22/03/2020

LEOPARDS AT THE ZOO

By

CT HOWARD

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 3162

This superb painting has appeared on postcards since the golden age period, with this particular one being from the 1960’s era. I have always loved the animal paintings that CT Howard produced, and I have a collection of golden age period issues, so when I saw this one at a local antiques fair the other week I was happy to buy it, especially as it was just £1.  

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

22/03/2020

LIBERTY

ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD

STATUE OF LIBERTY

Published by

DESIGN MASTERS

Crafted in China

This is one of the postcards I bought on my visit to New York last month (although that seems like a lifetime ago what with all that has happened since. I also know that New York is currently on Lock Down – how the world can change, and so quickly is quite astonishing). Anyway, whilst I was there, I wanted to post a card in the post box, that is located, in the gift shop on the Statue of Liberty island. Now, my advice is that if you are after obtaining a special handstamp or a cachet etc then post more than one item as this gives you more of a chance of getting an undamaged (or at least a lot less damaged) example. They used to have a cachet that was used here, but it looks like this is no longer in use (I have an example in my collection somewhere, I will try and dig it out).

I posted two copies of this postcard to myself and I was extremely lucky as both copies came through in good condition. Below I depict both reverse sides, although there is little difference between them.

REVERSE SIDE – FIRST POSTCARD

Three stamps are required for postage to the UK and here I have applied three 2019 Forever’ stars and Stripes flag stamp book definitive stamps. These have been cancelled with the special ‘LIBERTY ISLAND STATION – NEW YORK, NY 10004’ cancellation which is dated the 28^th February 20[20]. I find this date fascinating as I visited and posted the cards in the post box on the 14^th February. I think this is an indication of how infrequently this post box is emptied these days! That’s a difference here of fourteen days! Interesting. Does this also mean that hardly anyone uses this post box anymore? Looks like it.   

REVERSE SIDE – SECOND POSTCARD

PHOTOGRAPH

14^TH February 2020

PHOTOGRAPH

14^TH February 2020

Yours truly posting the above two postcards

PHOTOGRAPH

14^TH February 2020

22/03/2020

POOLE QUAY

Artist

JANINE DRAYSON

Unknown Printer / Publisher

This is a large (very large) square shaped postcard which has a nice piece of artwork on the front. This is another postcard that my eldest son and his family obtained for me on their travels. I like this one a lot.

22/03/2020

UNTITLED (on the postcard)

FROM AN ORIGINAL BY

JOHN HANCOX

Printed for John Hancox by

G. A. GRAPHICS, STAMFORD, LINCS

The four postcards depicted here were obtained by my eldest son and his family at a steam show, in Dorset, I think. I have always liked steam driven engines, especially traction engines, this is probably because one of my father’s friends had a steam truck which we used to ride in at steam shows, which is where I gained an interest in these. John Hancox’s paintings capture the essence of the steam vehicles being used for their original purpose, farming and transportation.

The cards are not individually titled nor reference numbered.   

UNTITLED (on the postcard)

FROM AN ORIGINAL BY

JOHN HANCOX

Printed for John Hancox by

G. A. GRAPHICS, STAMFORD, LINCS

UNTITLED (on the postcard)

FROM AN ORIGINAL BY

JOHN HANCOX

Printed for John Hancox by

G. A. GRAPHICS, STAMFORD, LINCS

21/03/2020

CAMPING 2

By

PETER BLAKE – VENICE

Published by

POLITE

The artist Peter Blake is best known for the cover of the Beatle’s album ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’, but I really like this piece here. I have been involved with scouting for a large part of my life, so I suspect that the selection of overlaid scout images on this piece is what appealed to me.

21/03/2020

25 FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL

DU FILM DE LA ROCHELLE

27 JUIN - 7 JUL

1997

25^TH International Festival

Of the Film, La Rochelle

27^th June – 7^th July 1997

Official Event Festival Promotional and Information Postcard

La Rochelle is one of my favourite locations in France and once this coronavirus thing comes to an end – and it must end at some point, both here and in France – I will pay a visit to here again.

I was unaware of this film festival until I came across this postcard, and the one depicted below, which promote the film festival. Although I have no idea what the festival was like I do know that these postcards are superb.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

29 FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL

DU FILM DE LA ROCHELLE

29 JUIN - 9 JUL

29^TH International Festival

Of the Film, La Rochelle

29^th June – 9^th July 1997

Official Event Festival Promotional and Information Postcard

No year is shown on this card, but if it was an annual event then this would be 2001, but the festival may have been bi-annual or every two years, I don’t know for sure, but as there was an event in 2019 and there is one planned for 2020, then I am going with this being an annual event.  

