{"id":363,"date":"2018-04-15T16:17:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T16:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?page_id=363"},"modified":"2018-04-15T16:30:40","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T16:30:40","slug":"brians-blog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?page_id=363","title":{"rendered":"Brian&#8217;s Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-363\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-363-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-363-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-363-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_category-posts cat-post-widget panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><ul id=\"category-posts-1-internal\" class=\"category-posts-internal\">\n<li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2480\" rel=\"bookmark\">A fair old get-together!<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">22\/02\/2023 10:09 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>A fair old get-together! \u201c!\u2019m so glad you\u2019re keeping this going\u201d. 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 Mark Routh were asked after by numerous people (they\u2019re both ok!). But having said that, we could have done with another hundred people! There\u2019s no escaping the fact that putting on fairs is becoming a challenge for organisers, squeezed at one end by increasing costs <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2480\" title=\"Continue reading A fair old get-together!\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2334\" rel=\"bookmark\">National Postcard Week?<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">19\/04\/2022 3:59 pm<\/span><\/div><div><p>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\u2019s May 1st to 7th, and it struck me that maybe it would be a good idea to resurrect the concept in the UK \u2013 it lapsed in the early 1990s. I\u2019ve pitched the idea to the Postcard Traders Association, so we\u2019ll see what happens there. NPW UK was strong in the 1984-88 period, but maybe the promoters (including Alan Bower, whose original idea it was) became weary <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2334\" title=\"Continue reading National Postcard Week?\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2282\" rel=\"bookmark\">The movie with the wrong title?<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">19\/01\/2022 10:02 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>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\u2019m not surprised as it lasted just a week at our local Showcase cinemas. The Odeon chain was showing it as well, so you might still be in luck, or check your local independent \u2013 Broadway Cinema in Nottingham has it on till 23rd January. Otherwise you can catch it on Amazon Prime. We went to a late afternoon showing, and the cinema was empty apart from us. The <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2282\" title=\"Continue reading The movie with the wrong title?\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2164\" rel=\"bookmark\">It&#8217;s party time! Royals and politicians live it up on Edwardian postcards<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">29\/03\/2021 10:03 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>These two postcards really are a bit of magic, the Edwardian era\u2019s 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 panorama. On the two featured today, each person appears on a postcard of their own in the company\u2019s range, but they have been woven together to create an image of a large gathering \u2013 which never happened! Edward VII sits centre stage on both postcards. <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2164\" title=\"Continue reading It&#8217;s party time! Royals and politicians live it up on Edwardian postcards\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2144\" rel=\"bookmark\">When the big boys rode into town<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">09\/03\/2021 2:00 pm<\/span><\/div><div><p>It\u2019s 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 towns, cities and seaside resorts by the turn of the 20th century, but the most enthusiastic buyers were visitors from overseas, and with the exception of Valentine of Dundee, most postcards came from local firms without a strong nationwide reach. ETW Dennis of Scarborough were <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2144\" title=\"Continue reading When the big boys rode into town\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2121\" rel=\"bookmark\">The magic of Christmas postcards<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">24\/12\/2020 10:31 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>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 berries, robins, snow scenes and seasonal characters were produced by the million. Favourite with collectors now are cards featuring Santa Claus, especially those designed on the hold to light principle, where cut-outs of the top layer of cardboard produced a magic brightness in parts of <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2121\" title=\"Continue reading The magic of Christmas postcards\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2061\" rel=\"bookmark\">Postcards that come with strings<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">20\/08\/2020 9:42 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>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 cards of people playing the instrument in various locations (outdoor singing picnics seemed particularly popular in Germany), to street musicians, actresses identifying themselves with playing a guitar, romantic artist-drawn cards featuring people or dressed animals, and comic cards of children. Post-1945, cards can be found <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2061\" title=\"Continue reading Postcards that come with strings\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2011\" rel=\"bookmark\">The magic of early picture postcards<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">25\/06\/2020 8:37 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>I\u2019m prone to misquote Dr. Johnson in saying \u201cHe who is tired of postcards is tired of life\u201d (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\u2019s much the same satisfaction in postcards, which themselves reflect the whole of life. Pictures, messages, publishers, artists, postmarks, senders and recipients all provide a stimulus for exploring the background to each postcard, whether that\u2019s a 1960s view of Butlins, a World War One soldiers\u2019 postcard, or an Edwardian view <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=2011\" title=\"Continue reading The magic of early picture postcards\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=1992\" rel=\"bookmark\">The legacy of fame &#8211; statues on picture postcards<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">11\/06\/2020 9:20 am<\/span><\/div><div><p>I\u2019m 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\u00a0 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. Edward Colston, who made his fortune from the slave trade, was accorded a statue because he was a local benefactor, funding all kinds of public buildings and works from the money he made. Now he\u2019s been unceremoniously dumped after years of campaigning for his statue <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=1992\" title=\"Continue reading The legacy of fame &#8211; statues on picture postcards\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='cat-post-item'><div><a class=\"cat-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=1918\" rel=\"bookmark\">Easter postcard treats<\/a><\/div><div><\/div><div><span class=\"cat-post-date\">18\/04\/2020 12:43 pm<\/span><\/div><div><p>Do you send Easter cards? I never have until this year when I sent two Edwardian postcards with current first class stamps on to family. And that compares with maybe a couple of hundred Christmas cards. Plenty of Easter greetings folded cards are on sale in the shops, as the religious festival has been added to all the others commemorated by greetings cards manufacturers. Do people who buy them do so because it\u2019s a religious festival or just another chance to contact a friend? Or is it basically just a retail opportunity? At the start of the 20th century, though, <a class=\"cat-post-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/?p=1918\" title=\"Continue reading Easter postcard treats\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postcardcollecting.co.uk\/books\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}