17/10/2019

TEMPLE BAR

No Publisher or Printer named

Originally one of the main gates into London the Temple Bar Gate was dismantled brick by brick, over 11 days in 1874 because it was being damaged by the constant cart traffic in the street where it was originally erected. Once dismantled the 2,700 stones were stored away by the City of London Corporation.

In 1880 these stones were bought by Henry Meux and the Temple Bar was rebuilt as a façade to a new gatehouse in the park of Meux’s (a brewer) mansion house ‘Theobalds Park’, in Hertfordshire. This is where this photograph was taken.

The gate was again dismantled in 2003 and returned to London where it now stands as an entrance to the Paternoster Square area immediately north of St Paul’s Cathedral. This was opened in 2004 (10^th November). So, there is a lot of history wrapped in this structure, and this postcard shows just part of its story.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

17/10/2019

THE GARRISON

CHURCH PARADE

Published by the

B & B SERIES

No location is given on this postcard, and I suppose if you were visiting here in 1907, when this card was posted, you would know where you were and where you picked it up, hopefully. Thankfully for me this card was posted and has the stamp cancelled with a Portsmouth cancellation dated 6^th July 1907. Knowing that Portsmouth was, and still is a big naval base, and seeing that many of the people depicted in this photograph are wearing sailor’s uniforms gives me good reason to believe this is photograph from the Portsmouth garrison. A good indication of how much a cancellation or written message can help identify a location not well known to you.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

17/10/2019

MORNING MARKET

KRUGERSDORP

Published by

SALLO EPSTEIN & Co., DURBAN

Ref: 87877 [although the first digit is unclear and could be a 6]

Although this is a postcard from South Africa it was posted here in the UK in 1905. This is a lovely hand coloured negative print photograph, with lots of social history content. I think this would easily be worth a couple of pounds, maybe up to £5 for a specialist area collector.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

17/10/2019

FRANCO-BRITISH EXHIBITION

THE FLIP-FLAP

Published by

THE NATIONAL SERIES

Made In Gt. Britain

The ‘Flip-Flap’ was one of the major attractions of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition (14^th May – 31^st October) and it appears on many photographic postcards from the exhibition, although I prefer this cartoon styled design.

A large part of the exhibition ground was cleared in 1937 resulting in the Flip-Flap being dismantled and sold for its scrap steel.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

17/10/2019

GREETINGS FROM GEORGIA’S

UNDERGROUND ATLANTA

“Four blocks of subterranean historical structures near busy five points in Downtown Atlanta, Ga., are preserved in the original Gay Nineties glory. They have been restored to provide a profusion of fine shops, unique lounges and interesting restaurants”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

Colour Photography by

C. H. RUTH

Published by

SCENIC SOUTH CARD.,

BESSEMER, ALA (Atlanta)

Ref: [there is a number in the stamp box] 49837

An American multi-view postcard. This card works both as a souvenir of a visit here and as a promotional card, although this was a card that you needed to buy, but it would promote the site and its shops and eateries. I also think the old train carriage top right makes this card a little more collectible.

17/10/2019

THE TOWN HOUSE AT CORFE CASTLE

Set in a unique 17^th century building in the heart of the village square

By

ANGELA H NEWTON

Official Location Promotional Advert Card

I do like cards which can only be found in specific local places, cards which you need to visit the place to obtain or which you can pick up from good and interesting modern postcard stock from specialist modern postcard dealers. This is just such a card, and one which would appeal to cat collectors   

17/10/2019

FRIMARKETS DAG 2007

MOTIVET TILLHOR FRIMARKETS DAGUTGAVAN SVENSKT MODE

THE DAY OF THE FREE MARKET 2007

THE SUBJECT OF THE STYLES DAY ISSUE – SWEDISH FASHION

Design by

STINA WIRSEN

Published by

POSTEN FRIMARKEN

Ref: NR 26

A beautifully designed postcard produced exclusively for use with the attractive fashion themed Swedish stamp, which has been applied top left and cancelled on 29^th September 2007. The special cancellation is from ‘POSTEN OSTERSUND – FRIMARKETS DAG’ and the shoe motif used in the special cancel matches nicely the shoe image on the postcard itself.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This side has a more basic Ostersund cancel