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

21/03/2020

“I KNOW A SECRET WHICH I WILL TELL:

IT’S ONLY FOR YOU,

SO LISTEN WELL.”

By

BERNHARDT WALL

Published by

G. BERGMAN

Ref: SERIES 6109

Bernhardt T. Wall (30^th December 1972 – 9^th February 1956) was a well-known American illustrator of patriotic styled designs who had so many illustrations printed on postcard that he become known as the ‘Postcard King’. He did produce a range of patriotic cards during the first world war, although this design is a slightly earlier one. I don’t know if Wall is anywhere near as well known here in the UK as he is in the US

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Posted from MARION, OHIO with the US stamp cancelled with a machine cancellation dated 13^th February 1913. I like to think that this was sent to a postcard collector as there is no written message, but then perhaps the receiver was expecting a postcard from someone special, so they did not need to put their name on it.

21/03/2020

SHRINKING WAS JUST THE BEGINNING.

Disney’s

HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS

THE TV SHOW

Official Disney Advertising Postcard

I like to find unusual television postcards, which includes postcards which feature programmes most people would not expect to find postcards for. This one here I had seen on eBay a couple of times but always at prices in excess of $6, but with the addition of extremely high postage costs from the US. So, I had not been able to obtain a copy. Luckily for me though I found a copy at an antiques fair in Mount Dora, Florida last year, and it only cost me $1.

The TV series in question ran for three seasons with 66 individual episodes (running to 48 mins each). The four stars depicted are Peter Scolari, Barbara Alyn Woods and Thomas Dekker. The series first ran between the 1^st September 1997 and the 20^th May 2000. I know this was shown on the Disney Channel, but I do not know if it was shown here in the UK. It is certainly not a programme I remember ever seeing.     

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

21/03/2020

RECEIVED YOUR

SMOKES………………

CANDY…………………

COOKIES……………..

RAZOR BLADES……

SHAVING CREAM…

AND (OR)…………….

THANKS A LOT!

Copyright WIPCO 1942

Official Military Reply Postcard

This is a World War 2 American military reply card which could be used by serving soldiers to let family or friends know that items had been received. This type of ‘tick box’ postcard was popular as it made the senders life, and that of any censor, much easier and negated the need to write any message, which again solved many censorship issues.   

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This copy of the postcard was posted from ‘FORT SHERIDAN, ILL’ and has a military machine cancel, with a ‘wavy lines’, dated February 4^th, 1943. The card was addressed to Maine.

21/03/2020

MEET THE PEOPLE

1972

By

EDUARDO PAOLOZZI

Published by the

MUSEUM FUR KUNST UND GEWERBE HAMBURG

The piece of artwork depicted on this postcard appealed to me because two of my biggest collecting themes are Television and Disney. This is because the women depicted is Lucille Ball, the famous American actress who is best remembered for the long running and extremely popular television series ‘I Love Lucy’. Then you have Minnie Mouse, which nicely places this card into my Disney collection as well. It is always surprising what you can find depicted on pieces of modern art, and a delight to then find them displayed on postcards which are often exclusive to the museum or gallery they appear in.

21/03/2020

SPIDER-MAN

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

 (Book Cover)

Book Author

TOM DEFALCO

Official Book Promotional Postcard

Printed for the Author by

THE LONDON POSTCARD COMPANY

Autographed by the Writer

TOM DEFALCO

When this book was published, which was some years ago now in 2001, I met the author at a stand at a Memorabilia show at the NEC Birmingham and bought a copy of the book which he kindly signed for me. I also, free at the time, obtained this signed copy of this postcard. As you may have noticed I do like signed cards. Also, the book is good as well.

     REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

.

SFX MAGAZINE COVER

Issue 325

I am a subscriber to this magazine, so I get the special exclusive subscriber cover editions. If you are looking for a copy of this in the shops then look for a cover that has the Cat on the front of it, as he appears on the postcard.

PHOTOGRAPH

The double-sided poster, sticker sheet and ‘Cat’ cut-out costume card that also come with this issue

CAT CUT-OUT COSTUME CARD

This is quite a large sized card

RED DWARF SET SKETCH DESIGN

This is printed on the reverse side of the Cat ‘cut-out’ card depicted above. Because this is also interesting and collectible, I suspect few people will cut out the Cat doll from the other side. I certainly will not be cutting my one up.

