EMAIL ADDRESS - markspostcardchat@gmail.com

 

11/03/2019

LLANGOLLEN BRIDGE & STATION

Published by

PHOTOCHROM CO., LTD., LONDON

Ref: 23794

 

Many years ago, I spent a very pleasant day in Llangollen and stayed in a bed & breakfast place which overlooked this station, in-fact, I believe it was just a little way further up along the road that can be seen on the right side of this photograph. I have not been back despite thoroughly enjoying this brief excursion, so perhaps I shall amend this soon and see how much has changed since my last visit.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

11/03/2019

WALT DISNEY WORLD,

FLORIDA

DUMBO THE FLYING ELEPHANT ATTRACTION

Official Walt Disney World Theme Park Postcard

 

In 2015 I posted three copies of this postcard from the theme park to myself. On each I used a Christmas ‘GLOBAL, FOREVER’ USA round shaped postage stamp. I also had the official park ‘MAIN STREET’ cachet applied as well, on this occasion this was applied in black ink. All three were then placed in the same post-box at the same time. This was done for a couple of reasons, firstly because you can never be sure what condition a card will come through the post in, so it is wise to post more than one example if you are after a clean nice used example for a collection. The second reason was that I wanted to run a little experiment and see what postal marks the cards received. Logically, they should have received the same cancellations etc. Therefore, it might come as a bit of a surprise to anyone not aware of the strange working ways of the worlds postal staff, that all three came with different marks.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ONE OF THE THREE POSTED POSTCARDS

NUMBER 1

 

This one has an ‘ORLANDO FL 328 – 13 OCT 2015’ double text line with six wavy lines cancel. This one has no orange coloured machine ident marks across it.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ONE OF THE THREE POSTED POSTCARDS

NUMBER 2

 

This one does have the orange machine ident marks, they can be seen cutting through the bottom of the Main Street official cachet on the right-hand side. Otherwise there are no other postal marks on this copy.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ONE OF THE THREE POSTED POSTCARDS

NUMBER 3

This copy has three lines of the orange coloured machine ident marks, but this one also has a line of black coloured machine ident marks across the bottom (in the boxed area which is designed to receive just such a line of these idents). Top right across the stamp there is a wavy line machine cancel which has a circular location and date mark on the left side of the wavy lines. This cancel reads: ‘ORLANDO FL 328 – 15 OCT 2015’, so, although posted on the same day as the top version this one is dated two days later!

My little experiment produced some interesting results and does go to show that it can be fun to post cards to yourself from holiday.

 

10/03/2019

JUST A P.C.

TO CARRY ON WITH

SUPER COMIC POST CARD

Ref: 1452

 

As you know I do like police related postcard designs. I especially like comic ones, even those which are not exactly kind to the officers depicted. This one is great, although the image does use that old standard of the more rotund uniformed officer, and like this stereo-type is so often depicted, the officer is a happy smiling ‘Jolly’ one. When I first started work in 1988 there were older officers that I got to know and work with who genuinely fitted this description. They are now, sadly, long gone.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

This postcard was posted from Cromer, Norfolk in July 1953 (the stamp is cancelled 22nd July 1953).

 

10/03/2019

KONINKLIJKE ROTTERDAMSCHE LLOYD

Royal (Rotterdamsche) Rotterdam Lloyd

Plain Backed Postcard

 

This has the look and feel of an official shipping line release, especially with the plain reverse side. With the lack of details, and my lack of knowledge on this shipping line and the name is not clearly depicted on the ship painting it took a bit of work to name this ship. It is the MS. WILLEM RUYS which was built in 1947 and its port of registry was Rotterdam.   

Her name was later changed to the MS Achille Lauro under which name she is best remembered for being hijacked by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985. In 1994 she caught fire (not for the first time as this also happened in 1965, 1972 and 1981!) in the Indian Ocean off Somalia and sank.    

 

09/03/2019

THE PRISONER

Published by the

NUMBER SIX SHOP

Located at the Welsh location of PORTMEIRION

 

These four postcards here were a recent eBay buy and are destined for my Television collection. I have once in the past visited the beautiful village of Portmeirion, where the outside scenes of the famous television series were filmed, and it is a fascinating location. Whilst there I visited the Number Six shop, which is located in the building which was the home of No 6 in the programme. This was many years ago now and long before these four cards became available.

