A fair old get-together! “!’m so glad you’re keeping this going”. This one of many similar comments at the Nottingham Postcard Fair (plus cigarette cards, ephemera, militaria!) on Saturday. It was apparent that just about everyone there was having a good time, immersed in the fascination and thrill, of collecting. Missing dealers Rod Jewell and Read More …
Author: Brian Lund
Royal
Royal
National Postcard Week?
National Postcard Week? It was Hal Ottaway from Wichita Postcard Club who reminded me of it. The concept is still alive in the USA, promoted by the club from Kansas. This year it’s May 1st to 7th, and it struck me that maybe it would be a good idea to resurrect the concept in the Read More …
The movie with the wrong title?
Have you seen the great new film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy and Andrea Riseborough, with Olivia Colman narrating? If you reply in the negative, I’m not surprised as it lasted just a week at our local Showcase cinemas. The Odeon chain was showing it as well, so you Read More …
It’s party time! Royals and politicians live it up on Edwardian postcards
These two postcards really are a bit of magic, the Edwardian era’s photoshop. The Rotary Photographic Co., market leaders in the production of postcards of Royalty and celebrities, showed a touch of creativity in designing many of their cards, in particular taking individual portraits and montaging them in a printing blender to create an impressive Read More …
When the big boys rode into town
It’s difficult to imagine what it was like when picture postcards exploded in production round about 1903. Although the first pictorial cards began to be published commercially in 1894, it took another eight or nine years before their presence on the High Street began to make itself felt. For sure, postcard were available for most Read More …
The magic of Christmas postcards
For a couple of decades at the start of the 20th century, picture postcards reigned supreme in the seasonal greetings market. Costing just one halfpenny to post compared with double that for a folded greetings card, postcards soon eclipsed that market. And what a wealth of subjects appeared on Edwardian Christmas postcards! Images of holly Read More …
Postcards that come with strings
It is often said that every conceivable subject has appeared on picture postcards, but sometimes it is quite astonishing just how many different cards on a particular theme can actually be found. I found that to be true when I went looking for postcards of guitars. What a range I discovered, from old real photographic Read More …
The magic of early picture postcards
I’m prone to misquote Dr. Johnson in saying “He who is tired of postcards is tired of life” (actually he said London). Samuel Johnson (who has statues to him in Lichfield and London) found the capital endlessly fascinating, and liked nothing better than to wander round exploring it. I feel there’s much the same satisfaction Read More …
The legacy of fame – statues on picture postcards
I’m talking statues today. On postcards, obviously. Those edifices that we walk past all the time (well, in normal times, anyway) without giving much of a thought to who they represent. Most are pretty old, anyway. The Victorians loved erecting thes tributes to local heroes, but sometimes they become an embarrassment to generations that follow. Read More …