17/10/2019

HDM – MUNDUS

LEASING MET VERSTAND VAN ZAKEN

NU EN IN DE TOEKOMST

‘Leasing with mind of business

Now and in the Future’

Official HDM-MUNDUS Promotional Postcard

I bought this postcard from a stamp dealer at a Stampex show a few years back. I liked it because of the futuristic delivery vehicles depicted in the artwork, which I assume was specifically produced for the company. The card is Dutch, as I assume the company is, and was being sold by the stamp dealer because of the red meter mark pre-paid postage mark on the reverse side.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The red coloured meter mark is from ‘VLISSINGEN, NEDLERLAND – POSTBUS 129, 4380 AC – 07-II-86 [7^th February 1986] – 60 cent’.   

16/10/2019

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

Official BBC Concert Orchestra promotional postcards

HUG, HUG

This is a set of at least five postcards which have an addressed reverse side which also has a text area on the left side which has gaps in it for the sender to fill in and complete, thus letting the BBC know what the senders musical preferences were – the sender also supplies their name and address which I assume would have resulted in the sending of BBC promotional material, including I suspect, some sort of sales catalogue. These are nice cards though.

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

Official BBC Concert Orchestra promotional postcards

LEFT

TAP, TAP

RIGHT

CHING, CHING

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

Official BBC Concert Orchestra promotional postcards

LEFT

KISS, KISS

RIGHT

CHIT, CHAT

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARDS

All cards have the same basic layout

16/10/2019

GENERAL ELECTION

UP WITH THE WOMEN

DOWN WITH THE MEN

Reproduction image of a 1910’s postcard

Published by

ROBERT OPIE

Ref: GREAT WAR SERIES

01GW12

The suffragette movement has always been a popular collecting theme within old golden age postcards (pre WW1), but that interest has continued and you can find modern postcards which also have a suffragette connection, some reproductions of images from the original period, like this card.

16/10/2019

STEVE BELL’S OLD MASTERS: No 2

After Mr and Mrs Andrew by Thomas Gainsborough

Published by

LEEDS POSTCARDS

A superb political postcard from the 1980’s which takes the design of a famous old masters painting and places into it the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the President of the USA, Ronald Reagan. If you check centre right you can see their warplanes, helicopters and cruise missiles in the background. The mid-eighties were full of postcards related to the political connection between the UK and US and the placement of cruise missiles here in the UK. A large number of postcards were issued by those who were against these missiles being here.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

I like the message that has been written here. Very 1980’s

16/10/2019

LE CANON DE 75

Copyright by the

PANTHEON DE LA GUERRE 1918

Published By

P CARRIER-BELLEUSE

A. F. GORGUET

ANCIENS ETAB. NEURDEIN ET CIE . –

IMP. CRETE SUCC. CORBEIL – PARIS

A postcard depicting a French 75mm field gun from the first world war, although the French had adopted this quick firing field gun as far back as 1898.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

16/10/2019

REMOTE CONTROL

MUSICAL DRUMMER ROBOT

BATTERY OPERATED

1950

American Box design for this Japanese designed robot toy

Published by the

SCIENCE MUSEUM (LONDON)

Ref: 447065

This is the last of these Robot Toy USA packaging postcards from the set currently available at the Science Museum in London. Like the previous cards this has a great piece of artwork on it and is one of my major finds of this year. These are lovely cards.

15/10/2019

DEFENSIVE SHIELD OF WARSAW, 1980

(MILITARY ART CARD)

KAZIMIERZ KEDZIA

OBRONNA TARCZA UKTADU WARSZAWSKIEGO, 1980

Published by

KRAJOWA AGENCJA

I know nothing about this postcard really, which is a sad state-of-affairs as it is clearly a ‘fairly’ modern – 1980 – comment on the military shield around Warsaw, whether real or imagined, I don’t know. I bought this card for the image, the cachet on the reverse side and the unusual usage.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This has a large red cachet: POLSKI - KENTYNGENT WOJSKOWY – UNDORF – SILACH ZBROJNYCH ONZ, which seems to translate as ‘Polish – Military Quotas – UN Armed Forces UNDORF’. Syria is also mentioned in the cachet along with ‘85’, which seems to be the year, and XXIV ZMLAN(D or A – I think it ends with an A , but this does not seem to translate as anything specific in Polish).

