offices where ever I travel. Where these have managed to stay in their original buildings these can be quite impressive. This photograph shows just how impressive some of these buildings could be. This one was designed by the architect Henry Tanner in 1899.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

02/01/2019

JOYOUS

BE YOUR SIXTH BIRTHDAY

NOVELTY SHAPED CARD

Unknown Publisher

These shaped birthday cards were extremely popular, but they can be difficult to hunt down now. It can be argued, probably quite correctly, that these are not postcards per-se, but I have always liked these and many of them were printed by postcard issuing companies. This one I found in a local antiques centre priced very reasonably at just £1. It was a recent acquisition.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

There is some damage to this side of the card, where it looks like it was stuck down somewhere, possibly in a scrapbook of some type, but this damage has not affected the front of the card. Although clearly kept by someone this has no writing on the reverse side, so was not used totally as designed.

02/01/2019

UNTITLED

Butterflies

Published and sold by

PAPERCHASE

Printed on brown thin cardboard styled card

A nice attractive design

02/01/2019

SELFIE ELE

Published by

BRAIN BOX CANDY

Ref: BCP135

(Copyright 2016)

This is one of the many postcards that paperchase stores were selling, but now they have it in their sale, so if you like this one and live in the UK then check out your local paperchase as it’s a bit cheaper now!

02/01/2019

DUCK, 1990

CANARD

By

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN

Published by

BENEDIKT TASCHEN (COLOGNE)

Postcard from Postcard Book

Come on, its Donald Duck, surely! I found this in an art selection on a dealer’s stand. I have added this to my ‘Disney’ themed collection. This card came from one of ‘Taschen’s’ many postcard books.

02/01/2019

UNTITLED

Small Card

No known Publisher or Printer

Depicts a Family on the Beach

I saw this small weird ‘Thing’, for want of a better word, on an antique stall just before Christmas. It is so DARK, like, really-black, almost like a photographic negative rather than a photograph. I assume this was a family holiday or day trip where this picture was taken. Then someone decided to make it into a postcard, and this was the result ... I wonder if they were impressed!

I buy anything unusual, anything that makes me take a double look, and this one certainly did that. At first, I thought it was a negative, a real photo one, but then it is quite a small size, so it could have been a larger negative like the ones from the Victorian age, and just after. But once I had picked it up and turned it over it was clear this was a postcard.    

                       REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This is one of the weirdest items I bought last year, and that’s quite an achievement considering how many cards came my way.

02/01/2019

HARRY POTTER

FIGURINE & POSTCARD BOOK PACKS

Published & Produced by

WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT (or at least copyrighted to them)

I came across these in America several years ago on a holiday in Florida. They were on sale in the cheap gift shops located in Kissimmee (and possibly elsewhere), but they were not on sale in Universal Studios, which I thought strange considering their Harry Potter themed park areas. These are unusual packs which each contain a specific character figurine boxed up with a postcard book themed to that character. These postcard books, as far as I can see, are exclusive to these packs. So, what we ended up with was a range of different collectors seeking these out, figurine collectors, Harry Potter collectors and postcard collectors, although I am not so sure about the latter as not all postcard collectors necessarily like postcard books, or ‘Books of Postcards’ as they are probably better described – I think this is because they are hard to display unless dismantled into separate cards which is something which true collectors are loathe to do, for example I have not even opened up my boxes here, so do not know what postcards are in these books. Sad, I know, but I like to keep things pristine unless I have spare copies.

There were seven boxes issued, although so far, I have only obtained five, and I won’t pay the extortionate postage costs for these on any eBay sales from America, where these seem to have only been issued.

One thing I will say though is that these were a pain to pack in my luggage and get back home, but I think worth it.

I think these are great, and I have these in my Novelty collection, although there is nothing unusual about the postcards themselves, it’s the over-all package which I think is unusual and therefore a novelty.

HARRY POTTER CHARACTER

FIGURINE & POSTCARD BOOK PACK

‘Harry Potter’

HARRY POTTER CHARACTER

FIGURINE & POSTCARD BOOK PACK

‘Ron Weasley’

HARRY POTTER CHARACTER

FIGURINE & POSTCARD BOOK PACK

‘Hermione Granger’

HARRY POTTER CHARACTER

FIGURINE & POSTCARD BOOK PACK

‘Professor Dumbledore’

HARRY POTTER CHARACTER

FIGURINE & POSTCARD BOOK PACK

‘Hagrid’

PHOTOGRAPH

This picture shows my five boxed sets stacked up on top of each other. This gives you some idea of how big and thick these boxes are. I am sure you can imagine how delighted my wife Jo was that I was going to bring these boxes back in my luggage! They were a nightmare and ended up wrapped individually in my cloths and then placed in the centre of my case!

REVERSE SIDE OF ONE OF THE BOXES

The boxes all have the same reverse layout

PHOTOGRAPH

This is a close-up of the image on the underside of the boxes (see above for full image) and shows the covers of the postcard books which individually appear in each box. I am missing the Voldemort one and the Dobby the Elf one. These two also appear to be the most expensive second-hand copy ones as well, which makes sense as they were the two that I could not find whilst I was in America (there is only one Dobby one on eBay at this moment, priced at £11.78, but with a postage cost of £18.14! [that’s £29.92] – there is also only one Voldemort one: £23.55 plus £10.47 postage [that’s £34.02] – I am not paying these prices). In America I was picking these up for just $6, which was a reasonable price. I would happily pay £10 each for the two I am missing, but on eBay, as stated, these are much, much more.