30/07/2019

BRITISH ESA ASTRONAUT

TIMOTHY PEAKE WITH SOYUZ CAPSULE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM

Ref: 421317

“On June 18 2016, after six months orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station conducting experiments, Major Tim Peake returned to Earth in the Soyuz TMA-19M decent module”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

A more modern space related postcard, and the second one we have posted which depicts the UK astronaut Tim Peake. This one is currently available in the Science Museum gift shop in London. It is always nice to obtain something quite topical and this museum has a great range of cards for sale.

30/07/2019

APOLLO 13 LAUNCHED

LENTICULAR SATURN 5 IMAGE

Unknown Publisher

I have finished with my Moon Landing postings, but I recently obtained this great card through eBay. The Saturn 5 rocket was the essential part of the lift off of all the Apollo missions, but for some reason it appears on far fewer postcards than the lunar module, which I suppose is no great surprise, but I think the Saturn 5 was a fantastic piece of engineering and design. Here it is depicted at the stage of a disengagement before continuing its flight into space. This is a slightly larger sized card with nice round corners and, because of the lenticular aspect, quite a thickness.

The Apollo 13 flight became famous because of the accident when the oxygen tank in the service module exploded two days into the flight. Apollo 13 was to be the third moon landing flight, but the explosion prevented any moon landing and put the lives of the three astronauts in danger. It was also the source of that famous space sentence “Houston, we have a problem”. Thankfully, after some amazing efforts and invention by the ground crew, adaptations were made, and the astronauts were successfully returned to earth. A film version was later made starring Tom Hanks as James Lovell.    

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This card was posted from Cape Canaveral straight line cancellation dated 11^th April 1970 on the Apollo 8 postage stamp (issued 5^th May 1969). There is a nice pictorial image of the astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and John L. Swigert Jnr along with some launch details and a picture of the Apollo 13 patch at the bottom. The signature that appears in the middle is printed (I am ‘fairly’ positive this is not a signed card – I suspect it is just part of the reverse side printed design, but a nice addition).

30/07/2019

ANANTARA RIVERSIDE BANGKOK RESORT

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

Official promotional Resort Postcard

My youngest son’s partner has not long returned from a family holiday to Bangkok, Hong Kong and further south. She has very kindly returned with this very nice resort postcard. Judging from this image it looks like they stayed in a very nice location.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

GREETINGS FROM

THE WORLD SCOUT JUBILEE JAMBOREE 1957

SUTTON PARK NEAR BIRMINGHAM.

TYPICAL SCENES OF

BIRMINGHAM

HOME OF THE HERCULES

THE FINEST BICYCLE BUILT TO-DAY.

BRITISH CYCLES & MO PEDS

SUPREME THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

Photographs

LEFT SIDE -------------- RIGHT SIDE

COUNCIL HOUSE / TOWN HALL

UNIVERSITY / CHAMBERLAIN PLACE

FIRE STATION / HALL OF MEMORY & CIVIC CENTRE

Unknown Publisher

I bought this one for the scout connection and it will go into my scout box, but it could also make a great addition to any collection related to bicycles because this is a wonderful advert postcard. It is also an unusual multi-view topographical postcard for anyone who collects Birmingham view postcards.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

BIRTHDAY WISHES

ALL THE GANG AS BRIGHT AS CAN BE

‘CAR’RYING BEST WISHES TO YOU

FROM ME

WALT DISNEY POSTCARD

Published by

VALENTINE & SONS, LTD

DUNDEE & LONDON

When I saw this postcard, it was one of those ‘must have this one’ moments. How could any Disney collector resist a card image like this? These earlier Disney image postcards published by Valentine & Sons are delightful and are often priced around £10 these days, so this one was very reasonably priced at £6 I thought. The boarder has little embossed flower heads and links which is a not uncommon addition to these Valentine Disney greetings cards.

30/07/2019

UPDATE: I have found a copy of this postcard on an auction site – Howard Lowery Auctions – which was sold in 2013 for the amazing price of $58 (with additional auction costs on top as well). This makes my £6 look ‘really’ cheap. Another excellent advert for the attendance at Postcard Fairs.    

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

MOULIN ROUGE

J. FERRER / ZSA ZSA GABOR / JOHN HUSTON

Unfortunately, the publisher details have been obscured on the reverse side

But this is a French published postcard

Ref: E 1

Although this is a film poster, I also think it is a great piece of artwork as well. This film was released in 1952 and it received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Costume Design.  