No stamp has been applied, but there is a Warsaw registered post label which has been cancelled with a Warsaw circular cancellation! Not sure why there is no stamp, but I do know that the early 1980’s were a difficult time for the Russian run Poland, with the rise of the resistance to the soviet leadership. Perhaps there was a stamp shortage or other difficulties with the post, I don’t know, but I will look further into this.

15/10/2019

THE MASTER CUTLER

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 5559

This is another early post war Salmon transport themed postcard, but this time we have one of the train series. I do like these colourised photograph images. They have some appealing about them that I can not resist. I think it is the unusual unreal looking colours that I like. I also like the old diesel styled trains.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

THE CALEDONIAN

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 5555

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

THE GOLDEN ARROW

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 5556

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

CORNISH RIVIERA EXPRESS

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 5558

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

15/10/2019

RMS QUEEN MARY

Published by

J. SALMON LTD

Ref: 4508

I have always liked ocean liner postcards, especially the ones from the golden period of ocean crossings. I have picked up a few Queen Mary cards in the past, but since I enjoyed a stay on board her last year, I have looked a bit harder and found some quite nice art ones, like this one.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This is an early post war (WWII) issue with the quote from King George VI bottom left corner.

15/10/2019

WISH YOU WERE HERE

THERE’S SO MANY NICE VIEWS I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE

1933 – 1983

Designed by

DAVID G. SWINTON

“This card is representative of those disapproved by the original Postcard Censoring Committee for sale in the Isle of Man. It has been designed for issue by the 1983 Committee to commemorate 50 years of statutory censorship”

(Text from reverse side of Postcard)

Printed by

DAVID G. SWINTON

Published For the

POSTCARD CENSORING COMMITTEE

It is nice to see a postcard connected with the anniversary of the censorship of postcard designs. This period of postcard production is very interesting. Postcard publishers during this period had to submit designs to the committee who decided if the images were suitable for publication in their area. Different committees worked in different areas of the country which lead to the unusual position that a design could be approved in one area but declined in another! The Isle of Man committee were notorious for declining designs and had the reputation for being one of, if not the, worse in the country. As an aside, when a company submitted their designs for consideration they had to have three copies made and sent in. Then when the decision was made by the local committe the designs were stamped either accepted or declined and a copy was kept by the committee, the second copy returned to the publishersv and the third sent to the local police. So, for each design there are three copies with the result attached via the committee's official cachet (for each area, obviously publishers sent in designs to all or many of the committee's up and down the country, but each used their own large boxed cachet).    

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This has one of the best UK special hand stamps created, in my opinion. It is also a rare use of the colour blue. The hand stamp reads:

POSTCARD CENSORSHIP ACT

1933

CENSORED

5 – JULY – 1983

ISLE OF MAN

15/10/2019

INTERNATIONAL FLOWER SHOW

PARIS

1969

French Maxi-Card

‘JOLIES ROSES DE FRANCE’

Published by

EDITIONS D’ART YVON, PARIS

Ref: No 27

This is a great red rose photographic postcard which has been used with the 1969 issued French ‘International Flower Show – Paris’ stamp which has been first day of issue hand-stamped: ‘FLORALIES INTERNATIONALES – PARIS – 27-28 JUIN 1969’.     

15/10/2019

LEFT

H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Published by

CURTIS DISTRIBUTING CO., LTD., TORONTO. CANADA

Printed

PLASTICOLOR by

CARLA’S

MONTREAL, QUE.