20/03/2020

BERLIN 1989

BLICK IN DIE ZUKUNFT

(Look at this Future – or – View in the Future)

Published by

CITY COLLEKTION POSTCARDS

BERLIN

Copyright Motiv Archiv Berlin

1989 was the year that the Berlin Wall came down. This photograph shows a hole which was smashed out of the Berlin Wall beginning the night of the 9^th November when people started to congregate at the wall and begun breaking bits off it and smashing gaps in it.

This nice image postcard I picked up at a street antiques market in Berlin along Unter den Linden.    

20/03/2020

ALEXANDRIA

NEW RAILWAY STATION

Published by

LEHNERT & LANDROCK, CAIRO

Ref: 2206

This postcard is quite badly damaged, with three reasonably big creases, but the image was so interesting I decided to keep the postcard anyway (which is probably for the best as I suspect many people would have thrown this one, which I think would have been a shame). It came in a bundle of postcards I inherited from somewhere, possibly it was a cheap car boot sale bundle.

PHOTOGRAPH

Alexandria Railway Station

This modern photograph shows how the building is much the same

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

20/03/2020

TITLE UNKNOWN

(Probably covered by postage stamps on reverse side)

HUMBOLDT PENGUINS

Published by

GULF STREAM CARD & DISTRIBUTING CO., MIAMI, FLORIDA

Printed

GENUINE CURTEICH-CHICAGO “C. T. ART-COLORTONE” POST CARD

This lovely penguin ‘Linen’ US postcard has a nice colour photograph of penguins on it. It also has an applied ‘PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS’ air mail etiquette (air mail label) applied in the bottom right corner. This label caught my eye when I saw this on a dealer’s stall, and then I turned the card over and saw what was on the reverse side…

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This card has been posted using three US postage stamps, two of the 3 cent International Geophysical Year 1957-58 stamps and a 4 cent ‘Long May it Wave’ stars & stripes flag from 1957. These stamps have been cancelled with a large official ‘U.S. NAVY 17038’ hand stamp dated 8^th January 1959. The card has also received a very large red coloured boxed cachet which depicts a map of Antarctica and which is a U.S.S.R (Russian) Weather Base cachet – P.D. ASTAPENKO, U.S.S.R. WEATHER REP. P.D. Astapenko was a Russian weather scientist who spent time in Antarctica at the Central Antarctic Weather Bureau. I believe he was in Antarctica in 1958, so may even have been there at the time this card was posted, which leads me to believe that this two-line black text cachet may well be his personal mark.

From the printed address on this card, you can see that this card’s usage was organised by the American Society of Polar Philatelists. This is a nice piece of polar postal history.

20/03/2020

SPITFIRE VB’S OF 317 (WILENSKI) SQUADRON, RAF

A POLISH SQUADRON

By

TONY JACKSON BA(Hons) Dip SIAD

Published by

INSIGNIA CARDS (Tony Jackson & Assocs)

Ref: “WARPLANES OF WWII”

Set No. 1

Card No. 2

I do love the paintings done by Tony Jackson. They have authenticity in what they depict, and they are well executed, they have what I call instant ‘eye appeal’. I have depicted Spitfire postcards on the webpage before, but it is such an iconic aeroplane that I buy any postcard I come across that depicts them. This one is a real cracker.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Signed by the Artist

TONY JACKSON

It is always nice to find a postcard that has been hand signed by the artist who has produced the image that appears on the front of the card. I was pleased when I found this card priced at just 75p and was delighted to find that it had been signed here on the reverse side. Obviously, an appropriate signature will always add some value, although here that is not a great amount monetarily, maybe a pound or two. A nice card though.   

20/03/2020

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

Film Poster

Published by

LONDON POSTCARD COMPANY

Ref: CODE: EO 00733 (Series 2 set of 20)

Bond Classic Posters

The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977

Signed on the front by

ROGER MOORE

I spent all of this morning applying the royal mail James Bond stamps to James Bond postcards to be sent off (I posted them this afternoon) to receive special James Bond related hand stamps (I placed images of my work doing this on the facebook page if you want to have a look). This has left me thinking quite a bit about the Bond movies and has led directly to me depicting here another Roger Moore signed film poster postcard from my collection (you may have seen the one I posted on the 16^th March – which was the film poster card for Live and Let Die).

‘The Spy who loves Me’ is my favourite Bond movie, followed closely by ‘Live and Let Die’ (which both have the best theme songs as well) which may be why these are the two which have appeared on the webpage. Having said that, even a Bond film at the bottom of my favourite Bond film list is better than most other films (I am a real Bond film fan), except perhaps ‘Never Say Never Again’, which is not a ‘cannon’ Bond Film, and the original comedy film ‘Casino Royale’ (with David Niven as the titular spy).       

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

19/03/2020

FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS

CRIME AT GUILDFORD

Published by

HOUSE OF STRATUS

“Back on the case and as compelling as ever, 35 Freeman Wills Crofts books have returned to the bookshops, from publisher House of Stratus”

(Text from reverse side of above Postcard – and the two postcards depicted below)

These three postcards are quite a few years old now, so it has been some time since these reprints were available (15 odd years ago, possibly more). I picked them up in a book shop in Cambridge.

Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish writer of mystery books. Because he was once a railway engineer by training many of his books had a railway theme within them. Crofts was born in in 1879 and passed away in April 1957, so I suspect his stories are based within the interesting years of the 1920’s and 1930’s, mainly, although he continued to have books published during WW2 (there were 5 books published after the war).

‘Crime at Guildford’ was first published in 1935.

FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS

DEATH OF A TRAIN

Published by

HOUSE OF STRATUS

“Back on the case and as compelling as ever, 35 Freeman Wills Crofts books have returned to the bookshops, from publisher House of Stratus”

(Text from reverse side of above Postcard – and the two postcards depicted below)

‘Death of a Train’ was first published in 1946 and was serialised in the ‘New York Daily News’ in the same year.

FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS

ANTIDOTE TO VENOM

Published by

HOUSE OF STRATUS

“Back on the case and as compelling as ever, 35 Freeman Wills Crofts books have returned to the bookshops, from publisher House of Stratus”

(Text from reverse side of above Postcard – and the two postcards depicted below)

‘Antidote to Venom’ was first published in 1938.

PHOTOGRAPH

FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS

STANDARD REVERSE LAYOUT FOR ALL THREE POSTCARDS

18/03/2020

SAINTES

French Town

Set of local artwork scenic Postcards

All postcards published by

EDITIONS LE BELIER

With the coronavirus affecting most of Europe, including us here in the UK (so much for Brexit!), we can not travel to our house in France, which is located in a small village near to the beautiful town of Saintes, which has featured on the webpage before. So, if we cannot visit there, I will depict this set of postcards which depict, with one exception, local views of the town. These are not titled, numbered or referenced in anyway, in fact, if it was not for the Saintes main title at the bottom centre on each design you would struggle to identify the location if you had not visited here.

Collectors put together collections themed on places that are important to them or which they enjoy holidays at or work at. Lots of collectors could put together a set like this for almost any location, I can do it for my hometown and a couple of other local areas that I worked. My connection with Saintes is the house we have inherited from Jo’s parents… when this is all over, we will again visit here. I am already looking forward to it.   

Cathedrale Saint Pierre

The Arch of Germanicus.

If you look at the next postcard you will see an image showing where the arch used to be, on the bridge which is close to where it has been moved to. 

This is the only picture which does not show a part of Saintes in this our current time. This is an image of how the bridge looked back in more ancient times (possibly Roman, or later in Medieval times). The stone arch on the bridge was later moved - see above picture.

Basilique Saint Eutrope de Saintes.

Musee de l'Echevinage de Saintes .

Abbaye Aux Dames, Saintes

The old Roman Amphitheater 

COMPANY LOGO

Enlargement of the logo on the reverse side of all cards

18/03/2020

ELEVEN CATS AND A MOUSE

(Onze chats et une souris)

By

PASCALE GODARD

‘STICKERS’ POSTCARD

Published by

EDITIONS CARTES D’ART

Ref: SERIE: CARTES-STICKERS/STICKERS-CARDS / ST 60

With everything going so bad across the world I thought I would brighten things up with this group of ‘pretty’ looking little cats, that is assuming that you like cats, although I notice now that this is a black and white card so perhaps the word ‘Brighten’ was a bit optimistic. Each cat is on its own little peel-off sticker, with a little mouse on the final sticker. I bought this sticker card in France several years ago.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

18/03/2020

ROY HUDD OBE ….. RIP

16^TH May 1936 – 15^th March 2020

Comedian, TV actor, presenter, radio host, author and music hall entertainment expert.

POSTCARD SIZED BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH

Autographed and Dedicated (with small doodle of face)

By

ROY HUDD

You can find lots of these signed photographs as many actors, performers and singers sent them out to fans who request a signed image. This one contains an early photograph picture of Roy Hudd.