30/07/2019

UNTITLED

Glamour female piece

Published for the:

COMMISSARIAT GENERAL FOR TOURISME

MONTE CARLO

At the weekend’s fair I was going through a box of modern glamour postcards which contained mainly the more modern 1980’s nude photographic postcards. Within the large bundle of these cards was this little gem from an older period, the late 1950’s or very early 1960’s, I think. It was probably, in my opinion, the best card in the bundle. Although I did buy some of the more explicit cards (you can see some of these under the CENSORED tab above) I thought this was the bargain of the box.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

OLYMPISCHE WINTERSPIELE

[Winter Olympic Games]

1936

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN

6 – 16 FEBRUAR 1936

Official German Postal Stationery Post Card

This official Winter Olympics 1936 postal stationery post card has been used with two additional postage stamps which were issued for promotion of the 1936 winter Olympic games in November of the previous year. Two different cancellations have been used and both are dated the 20^th January 1936 and are both from Berlin. This makes for a nice usage.

30/07/2019

WATCH THE BIRDIE

Cartoon by

RUPERT BESLEY

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 8 – 30 – 01 – 15

There is a dedicated band of Besley cartoon postcard collectors out there and as a result many dealers have a separate Besley section in their stock. I have collected his cards for many years and was lucky enough to meet Rupert Besley in 1994 at the Picture Postcard Centenary Show in London. I think that he was the best UK cartoon postcard artist of the 1980’s and 1990’s. This one here is typical of his amusing style.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

You have to feel sorry for the sender of this postcard as he appears to have had a bit of a fire alarm issue overnight, but at least the fire brigade turned up.

30/07/2019

NEW POST OFFICE BUILDING

30^TH AND MARKET STREETS,

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Published by

RUTH MURRAY MILLER. ART. ADV. SERVICE

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

This lovely postal history themed American postcard cost me just 50p, and it is another card that I picked up at Sunday’s fair in London. I love post office buildings and I try and visit them whenever I am on holiday (those who follow my facebook page will be aware of this as I post pictures of them there).

This post office was built between 1931 and 1935 so looking at this image, and the obvious works crane and the unmade industrial work site look of the ground in the foreground in front of this building one can assume that this photograph was taken nearer to or in 1935. The structure was built in the art deco style and was 386 feet wide and 455 feet long with six floors. The building was added to the American National Register of Historic Places in 2005, but it closed as a postal building on 29^th September 2008. It has now been converted into office space with the regional headquarters of the IRS now being located here. Another postcard with a nice little historic story behind it and one which sadly shows another piece of postal history.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

MO’S GOLD MAIL BOX PAINTED BY JOHN

PHOTOGRAPH BY

SARAH FELSTEAD

Published by

QUILLIAM PROPERTY SERVICES

Ref: Views of Isleworth

In the

‘BRENTFORD IS BRILLIANT’ Series

One of my specialist collecting themes is the 2012 London Olympic games. Over the years, since the games ended, I have picked up all sorts of unusual postcards and other mail and postal items, but I had seen this postcard before coming across it on a dealer’s stall on Sunday. The Mo in question from the title is of course Mo Farah who won golds at the 2012 Olympic games in the 5000m and 10,000 m races.  The Royal Mail made a decision to paint mail-boxes in the home-towns of Olympic gold winners. These boxes were painted gold and this photograph shows Mo Farah’s hometown mail-box being painted in this gold paintwork. A superb addition to my 2012 games collection, and another good reason why attending postcard fairs is so worthwhile.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

STAR WARS

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

Artwork by

MR BRAINWASH

Published by

MR BRAINWASH

I have seen this postcard on eBay, and I really wanted to get my hands on a copy. I did not buy the eBay one as it was £35 (another was on there for $50, with extra postage costs as well!), a price I considered to be through the roof (and half-way to the moon... but these Mr Brainwash postcards are extremely expensive and appear to be incredibly collectible and this Star Wars one is one of the gems of the collection). So, you can probably imagine how delighted I was to find this one, on a stall at the fair attended in London on Sunday. Some might baulk at paying £2 for a modern Star Wars postcard, but I couldn’t snatch this away from the dealer fast enough, and this is why postcard fairs are so worth attending. A real find and I am so pleased to finally have one in my collection.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

30/07/2019

GREETINGS FROM

POST OFFICE RAILROAD P.A.

Railroad Pennsylvania is the only RAILROAD town in the world

Printed on

KODAK PAPER

Published locally and probably printed locally to the Railroad Post Office

Another of my weekend buys. I am interested in postal history and any postcards which show postal like material or locations. I had not heard of this American location, but the card looked interesting and I do like these Kodak Paper printed early American cards. Having bought I have since looked-into the location on the internet. It is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania. It is not a very big location as in 2010 the census showed that just 278 people lived here (apparently it went down to 274 in 2017. The census counts make some interesting reading; 1880 – 220 people, 1920 – 310, 1990 – 317, which seems to have been the peak). It is an old location as it was first settled in 1792, but today it is just 0.64 square miles. Its creation come about, and no surprise here considering its name, from the Northern Central Railway which went through here. This is what I love about postcards, buying something different and then looking into the backstory and discovering something, or somewhere new to me. A great card and worth the £1 easily as it would be much more on eBay or if I had had to buy it in the US.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

I have a range of early American postcards with this KODAK PAPER layout. This type of card was produced throughout the 1950’s into the 1960’s, and I believe they started in the 1940’s so this card could be from the WWII period or just after, and I think this is probably a post war issue.

29/07/2019

PIER HILL,

SOUTHEND-ON-SEA (1830)

Published by

SOUTHEND FINE ART DEPOT,

154 THE BROADWAY

Another of my buys from yesterdays fair visit. This is a golden age postcard published in my home-town in the early 1900’s. The drawing is of a much older time, 1830, and is one I was already aware of as it appears in a selection of my local history books. To find it on a postcard, especially one as old as this was a wonderful moment and I was more than happy to pay £3 for it.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

29/07/2019

I SHOW A GREAT SKILL AT HANDLING A SKILLET

AND SKILLFULLY FISHING, SUCCESSFULLY FILL IT.

American Postcard

Published by

C. T. BIG FISH COMICS (C. T. a CO.)

C. T. ART-COLORTONE, REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.

Made only by CURT TEICH & CO (Chicago)

Ref: C-289

(7A-H2911)

Although someone, probably a stamp collector, has removed the postage stamp from the reverse side, there is still a secondary cancellation that allows me to know that this card was posted in 1940 (July 17^th).

I have always been fascinated with the exaggerated creature (or, if you like, oversize animal) postcards that were, and still are, so popular in America. I even know a couple of collectors who seek these cards out. This one I picked up in London yesterday. It cost me £1.50 and I think that was a very fair price. I think this would be worth a little more in the US.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Although, as mentioned above, the stamp has been removed there is a nice straight-line cachet which reads: CANADOHTA LAKE PA. Through the wonders of the internet I now know that this is a location in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, U.S., so that might be an ‘E’ on the end and not an ‘A’, but it is hard to make out and may require some more investigation, but it looks like a nice new cachet/cancel for my collection.

ENLARGEMENT OF CACHET

29/07/2019

SKELETON FOR DAY OF THE DEAD FESTIVAL

(PAPER MACHE)

MEXICO

1978

Printed by

ASHDOWN PRESS LTD, LONDON

For

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Copyright 1985

Ref: ET160

I’ve not seen this one at the museum shop, so, when I saw it on a dealer’s stand at the Bloomsbury Fair I attended at the weekend (yesterday as I type this), I had to have it. I already knew about the Day of the Dead before I visited Mexico last year, but I think many people became more aware of the festival through the release of the Disney animated film ‘Coco’ (2017, although I only got to see it towards the end of last year) and this skeleton does remind me of the film. It is an unusual postcard and another example of the wonders that can be found on museum postcards.

28/07/2019

CADBURY’S COCOA

ABSOLUTELY PURE

NOT BEATEN

Published by

CADBURY WORLD

Official Postcard for the Cadbury World experience

This Cadbury cricket playing kid poster has appeared on postcards published by a number of different publishers over the years, but this one here is currently available at the Cadbury World visitor’s attraction, in their gift shop. So, this version can only be obtained from there.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

28/07/2019

MAP OF LONDON

By

LINDSEY SPINKS

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM

Ref: 401111

This was a map design drawn exclusively for the Science Museum. I picked this up on my last visit to London, but I thought it would make a good posting for today as I have again been up in the city. This time I was visiting a collector’s fair at the Royal National Hotel (the fair is known as the ‘Bloomsbury Fair’ and it has been running for many years). Today I picked up some nice postcards, both modern ones and old golden age ones as well. Some of these I will place on the webpage over the next week or so.

27/07/2019

SCIENCE MUSEUM

SPECIAL COMMISSIONED COLLECTION BY

QUENTIN BLAKE

On the 10^th July I visited London again on one of my many explorations of the city. This trip was to include a visit to the museums around South Kensington, and the Science Museum is located here. In the gift shop I came across this series of inventors and adventurers depicted by Quentin Blake. I grabbed as many different as I could, and there was a special offer on at the main gift shop of every third postcard being free (so I saved some money here). I was then told that the paintings were upstairs on the third floor in the café area. So, upstairs I went. As I was looking at the paintings on the wall, I realised that there were three individual images which I had not found on postcard. So, back downstairs I went. I checked through the racks again and managed to find one missing design hiding behind a stack of a card I had already bought. This left me with two outstanding images. I asked a member of staff about these and he told me about another smaller shop on the top floor! So, back up I went (see how far I will go to get my postcards!). In this other shop I found a table with all the postcards laid over it including my missing two images (interestingly, this top floor shop did not have the buy two get third free postcard offer - so my advice is, if the offer is on downstairs then shop there first and get as many as you can – then go upstairs and complete your collection with any missing designs). The postcards are copyrighted to 2018, so these may have been around for a while.

Here I depict all the cards that complete the set – as checked by me against the wall paintings!

JOSEPH JACKSON (1786 – 1869)

ACHROMATIC MICROSCOPE

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

CAROLINE HERSCHEL (1750 – 1848)

REFLECTING TELESCOPE

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

ALEXANDER FLEMING (1881 – 1955)

SAMPLE OF PENICILLIUM MOULD

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

FRANCIS CRICK (1916 – 2004)

And

JAMES WATSON (born 1928)

DOUBLE HELIX MODEL OF DNA

 By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

The DNA (Crick and Watson) postcard is one of the cards I had to go upstairs in the museum to find. This collection includes some interesting people and some very important inventions, and some that rarely appear on postcard.

WILLIAM COOKE (1806 – 1879)

And

CHARLES WHEATSTONE (1802 – 1875)

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE (1858 – 1937)

WIRELESS DETECTOR

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

RUSSELL REYNOLDS (1880 – 1964)

X-RAY INSTALLATION

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

DOROTHY HODGKIN (1910 – 1994)

MODEL OF PIG INSULIN

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

JAMES LOVELOCK (born 1919)

ELECTRON CAPTURE DETECTOR

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

WILLIAM THOMSON (1824 – 1907)

MIRROR GALVANOMETER

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

KATHLEEN LONSDALE (1903 – 1971)

MODEL OF MAGNESIUM AMMONIUM PHOSPHATE

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

ALAN TURING (1912 – 1954)

AUTOMATIC COMPUTING ENGINE

 By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

HERTHA AYRTON (1854 – 1923)

ELECTRIC ARC

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

ADA LOVELACE (1815 – 1852)

ANALYTICAL ENGINE

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

FRANCIS W. ASTON (1877 – 1945)

MASS SPECTROGRAPH

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

AMY JOHNSON (1903 – 1941)

DE HAVILLAND GIPSY MOTH AEROPLANE ‘JASON’

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT (1732 – 1792)

SPINNING MACHINE

 By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

“TOMMY” FLOWERS (1905 – 1998)

COLOSSUS COMPUTER

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

ROBERT STEPHENSON (1803 – 1859)

“ROCKET” [steam train]

By

QUENTIN BLAKE

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON

This was the other card design which I had to go to the upstairs gift shop to obtain. This is also the one which I suspect will be the most popular one because it is the most well known one and trains are one of the top collectible themes.

PHOTOGRAPH

10/07/2019

One of the wall painting areas in the upstairs café seating area

PHOTOGRAPH

10/07/2019

One of the wall painting areas in the upstairs café seating area

PHOTOGRAPH

10/07/2019

One of the wall painting areas in the upstairs café seating area

PHOTOGRAPH

10/07/2019

The display of postcards on the table in the top floor gift shop

26/07/2019

BERLIN

HAUPTSTADT TOR DDR

BRANDENBURGER TOR

(BRANDENBURG GATE)

Publisher details and other reverse side information:

VEB BILD UND HEIMAT REICHENBACH I. V.

BERLIN-WERBUNG BERLONA

FOTO – FEY

VERBRAUCHERPREIS MDN 0,25

Ref: 111/18/117  A  1/B  144/65  15/1005 K

I love Berlin, it is my favourite holiday European city (London is my favourite, but I spend a lot of time in London and it almost seems like home). I think it is the modern history which fascinates me most, despite my love of WII history, which the city also has a lot of. The split between west and east Berlin is history where much of it, at least the later part, occurred during my lifetime. I remember when the wall came down and visiting Berlin now you cannot avoid this important period of the cities history. This postcard here is post WWII but pre the wall going up, so before 1961. Postcards of areas where the wall were subsequently built are becoming more and more popular was people who remember the wall look back for pre-wall postcards to add to a Berlin Wall collection.

26/07/2019

BERLIN

BRANDENBURGER TOR

(BRANDENBURG GATE)

Publisher details and other reverse side information:

INDUSTRIE-FOTOGRAFEN KLINKE & CO.,

BERLIN – TEMPELHOF

Ref: B 372 b

This one is after the initial construction of the wall. The wall is still in its raw first built state with barbed wire on the western side which again indicates that this is an early period photograph. This one goes well with the above photograph of an example of how much things changed, and how quickly. This is a contemporary postcard and one which therefore has more value than a more modern reproduction image card.

26/07/2019

BOND BREAD BAKERS

495 FLATBUSH AVENUE

BROOKLYN N. Y.

THE LONE RANGER

Official return address postcard for the:

BOND BREAD LONE RANGER SAFETY CLUB FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

This early double-sided postcard is copyrighted to 1939. This side, the return address side, has a nice early and probably exclusive to this card, picture of the Lone Ranger, a comic book character who was extremely popular in the US around this time. The character was riding high on the then popularity of westerns in books and films, and especially on the new entertainment format of television. The Lone Ranger may not be as popular these days, but this is a cracking postcard which has through its pictorial and written content links to themes like; Film, TV, American History and Advertising.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This is the side that needed to be filled in so that the card sender (or more likely the child of the cards sender) could become a member of the Bond Bread Lone Ranger safety club for boys and girls.

26/07/2019

WOMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Detail from a 20^th century English chasuble

Photograph

PAUL BRITTAIN

Published by

THE SHRINE SHOP, WALSINGHAM, NORFOLK

TWO POSTCARDS – SAME PIECE

I am always fascinated with postcards that seem so similar and through which there is a nice symmetry. Clearly this is the same piece of religious tapestry, but I also believe this is the same photograph used for both postcards. These two cards look nice side by side in my album, and they also work as a ice souvenir of my visits to Walsingham.

26/07/2019

THE JAPAN PUNCH

FEBRUARY 1866

CHARLES WIRGMAN, BRITISH (1832 – 1891)

Made in Yokohama-shi Japan

Woodblock-printed text and images on paper

Published by

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Ref: E15900

(Issued 2019)

This is one of the more unusual postcards issued to coincide with the current ‘Manga’ exhibition which is on at the British Museum. I am not sure of its position in the Manga story, which I thought was a more recent thing, but clearly everything has a history and perhaps this is an early lead-in to the Manga story. I like a bit history, and unusual early images, especially something which seems to be linked to a type of animation which I like

26/07/2019

UNTITLED

STREET ART, LONDON

Published by

CHRIS HUNTLEY PHOTOGRAPHY

I am a big collector of Superhero themed postcards of any type, so when I recently came across this one in London (at The Jubilee Market, Covent Garden on a stall called ‘Back to the Wall’) I knew I had to have it. It depicts the characters Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor. It’s the type of card missed by many collectors as it is one not commonly found outside of stalls in London. Which is a shame as it’s a great card.

26/07/2019

CURIOUS ENCOUNTER

CRISTOBAL SERRANO (SPAIN)

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD NOMINEE 2018

Published by the

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (London)

Ref: DS4408

“Any close encounter with an animal in the vast wilderness of Antarctica happens by chance, so Cristobal was thrilled by this spontaneous meeting with a crabeater seal off of Cuverille Island, Antarctic Peninsula. These curious creatures are protected and, with few predators, thrives”

Another of the cards I picked up on my recent visit to the museum. The photographs that appear in the annual ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ competition are superb, and the postcards depicting them make great additions to any animal themed collection.