Ref: 213

This nice colour early photograph of the Queen has a Canada Queen Elizabeth 1c postage stamp applied (Ref: SG 450) which was issued in 1953. This has been cancelled with a BARRINGTON WEST, N. S. [Nova Scotia] cancel dated 20^th July 1956. This makes a nice combination, but I have been unable to trace any significance to the date on the cancel.

RIGHT

H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Published by

CURTIS DISTRIBUTING CO., LTD., TORONTO. CANADA

Printed

PLASTICOLOR by

CARLA’S

MONTREAL, QUE.

Ref: 213

This one is easier to work out as the stamp applied has been cancelled first day of issue. The stamp is the Queen Elizabeth definitive 4c (Ref: SG 466) cancelled with a Canadian cancel dated 01- IV [the ‘V’ has been inverted – this is of course the roman numerals for 4, so this is April] 1954.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARDS

15/10/2019

M/S EUROPA

‘EUROPAVAART’

Large (A5+) sized card stamped and postmarked

ROTTERDAM – BASEL - ROTTERDAM

Official M/S Europa Card

This large card, and one shown below, were produced during a specific sailing of the river boat from Rotterdam to Basel and back to Rotterdam. There are a number of stamps, labels and cachets and cancels applied:

1 – M/S Europa green Cinderella label for the Rotterdam-Basel-Rotterdam sailing. This is cancelled with a ROTTERDAM double circle cancel dated 5^th June 1960

2 – At the top of the card is a rectangular sticker like label with green printing: ‘EUROPAVAART’

3 – Under this is a French 8F stamp cancelled with the boats – M/S EURPOA – Rotterdam – Basel – Rotterdam cancel dated 9^th June 1960

4 – Then you have a 50F French EUROPA stamp cancelled ‘STRASBOURG’ dated 11^th June 1960.

5 – Under this is a blue boxed boat cachet ‘M/S EUROPA’

6 – Under this are two German ‘DEUTSCHE BUNDESPORT’ ‘EUROPA’ stamps (10 and 40) cancelled KEHL (Kiel) 11^th June 1960.

7 – On the other side under the green label is a red cachet; VERTREK ROTTERDAM – M/S EUROPA – 5/6/60 – ROTTERDAM-BASEL-ROTTERDAM – HEROPENINGSVAART

8 – Bottom left is a green French 25F Europa stamp cancelled ‘STRASBOURG’ 11^th June 1960.

9 – Beside this is a M/S EUROPA purple boat cachet dated 14^th June 1960.

I think the combination of pieces makes this a great maritime philatelic card.

M/S EUROPA

‘EUROPAVAART’

Large (A5+) sized card stamped and postmarked

ROTTERDAM – BASEL - ROTTERDAM

Official M/S Europa Card

This second card is different as it has red printed areas top right and top left which relate to the EUROPA element and the sailing boxed cachet. Otherwise this has the following:

Underneath this top centre is a small photograph of the boat.

1 – Above the photograph is a ROTTERDAM cancel date 5^th June 1960 (Blikstelegraae ?)

2 - Under this is a straight-line purple M/S EUROPA cachet

3 – Far left is a boxed blue boat cachet ‘M/S EUROPA – EUROPAVAART – ROTTERDAM-BASEL-ROTTERDAM’

4 – This blue cachet has a KEHL (Kiel) cancel dated 11^th June 1960 over it at the top  

5 – and a M/S EUROPA purple boat cachet dated 14^th June 1960 over it at the bottom.

6 – On the right side are two German ‘DEUTSCHE BUNDESPORT’ ‘EUROPA’ stamps (10 and 40) cancelled ‘EMMERICH’ 14^th June 1960 (two strikes)

7 – Bottom centre is the red cachet; VERTREK ROTTERDAM – M/S EUROPA – 5/6/60 – ROTTERDAM-BASEL-ROTTERDAM – HEROPENINGSVAART

15/10/2019

LONDON 2010

FESTIVAL OF STAMPS

Official Stamp Card

Published by

POSTEN ALAND AB

This special post card was issued and sold at the London stamp exhibition ‘LONDON 2010 – Festival of Stamps’ (8^th – 15^th May 2010). The stamp applied to the front of this card is an unusual one as it has no postage value printed on it, and it does not appear in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, so, I think it might have been a cinderella stamp label produced for exclusive use at this stamp exhibition. It has been cancelled with a special cachet like hand stamp unique for the event, a cachet with no specific individual date usage, just the combined dates of the exhibition.