 

THE PRISONER

Published by the

NUMBER SIX SHOP

Located at the Welsh location of PORTMEIRION

 

THE PRISONER

Published by the

NUMBER SIX SHOP

Located at the Welsh location of PORTMEIRION

 

THE PRISONER

Published by the

NUMBER SIX SHOP

Located at the Welsh location of PORTMEIRION

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARDS

                  Standard reverse format

 

09/03/2019

NATIVE VILLAGE,

DARJEELING

Unknown Publisher, Printer

 

This nice colourised photograph (originally a black and white image) was probably released in the UK where there would have been a keen interest in the country of India, where many ex-pats would have had a strong connection. The British peoples long time relationship with India meant that postcard images of this country always had an interest (although I admit there is a chance this was an Indian postcard, but I just feel otherwise).

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

Posted from WOOLWICH ON April 26th, 1909 with the stamp being cancelled with a WOOLWICH single arch date stamp.

 

09/03/2019

CRAIG-GOCH DAM,

ELAN VALLEY

Photograph by

P. B. ABERY

Published, or at least printed by

WEST END STUDIOS, BUILTH WELLS

 

Also known as the ‘Top Dam’ this is a masonry dam located in Wales. Construction on this dam commenced in 1897 with the dam finally finished in 1904. The damn was built to provide water for the city of Birmingham. The dam is 120ft high and 390ft long with a width of 104ft. This photograph appears to be a quite early one, maybe around the 1920’s as the reverse side has a feel for that era.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

09/03/2019

PIN UPS

GIL ELVGREN

Untitled Postcard Image

Published by

LAVERTON

 

I was recently at a ‘Vintage Fair’ where I came across a small selection of these classic ‘Pin Up’ styled images. I selected a few which appealed to me and depict them here. These would be classed under the theme heading of ‘Glamour’, but although some of these are a little near the edge I don’t believe there are any which would cause extreme offence if you consider them under an historic point of view, but I would very much like to hear from anyone who considers otherwise (please email me as I appreciate hearing peoples points of view - the email address can be found at the bottom of this page).

 

PIN UPS

GIL ELVGREN

Untitled Postcard Image

Published by

LAVERTON

 

PIN UPS

GIL ELVGREN

Untitled Postcard Image

Published by

LAVERTON

 

PIN UPS

GIL ELVGREN

Untitled Postcard Image

Published by

LAVERTON

 

PIN UPS

GIL ELVGREN

Untitled Postcard Image

Published by

LAVERTON

 

PIN UPS

GIL ELVGREN

Untitled Postcard Image

Published by

LAVERTON

 

07/03/2019

LUKE PERRY ….. RIP

Coy Luther “Luke” Perry III

11th October 1966 – 4th March 2019

American actor who was perhaps best known for his appearance in the television series ‘Beverly Hills 90210’, in which he played the character Dylan McKay. He also had guest appearances in the television shows ‘Criminal Minds’, ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’, ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Will & Grace’. I also remember him in the feature film ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (which preceded the TV series) and in the Luc Besson film ‘The Fifth Element’ (1997), although this was just a small part in the opening scenes.

POSTCARD

THE CAST OF BEVERLY HILLS 90210

Published as a free postcard with an edition of the teenage magazine:

BIG!

 

I am a few days late with this one, but I wanted to dig out this postcard which I knew I had in one of my albums. This is an early publicity photograph for the TV series. My copy here was posted in 1992.

 

07/03/2019

ROYAL MAIL ’BRITISH POST OFFICE’

EXHIBITION CARDS

 

In 1987 the British Post Office (Royal Mail) issued something called an ‘EXHIBITION CARD’, this is not a post card per se, but a much larger card, somewhat larger than A5, which has an information filled reverse side. The basic card with stamps applied and cancelled was available to anyone ordering such a card from the philatelic bureau. More importantly though, and the main reason for the cards production, is that visitors to philatelic events where the Royal Mail had a stand, could obtain a copy as a souvenir. They could also have the card cancelled with a special show cachet which would have been applied in the blank oval bottom left. Cards used with any such cachet have more value than those without (but not much)               , although sadly for some reason these did not catch on and the idea only lasted a few years with a new design being issued each year. Four different designs were issued and personally I liked these and over the years have put together what I believe is a complete collection of cachet cards, over twenty different, I think. Here I show you a plain issue 1 and 2 and then a few for 3 and 4.

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 1

1987

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 2

1988

Cancelled

1 JUNE 1988

‘FINLANDIA’

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 3

1989

Cancelled

7 JUNE 1989

‘NORDIA’

 

I have never found out why, officially, but form this numbered card they started to apply a complete stamp set to the cards rather than just two stamps as it cards 1 and 2. The use of four stamps does make the cards look more interesting. The designs for cards 3 and 4 also turned the large designs on their sides rather than the previous cards 1 and 2 upright design.

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 3

1989

Cancelled

17th OCTOBER 1989

‘AUTUMN STAMPEX’

 

This is the first one depicted here which has a show cachet applied, bottom left side. As stated above these were only applied at the actual events, so you would have needed to attend the Stampex show in question to have had this cachet applied.

The Lord Mayor’s Show, London stamps had five in the set, so you got all five of these on these cards.

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 4

1990

Cancelled

1 NOVEMBER 1990

‘ASDA NATIONAL 90’

 

This design was basically the same as Card 3 but with a change of some of the colouring in the background, and of course the large number bottom right. This card used the Queen Mother stamp set.

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 4

1990

Cancelled

26 FEBRUARY 1991

‘SPRING STAMPEX’

 

This event shows that the Card No 4 was carried over for use into 1991. I believe this was because the cards had not proven popular and they were going to, and did, cease to produce any more, but wanted to carry the idea over into 1991, possibly ‘just in case!’.

 

BRITISH POST OFFICE

EXHIBITION CARD 4

1990

Cancelled

3 MAY 1990

‘STAMP WORLD LONDON 90’

 

This was the big event of 1990 and thousands of people attended this exhibition, so cards with the cachet applied are not uncommon. Here you can see the special show cachet applied bottom left. This is the only time that the stamps applied were released for the stamp exhibition for which the hand stamp and cachet related. This does make this card a little more special in content, if not greatly in price.

As stated, I have a large collection of these cards, and possibly even a complete, or near complete set of the cachets on these, and despite my like for these I still have to say that they have not proven to be popular in the long term. They were originally quite expensive, but these days you can pick up copies for around £1.50 to £2.50 a card, sometimes even cheaper!    

 

07/03/2019

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

JOIN THE RANKS

BECOME A PREMIUM MEMBER

Official Museum ‘Premium Membership’ promotion postcard

 

This lovely free card was found by my eldest son who obtained a couple of copies for me. I do like the way that the old WW1 soldiers photographs have been matched up with the people holding these, a clever idea and a great image.

 

07/03/2019

UNTITLED

Design by

PAUL FUENTES (2018)

Published by

LAGOM DESIGN

Ref: 3106

 

This was a resent acquisition from a ‘paperchase’ shop in Chelmsford. I believe to be a very new release, either late 2018 (although I did not see this card in any of the paperchase shop’s I visited in late 2018 or through January 2019), or more likely, in my opinion, early 2019, possibly February time.

When I first saw this design, I loved it.

 

07/03/2019

EDITH CAVELL MEMORIAL

Published by

THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY’S SERIES

(Printed at their works in England)

 

I have seen this memorial many times as it is located on the opposite side of the road from the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery in London. It is a most impressive memorial and I have stopped and looked and admired it on each occasion. This postcard was used in 1922, under three years from when it was officially opened on 17th March 1920.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

NURSE CAVELL’S GRAVE

NORWICH CATHEDRAL

Published by

JARROLD & SONS LTD., NORWICH

A COTMAN-COLOR SERIES POSTCARD

 

05/03/2019

BUFFALO BILL

THE PONY EXPRESS RIDER

IN BUFFALO BILL MEMORIAL MUSEUM

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, COLORADO

Published by

COOPER POST CARD CO., LAKEWOOD, COLORADO

Ref: 7C-K1164

 

Although I did visit this museum last year this was not from where I obtained this postcard. This one I found in a second-hand book shop in Flagstaff, Arizona. The fact that I had already visited this museum just a week or so before probably was one of the reasons I bought this one. There was of course also the fact that it is a great postcard image.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

05/03/2019

GREETINGS FROM

GUERNSEY

Map Postcard

Published by

JOHN HINDE LTD

Distributed by

BURBRIDGE LTD., PUBLICATIONS DIVISION, GUERNSEY

Printed in

IRELAND

Ref: 2GY 49

 

A nice simple map postcard with a number of locations named, which appear to be mainly around the coastland. Their famous cow makes an appearance as does a monkey, although the zoo which I believe this monkey refers to closed-down many years ago. It is another example of how these older postcards have a touch of history about them.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

Posted using a Guernsey 24p ‘Standard Rose’ postage stamp which is cancelled with a GUERNSEY POST OFFICE slogan cancel: ‘COLLECT GUERNSEY STAMPS’ dated 20 August 1994. I suspect, well, I know, if im honest, that this postcard design was around for some years prior to this date.

 

04/03/2019

ROK OLIMPIJSKI 1944

MOTYW OLIMPIJSKI – WOLDENBERG

Official Polish Postal Stationery Post Card

 

I picked this postal stationery post card at the recent Stampex exhibition. I am guessing here but I think this was issued in 1979 (unfortunately my Higgins catalogue and my Michel goes up to 1960, so I do not have the correct information on this card). 1944 would have been an Olympic games year if it had not been for the Second World War, and the games would have been held in London who had won the bid for the event, but this is not what this card commemorates. Woldenberg is mentioned here on this card and after some research I have discovered that there was a prisoner of war camp at Woldenberg (now Dobiegniew), Oflag II-C POW camp. Between the 23rd July 1944 and the 13th August 1944 the Polish prisoners of war were granted permission by their German captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics. The event is clearly what this card commemorates. Looking into it led me to the fascinating story behind these unofficial games.

 

04/03/2019

GAME ON

‘SUPER-MARIO’

VIDEOPELIEN HISTORIA, KULTTUURI JA TULEVAISUUS

(History, culture and future of video games)

TAIDEMUSEO TENNISPALATSI

20/09/2003 – 14/12/2003

Computer game advert postcard

Published by

MiniMoi

 

As the text on the reverse side of this postcard is in Finnish, I hesitate to guess that this card is from Finland (thank you Google Translate). Postcards featuring the characters from the Super Mario Brothers computer games are popular with those who collect these games and play them. This is a nice foreign one.

 

FREUNDE FURS LEBEN

(Friends for Life)

SUPER MARIO BROS.WII

Published by

EDGAR FREECARDS

Ref: #12. 758

 

Another postcard which although from a completely different country – Germany – I bought from the same dealer as the card depicted above.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

04/03/2019

UNTITLED

MOWGLI AND BALOO

Official Disneyland Paris Resort Postcard

Ref: 27017

 

This is from a series of postcards that are exclusive to this particular Disney theme park, located in France. This is a series which I liked a lot and I have tried to put together a complete set.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

A nice fancy looking reverse side

 

04/03/2019

SESSION PHOTOGRAPH FOR

ALADDIN SANE

Photograph by

BRIAN DUFFY

1973

Published by the

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

Ref: 120107

 

Over many months of last year, I posted on the webpage the postcards issued for the museums ‘David Bowie’ exhibition. There were a few and it has taken awhile, but here we are at the end with the final postcard to be shown. At least I saved a cracker for the end.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

03/03/2019

CALLARD & BOWSER’S

BUTTER-SCOTCH

THE CHILDREN’S BOX

Tin Box Lid circa 1897

Published by the

ROBERT OPIE COLLECTION

Ref: 01CB04

In their:

CALLARD & BOWSER SERIES

 

Another cracking postcard image from the prolific publisher of advertising material.

 

03/03/2019

GEORGE ORWELL

LONDON, 1943

By Unknown Photographer

Published by

FOTOFOLIO

Ref: P110

 

This postcard picked itself today because it appears in the book I am currently reading, which is called ‘AUNTIE’S WAR’ by Edward Stourton and which tells the story of the BBC during the second world war. Last night I read the chapter about Orwell’s wartime involvement with the BBC and the first page of this chapter has this photograph on it.

 

PHOTOGRAPH

‘AUNTIE’S WAR’

This is the cover of the book. It’s a fascinating read.

 

01/03/2019

SNOWDROP

Painting by

MARIUS FORESTIER

Published by

THE MEDICI SOCIETY LTD., LONDON

Ref: P.C. 921

In their:

MEDICI WILD FLOWER SERIES

 

This was a quite a big series and this is not the first card from it to appear on this webpage (you will have to go off and hunt down the other ones as I can not remember when I posted them – but it was a while go!)

 

01/03/2019

R.M.S. “CARONIA”

CUNARD WHITE STAR LINE

Published by

VALENTINE & SONS. LTD (DUNDEE AND LONDON)

Ref: 1793

In their:

“STEAMSHIP” SERIES

 

This card is clearly an older postcard issue than the previously depicted Queen Mary 2 one. This one dates from the late 1950’s (or possibly a little earlier, but not much as she was launched in October 1947). The RMS Caronia was nicknamed the ‘Green Goddess’ because her hull was green coloured, something which the printing on this postcard does not clearly show. This card cost me £2, which is about right for this one.

 

PHOTOGRAPH

RMS CARONIA

 

You can see the green hull much better in this photograph

 

01/03/2019

QUEEN MARY 2

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

MAIDEN VOYAGE

12 JANUARY 2004

Published by

MARINE ART POSTERS

No. 210

 

This postcard was issued to celebrate the maiden voyage of this ocean liner in 2004. The company ‘MARINE ART POSTERS’ were a prolific publisher of ocean liner themed postcards around this time.

 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

 

Here you can see that a 1st class Machin Head postage stamp has been applied and that this has been cancelled with a boxed special hand stamp: ‘ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS – CONGRATULATE – QUEEN MARY 2 – ON HER MAIDEN VOYAGE – SOUTHAMPTON 12TH JANUARY 2004’.

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