I bought this card when I attended this exhibition. It is one of my souvenirs of the event.

15/10/2019

ALGER [Algeria]

LE MARABOUT DE L’AMIRAUTE

Marabout of Amirity

Published by

MOULLOT MARSEILLE

COLLECTION PS IDEALE

Ref: 30

A ‘Marabout’ is a term for designating a Muslim religious leader. According to a dictionary of African words it may be a French corruption of an Arabic word ‘Murabit’, which refers to a monastic community, which makes sense if this image is of a religious area. This is a great postcard which was posted in the 1920’s to England.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The sender of this postcard used a 75c blue French postage stamp overprinted ‘ALGERIE’ (Ref: SG 26). Algeria was then a French colony (French territory in North Africa) and as such used French stamps overprinted in 1924 when these first overprinted stamps were first used. Here the stamp has been used on a postcard posted at sea onboard a ship and as thus it was cancelled with a PAQUEBOT’ cancel dated 26^th November 192(5 or 6). Nice usage and a nice clean postcard.

15/10/2019

CHUIGNES

SOMME

BIG GUN LET LOOSE BY THE GERMANS

Published by

CLICHÉ LELONG

AMIENS

A number of different postcards were released, by different companies, all depicting this big gun with the little boy poking out of the end of the barrel (I believe I have previously depicted one on the webpage somewhere, from a different company to this). This is a well-known WW1 postcard image.

15/10/2019

DO YOU REMEMBER TECHNOLOGY

The Book that takes you back

A colourful picture book on nostalgia that takes you back

Published by

MAX RACKS FREECARDS

(US Free Rack Card company)

With my fascination for any postcard related to TV it should come as no surprise that I snapped this one up from a dealer when I saw it.

This postcard advertises a book all about the nostalgia behind certain technical items such as 8-tracks (a US thing), View-Master, 3D Glasses, Dune Buggy Kits (also more US than here), Betamax, Slinky and, apparently, Electric Shock Therapy (could be nostalgic about that?).

15/10/2019

NOTTINGHAM LION

Sculpted by

JOSEPH ELSE 1874 – 1955

Artwork by

STEPHEN MILLERSHIP

Published by

STEPHEN MILLERSHIP

Ref: MILLERSHIP086PC

This is the second postcard I have depicted on the webpage showing the artwork of Stephen Millership. His work really appeal to me as the designs are painted to resemble the style of the old posters, and this works ‘really’ well.

This one shows the Nottingham Lion and the information centre where I bought this postcard is literally just around the corner from where these – there are two of them – lion statues are located. So, I got to buy this postcard and see the lion as well (but, to be honest I have seen these lions a few times in the past)

PHOTOGRAPH

6^TH September 2019

My photograph of the Left side Lion

THE LEFT LION

By

JASMIN ISSAKA

Published by

JASMIN ISSAKA

This piece of artwork also shows one of the stone lions and was bought in the same information centre as the above postcard. This one is in a completely different style, one which seems to be typical of the work of Jasmin. These are the type of local postcards which make your collection so much more interesting, and more than just a collection, it also becomes a record of your travels.

PHOTOGRAPH

6^TH September 2019

The display of Jasmin’s postcards in the tourist centre, Nottingham

NON-POSTCARD ITEM

BUISNESS CARD

Jasmin Issaka

FRONT

NON-POSTCARD ITEM

BUISNESS CARD

Jasmin Issaka

BACK

Contact details

14/10/2019

UNTITLED

HELLO - BOOM

Published by

PAPERCHASE

I would describe this recent paperchase release as a ‘Cute’ design. Although I do not think this is a Japanese design it does have all the hallmarks of having been influence by the Japanese modern art style.  

ENLARGED SECTION FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD