Bowling Along - Reflections of a Bygone Age

The top magazine for collectors of old and modern postcards worldwide!

December 2009

no. 368

£2.60

Moderns of the year

The Televisio n Age

g: the Bowling alon postcards

Christmas special: Postcard Stockings galore! Inside this month: z z z z z

Postcard television Crown Green Bowls The Alaska Mission Hartley’s Jam Jacob Popp’s brush with the law and much more plus news, auctions, moderns, postbag and events diary

Jacob fights the law

Picture Postcard Annual 2010 out now - don’t miss it! - packed with postcard information and articles

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Postcard experiment on TV Good to see Jon Snow of Channel 4 News posting a selection of postcards on 29th October to viewers who’d tweeted about the Royal Mail dispute. It was an exercise designed to test how quickly the post was getting through. We’re still trying to find out how long the cards did take to reach their destinations!

Birmingham date error

Spot colour: 20% extra Inside covers: 20% extra Full colour rates: 50% extra Semi-d display:3 single col.cms each extra col.cm

Front cover pictures: Top right: this airline poster advert from Contour Creative of New Zealand is one of Mike and Sue Huddy’s favourite modern postcards of the past year. See page 46 for their other selections. Top left: Christmas means stockings, and they are the subject of Wendy Mann’s seasonal offering on page 30. Centre right: postcards featuring television make an interesting theme for Liz McKernan on page 12. Bottom left: John Mayhew tries his hand at Crown Green Bowls on page 24. Bottom right: Alan Leonard investigates the strange case of Jacob Popp’s picture postcards on page 16.

One or two errors crept into AMP Fairs’ advert in Picture Postcard Annual due to a crossed wires situation! Their Birmingham (National Motorcycle Museum) Fair in July 2010 is on the 11th (the incorrect date also appears in the Diary); entry to the Penkridge fair is free; and free tea and coffee will not be dispensed at the Rugby fair, where entry is actually £1.

PPM Features December 2009 Dealers and collectors - Kirsten Elliott sees life from 10 both sides of the table Postcard themes: Liz McKernan settles down in 12 front of the telly I fought the law - Jacob Popp used postcards in his Sunday trading battle, Alan Leonard recalls 16 State of the Nation - John Wood ponders some 19 weighty postcard matters Promoting Hartley’s jam - Nick Hartley looks at 22 advertising postcards Crown Green - John Mayhew is bowled over by his 24 postcard collection Enigma variations - Rick Hogben pursues a code 26 from New Zealand Who wrote all those postcards? Julia Gillen focuses 27 on messages on the backs Stockings galore - Wendy Mann hangs up in hope 30 Famous showjumpers - Ron Severs looks at horsey 36 postcards Alaska’s Igloo Mission - in the far north with Liz 42 McKendrick Top Ten Moderns - Mike and Sue Huddy’s choice of 46 the year

Postcard fairs continue to attract big crowds Despite the fears of some people within the hobby that internet sales would affect attendances at fairs, there are signs that figures are holding up well and in some cases increasing. Pudsey and Nottingham fairs both saw big crowds in early November (Nottingham had its best attendance for four years), Haywards Heath is going well, and Stockport’s midweek event is booming under the stewardship of AMP Fairs. No fair promoter can afford to be complacent, though, and continued imaginative ideas are needed to pull in more collectors. Some big issues are surfacing in the hobby at the moment, and this month’s Picture Postcard Monthly airs many of them, possibly controversial but needing thought and discussion. Because picture postcards provide such a fascinating panoply of art and history (a theme we’ll explore next month) it is probably better-placed than many other hobbies to ride out financial problems.

The question popped!

Regular columns Newsdesk 3 Fairs/Auction Diary 6 Auction notes 28 Postbag 20 What the postman saw 38 Clubscene 40 Card Chat 48 Early posting dates 51 Freecard Gossip 52 Book Review 56 Picture Postcard Puzzles 57

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Jean Thomas of Rob Roy Albums has become engaged to Cliff Davis, who is also quickly becoming a familiar face at major postcard fairs. The couple plan to marry in May next year. Rob Roy have been selling albums and accessories to postcard collectors for almost three decades, since Jean’s father Bob Hogben appeared at London Charing Cross’s Saturday market under the arches in 1981.

K

Newsdesk J

London theme for next year’s Picture Postcard Show Organisers have decided that postcards of London will form the exhibition theme for the Show, which runs from 2nd-4 4th September. One highlight will be a display on Jewish Life put together by David Pearlman, former editor of Postcard Collectors’ Gazette, which premiered at City Hall, London, a year ago. Other displays will focus on aspects of the capital, with a strong showing for the various superb ‘London Life’ postcards published during the 20th century.

Postcards in a box

Pudsey in Wonderland

Postcards are the stars of what is being billed as ‘the smallest art gallery in the world’. A group called Cultivating Settle has turned the old BT telephone box on the green of the North Yorkshire market town into a community participation project titled ‘The Gallery on the Green’. Any residents or visitors can contribute something representing their visit to Settle or their home town or village. The display, limited to 28 images, is changed frequently. Museum curator Roger Taylor is on the lookout for interesting exhibition proposals. You can view the initiative at

Nottingham Postcard Fair raised £886 for the BBC ‘Children in Need’ appeal last month, adding to the £250+ already netted from the sale of Brian Partridge’s souvenir postcard for this year. z West London Postcard Club have sorted out their various problems and are flourishing again. They have a new chairman in Michael Goldsmith and secretary in Graham Wheeldon. The club has taken over the promotion of the Wembley Postcard Fair from Roger Lee, the first fair under the new regime making a healthy profit.

Rare appearance Ron Griffiths (right, at the moderns fair at Nottingham in 1990) has been one of the most prominent figures in the postcard collecting world over a period of some 40 years. He pioneered the collecting of modern postcards, most famously buying the entire residue of moderns (and many older cards, too) left after the legendary ‘Blue Peter’ sale of picture postcards at Phillips’ London salerooms in 1977. He edited the Hertfordshire club magazine before turning it into the British Postcard Collectors’ Magazine in 1981, which he famously billed as non profit-making. That ceased publication a couple of years ago, but Ron carried on with an occasional newsletter, the final edition of which has just been published. Fiercely critical of other dealers, who he claimed failed to support his publishing ventures, Ron had a loyal following of readers among the collecting fraternity. He wrote many of the articles himself under pseudonyms. He is making a rare appearance as a dealer at the Tolworth Postcard Fair on December 28th with his fabulous stock of moderns.

Successful tee-o off Horncastle Postcard Fair debuted at its new home, the town’s golf club, in October, and promoter David Calvert was pleased that the attendance matched last year’s. The golf club put on a carvery and its proprietors were delighted with the refreshment take-up by customers. Perhaps this will start a new venue trend for fairs! z Charity postcard salesman Len Whittaker has had a record-breaking year with his fund-raising efforts for the Sudan Church association. His sales to the end of June 2009 showed a bestever profit of £13,505. Sylvia and Michael Porter’s postcard sales efforts on behalf of deaf children in Norfolk have now grossed almost £77,000 over 20 years.

15 & 16 January 2010 The top French postcard fair! 10am - 7pm METRO (ligne 10) & parking: Maubert-Mutualite

CARTEXPO 54

MAISON DE LA MUTUALITE 24 rue Saint-Victor 75005 Paris Details: Marc Lefebvre 0033.1.42.71.36.69 Alexandre Przopiorski [email protected]

www.galleryonthegreen.org.uk

Concentration: collectors in a deep study at Wirral Postcard Club/Northern Postcard Fairs event at Thornton Hough in November

EXHIBITION The Seine in flood 1910

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 3

When the M1 was empty... The M1 motorway was officially opened on 2 November 1959, with the initial stretch running from junction 5 (Watford) to 18 (Crick). Watford Gap service station was up and running at a basic level immediately, with others opened later. Toddington, named after the nearby village, came in 1964. The 50th anniversary was marked by the unveiling of a plaque at Watford Gap, arguably the most famous service station in Britain and supposedly the place where ‘the North’ begins and ends. Early postcards show the motorway almost deserted, quite unbelievable now!

Exeter Fair Saturday 5 December 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Postcards Cigarette Cards and Stamps Ephemera and Accessories

Clyst Vale Community College, Broadclyst Organiser: Anne Scott 01395 - 270322 Next events here: 13 February, 13 March

Granada’s Toddington Serices opened in 1964, its facilities and exterior shown on this pair of postcards published by CG Williams of Maidstone. Fashion and car-spotting are part of the fun of looking at these cards which, in impeccable ‘Golden Age’ size, surely must soon deserve to be labelled ‘old’.

Charnock Richard was the M6’s first-ever service station, opened in 1963. This postcard was published by Valentine of Dundee to show off its charms and those of the carriageway. A full-length article on ‘Motorway Postcards’ appeared in June 2004 PPM.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

A bumper attendance at Nottingham’s Harvey Hadden Sports Centre last month enjoyed some fine postcard displays in the inter-club competition, which saw Alfreton Philatelic Society take the trophy for the sixth time. Northamptonshire Postcard Club were second, with Gwen Haynes winning the prize for the best individual board (on ‘Northampton’). Previous winners Doncater slid to third place this time, while Nottingham came in fourth. Voting was by collectors and dealers at the fair, and Val Holland from Brigg won a postcard album as the voter whose choice most closely matched the final result. Viv Lapworth made an identical choice, but lost the draw. Above: big crowds at the fair. Below: Postcard Traders Association chair Melanie Mordsley presented the Nottingham Fair Trophy to Alfreton’s Ron Stammers. Bottom: admiring the displays

Royal Mail keeps going... for now The postal dispute is over for the time being, but the underlying causes have apparently not been solved. What we have is a truce, an opportunity for sober reflection and discussion - a situation similar to the end of the previous dispute, in 2007. For most people the strikes that occurred in October did not have too serious an effect, but the perception of possible delays and disruptions badly dented users’ confidence in the system. In some areas of London, where unofficial walkouts have been causing chaos for months, deliveries have been unreliable and intermittent.

Postboxes unlimited. Royal Mail holds all the cards on this postcard published earlier this year by the London Borough of Hounslow and designed by Lesley Jones from Orleans Park School. Sadly, the trend is in the opposite direction, with the service likely to be privatised after the next election, against the wishes of most members of both parliament and the public.

We have argued many times before for the continuation of Royal Mail in public hands as a universal oneprice-for-all service with a long and noble history. The postal system touches postcard collectors in two ways: firstly, in a historical sense the mail service was the means by which millions of postcards were distributed, and many collections focus on postmarks or cards showing post offices, postboxes, or postmen and women. Half the fascination of picture postcards is in the journeys they’ve undertaken. Secondly, the mail is crucial for the smooth running of the hobby as approvals, or purchases from auctions or internet sites wing their way across the world. Royal Mail is still a marvellous service, and fewer packages go astray than is often thought, but the recent closures of post offices, abolition of second delivery (or, in many cases, first delivery) and Sunday collections raise fears of how much the service would be downgraded in the event of privatisation. Attempted and abandoned by the current government, it will be one of the first things on the agenda of a Cameron government if elected. Derided by internet

buffs as ‘snail mail’ and talked down by commentators with an agenda as a declining industry, Royal Mail, the best brand name in Britain, is crucial to collectors and communities in so many important ways. It, and its excellent post office and postal staff, deserve support.

The place for postcards! Spotted recently: an envelope with an advert for the shop of J. O. Emes of High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh. It described him as a hairdresser, stationer and tobacconist, but right at the top of the advert was “The shop for picture postcards”.

zA stunning exhibition of old postcards was held recently at Terrassa in Spain’s Catalonia province. The show, and an accompanying catalogue, was set up by collectors Montse Saludes, Rafael Comas and Ana Fernandez.

There’s no post for Miss Andsum, not even a Valentine card, on this Edwardian postcard published in the ‘Smart Novels’ series. Perhaps she popped in on one of the strike days? Right: Donald McGill’s young lady is desperate to catch the postman on this Inter-Art Co.-published card, posted at Blackpool in September 1922

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 5

K What’s on - Postcard Events Diary J NOVEMBER 2009 FAIRS 24 25

Stockport, Masonic Hall (AMP) Digbeth (Birmingham), Irish Centre (AMP) 26 Ripley, Rose Lane Scout Hut* (TN) Plymouth, Guildhall (PF) 27 Clyst St George, Parish Hall (PF) z28 BRISTOL, B.A.W.A. Leisure Centre (AS) GUILDFORD, St.Peter’s School, Merrow (SuPC) Chester-lle-S Street, North Lodge School (DC) Redruth, Jubilee Hall (DL) Porchester, Parish Hall (CH) Trinity, Jersey, RJA&HS HQ (CIA&C) Eastbourne , St. Mary’s Church Hall (CR) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 29 Twyford, Loddon Hall (NB) Prestwick, RAFA Club (CF)

DECEMBER 2009 FAIRS 2

Croydon, St George’s Church Hall (PD) Neath, Town Hall (DCF) 3 Cardiff, Wesley Church Hall (DCF) 4 Newark, Showground (DMG) z5 EXETER, Clyst Vale Community Centre (AS) HAYWARDS HEATH, Clair Hall (BF) Montrose, Hillside Village Hall (CN) Farnham, Maltings (AD) Beckenham, Azelia Hall (P&R) Swindon, Western Community Hall (SSPF) Hove, St Leonards Church Hall (EL) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 6 BIRMINGHAM, Motor Cycle Museum (AMP) Tonbridge, Angel Centre (CR) Woodbridge, Community Centre (H) London, Holiday Inn (ES) z12 Canterbury, Westgate Hall (CB) Bournemouth, Pelhams Park (RH) Cardiff, City Hall (MJP) London, Electric Ballroom (PN) East Grinstead, De La Warr Parish Hall (JT) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 13 Mountnessing, Village Hall (H) Bath/Bristol, Patchway Community College (KN) 17 Orpington, Crofton Halls* (SRP) Cirencester, Bingham Hall CPC) z19 Glastonbury, Town Hall (BR) Midhurst, Grange Hotel (GCA) Guildford, Onslow Village Hall (CR) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 20 LONDON BLOOMSBURY, Royal National Hotel (IPM) Herne, Parish Hall (RC) 27 CHELTENHAM , Pump Rooms (AMP) Glasgow, Woodside Hall (RS) 28 WICKHAM, Community Centre (PP) A3 KINGSTON BY-P Pass, Tolworth (GSF) Recreation Centre Sittingbourne , Carmel Hall (CR)

JANUARY 2010 FAIRS 1 East Grinstead, De La Warr Hall (JT) z2 Hastings, Christ Church (CR) Farnham, Maltings (AD) London, Charing Cross Market (RB)

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Key to number of postcard dealers at fairs: BOLD CAPS - 25 or more dealers (40+ if in red) Bold type - 16-2 24 dealers Medium type - 7-15 dealers Medium italics - 3-6 dealers * evening fairs Saturdays indicated by z

Three non-specialist dealers are calculated to be equivalent to one specialist postcard dealer for the purposes of the Diary. Collectors unfamiliar with a particular event might still be wise to check with the organisers about the exact number of PC dealers present before making a long journey. Great care is taken to make sure that the information of this Diary is accurate, but the publishers can accept no responsibility for errors or omissions. 3

LEEDS, Pudsey Civic Hall (KSG) Ludlow, St. John Ambulance Hall (AMP) Worthing , Heene Community Centre (CR) 6 Croydon, St.George’s Church Hall (PD) Neath, Town Hall (DCF) 7 Cardiff, Wesley Church Hall (DCF) z 9 Colwyn Bay, Eirias High School (NWSF) St. Agnes, Parish Hall (DL) Wellington, Western Community Hall (SSPF) Beckenham , Azelia Hall (P&R) Sale, Grammar School (M&DPA) Swindon, Western Community Hall (SSPF) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 10 HAYDOCK PARK, Racecourse (NWCF) Wymondham, Ketts Park Community Centre (H) Orpington, Crofton Halls* (SRP) Winchester, Badgers Farm Community Centre (CR) 13 Ardingly , Showground (IACF) 15 TWICKENHAM, Stoop Rugby Ground (SPPF) z 16 TWICKENHAM, Stoop Rugby Ground (SPPF) CHESTER, Northgate Arena (NPF) Broughty Ferry, St Aidans Church Hall (CN) Colchester, Marks Tey Parish Hall (TM) Eastbourne, St Mary’s Church Hall (CR) London, Electric Ballroom (PN) Midhurst, Grange Market (GCA) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) Trowbridge, St. James’ Church Hall (PF) 17 Chichester, Westgate Centre (E) Horsham, Village Hall (CR) Herne, Parish Hall (RC) Yeovil, Westlands Social Club (PF) 21 Cirencester, Bingham Hall (CPC) Plymouth, Guildhall (PF) z 23 Motherwell, St Mary’s Parish Hall (CF) Margate, Union Church (CB) Littlehampton, United Church (CR) Powick, Parish Hall (AMP) Wimborne, Allendale Centre (RPH) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 24 LONDON BLOOMSBURY, Royal National Hotel (IPM) PENKRIDGE, Leisure Centre (AMP) Carlisle, Houghton Village Hall (CF) Rochester, Masonic Hall (CR) 26 Stockport, Masonic Guildhall (AMP)

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

28 Ripley, Rose Lane Scout Hut* (TN) z 30 PRESTON, Barton Village Hall (RRPC) SHOREHAM-B BY-S SEA, Shoreham Centre (BF) (RL) Bicester, Littlebury Hotel Gravesend, St George’s Church Hall (NWKPC) Portchester, Parish Hall (CH) Redhill, Salfords Village Hall (CR) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 31 LEICESTER, Parklands Leisure Centre (DC)

FEBRUARY 2010 FAIRS 3

Croydon, St.George’s Church Hall (PD) Neath, Town Hall (DCF) 4 Cardiff , Wesley Church Hall (DCF) 5 Newark, Showground (IACF) z6 BRISTOL, B.A.W.A. Leisure Centre (AS) HAYWARDS HEATH, Clair Hall (BF) Woodbridge, Community Centre (H) Guildford, Onslow Village Hall (CR) Cardiff , City Hall (MJP) Beckenham, Azelia Hall (P&R) Farnham, Maltings (AD) Swindon, Western Community Hall (SSPF) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 7 NOTTINGHAM, Harvey Hadden Sports Centre (R) Leigh on Sea, West Leigh Junior School (H) Patchway , Community Colllege(KN) Southampton, Novotel (E) z 13 STOCKPORT, Town Hall (KSG) EXETER, Clyst Vale Community Centre (AS) Redruth, Jubilee Hall (DL) Wembley, Methodist Church Hall (WLPC) Kinross, Church Centre (BRF) Southampton, St.James Church Hall (RH) Canterbury, Westgate Hall (CB) Hove, St.Leonards Church Hall (EL) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 14 LINCOLN, Bishop Grosseteste University (DC) Fareham, Ferneham Hall (E) Orpington, Crofton Halls* (SRP) z20 Chester-lle-S Street, North Lodge School (DC) Midhurst, Grange Market (GCA) St.Ives, Cambs. Parish Hall (HPS) London, Charing Cross Market (RB) 21 LONDON BLOOMSBURY, Royal National Hotel (IPM) Thornton Hough, Village Hall (NPF/WrPC) Bathgate, Kiam Park Hotel (CF) Herne, Parish Hall (RC) 23 Stockport, Masonic Guildhall (AMP) 25 Ripley, Rose Lane Scout Hut* (TN) 26 SHEPTON MALLET, Bath & West Showground (BR) z27 SHEPTON MALLET, Bath & West Showground (BR) Kendal, Parish Hall (V) London, Electric Ballroom (PN) London, Charing Cross Market RB) 28 Prestwick, R.A.F.A. Club (CF) London, Park Inn (ES)

Fair organisers: send us full details of your events for inclusion in this diary. Copy deadline is 10th December for the January 2010 issue.

International Diary

EXHIBITIONS

This is a selected list of fairs outside Britain featuring postcards in worthwhile numbers. The telephone number quoted in each instance is the internal one in that country. If you are travelling some distances to attend, it would be sensible to check details with the organiser.

until 9 Jan 2010 LONDON, Chris Beetles Gallery, Ryder Street. The Illustrators 1870-2009. until 7 March 2010 LONDON, The British Library. Points of view: Capturing the 19th century in photographs. until 31 March 2010 LONDON, Transport Museum. Suburbia - postcards and ephemera of the railways’ adventures to the London suburbs.

Nov 28 STUTTGART, Liederhalle 711.241.272 Nov 29 COLOGNE, Mulheimer Stadthalle 160.9651.3700 Dec 5 ALBERT, Espace Culturel 3.22.74.37.00 Dec 6 MONT ALBERT (Victoria, Australia), Our Holy Redeemer Catholic School 9803.4396 Dec 12 LILLE, Grand Palais 3.20.53.66.32 Jan 2-3 3 ORLANDO, Central Florida Fairgrounds 410.623.581 Jan 8 POMPANO BEACH (Florida), Civic Centre 309.666.0219 Jan 15-1 16 PARIS, Maison de la Mutualite (Cartexpo 54) 1.42.71.36.69 Jan 17 OZOIR-L LA-F FERRIERE, Salle du Carousel 1.64.40.04.07 Jan 29-3 30 PARIS, Omnisports de Bercy (Numicarta) 1.64.46.52.22

AUCTIONS NOVEMBER 2009 27 Hendersons, Minsterley 29 Loddon, Twyford

01743-792727 01628-622603

DECEMBER 2009 2 T.Vennett-Smith, Nottingham 5 Dalkeith, Bournemouth 5 Railwayana, Sheffield 9 Warwick & Warwick, Warwick 9 Birmingham Auctions, Worcester 15 Trafford Books, Manchester

0115-983-0541 01202-292905 01234-325341 01926-499031 01885-488871 0161-877-8818

JANUARY 2010 2 Dalkeith, Bournemouth 12 T.Vennett-Smith, Nottingham -postal 24 Lockdales, Ipswich 27 Cavendish, Derby 29 Hendersons, Minsterley

01202-292905 0115-9830541 01473-218588 01332-250970 01743-792727

FEBRUARY 2010 2 3 5 6 15 15 17 26

“Just a card to let you see what it was like here at Xmas”, wrote ‘E.C.’ to Miss G. Carpenter of Alton, Hampshire. The postcard, in the ‘S & W’ series, shows decorations in Sutton (Surrey) High Street exactly one hundred years ago.

Trafford Books, Manchester T.Vennett-Smith, Nottingham Special Auction Services, Midgham Dalkeith, Bournemouth SPA, Cirencester- postal Maidstone Postcard Club Birmingham Auctions, Worcester Hendersons, Minsterley

0161-8778818 0115-9830541 0118-9712949 01202-292905 01285-659057 01622-737110 01885-488871 01743-792727

The annual Illustrators (The British Art of Illustration) exhibition at Chris Beetles Gallery in Ryder Street, St. James’s, London, is showing until 9 January 2010. As usual, there is particular interest for postcard collectors, with many artists featured whose work also appeared on postcards. There are originals from Phil May, Harry Furniss, Mabel Lucie Attwell, Lawson Wood, and William Heath Robinson.

PLEASE MENTION PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY WHEN REPLYING TO ADVERTISERS

Fair organisers AD AMP AS AW BF BPC BPS BR BRF BRSC C&EK CB CF CH CIA CJ CN COR CPC CR DC DCF DG DL DMG DPC E

A. Dickinson 01252-726234 AMP Fairs 01283-820151 Anne Scott 01395-270322 Alan Wishart 01698-356337 Beacon Fairs 01892-662132 Bristol PC 0117-9665071 Barry PS 01446-741026 Barrie Rollinson 01278-445497 Bass Rock Fairs 01368-860365 Bognor Regis SC 01243-837590 Canterbury & EK 01843-862707 Clive Baker 01843-862707 Caledonia Fairs 01436-671429 Colin Harris 02392-615380 Ch.Island Antique 07797777709 C.J. Fairs 01782-611621 Chad Neighbor 01674-832823 Cornucopia 01382-224946 Cotswold PC 01285-655532 Chris Rapley 01795-478175 David Calvert 01507-480280 Dragon Coll. Fairs01446-741026 Denny Gibson 01677-422863 D. Luxford 01736-786068 DMG Fairs 01636-702326 Dorset PC 01305-871629 Emmott Prom 01243-788596

EL Eric Langdon 01273-514733 ES Ephemera Soc. 01923-829079 FF Fairdeal Fairs 01732-463575 FS Felicity Smith 01296-651283 F&WPC Frinton & Walton PC 01255-674134 GCA Grange Com.Ass 01730-816841 GSF Great Southern 07939-302425 H Ray How 01702-544632 HP Helen Prescott 01204-418791 HoE Heart of Eng. PC 01926-854524 HPS Huntingdon PS 01480-468037 IPM IPM Promotions 020-82029080 JT John Terry 01342-326317 KN Kevin Noble 0117-902-1134 KRM Kidderminster 01562-825316 KSG KSG Promotions 01723-363665 MaPC Maidstone PC 01622-737110 MEPC Mid-Essex PC 01245-362201 MJP M.J.Promotions 01792-415293 NB Neil Baldry 01628-622603 NIPC N.Ireland PC 028-4062-2022 NPC Norfolk PC 01263-825053 NPF NorthernPC Fairs 01244535578 NSCF Nat. Spec. Collectors Fairs 01869-600236 NWCF North West CF 07973-219394 PD Peter Duncan 01444-482620 PF Phoenix Fairs 01749-813324

PN PP PPC PPS P&R R RB RC RF RH RJ PH RRPC RS ShPS SPPF SRP SSPF SuPS SWPC TM TPS TN V WPC WLPC

Philip Nevitsky 0161-228-2947 Popplestone PC 02380-446143 Plymouth PC 01752-775289 Preston PS 01772-713917 P&R Fairs 020-84623753 Reflections 0115-9374079 Rodney Bolwell 01483-281771 Ralph Carter 01227-362439 RF Postcards 01268-794886 Rikki Hyde 01202-303053 Richard Jones 01752-269003 Redpath Phil. 01258-880878 Red Rose PC 01995-670625 Richard Stenlake 01290-551122 Shropshire PS 01743-860910 Specialist PC&PF 0208-8925712 SRP Fairs 01322-662729 Swindon St/PF 01793-528664 Sussex PS 01323-438964 South Wales PC 01633-412598 Trevor Mills 01702-478846 Telford PS 01952-223926 Tim Notley 01932-341527 Varykino 015394-45757 Wealden PC 01293-786419 West London PC 0208-892-5712

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 7

K Moderns News J Poster, transport and military card collectors may look back on 2009 as a bumper year, writes Malcolm Luty. Over 100 new cards, all continental size unless stated, from at least seven publishers included 18 from London Transport Museum, listed as SUB 1-18, a mix of posters, leaflet covers, adverts and photos to support its current ‘Suburbia’ exhibition. In addition, the museum is offering a packaged set of twelve postcards (two each of six poster artworks) under its Underground merchandising brand. Also newly-published are six LT posters by John Burningham from Dovecot Studios in connection with its exhibition on the artist; 15 posters from the Imperial War Museum for its Outbreak 1939 exhibition; four oversize railway posters promoting Wales from the National Museum of Wales; five regimental recruiting posters from National Museums Scotland, and one poster by Edward Bawden from Bedford Museum for its current exhibition on the artist. Finally, two books from Pomegranate featuring the railway posters of Norman Wilkinson. In total, there are 51 slightly oversize tear-outcards including five common to both books.

Sheepdog trials: the village of Trunch, Norfolk, has published 20 postcards to mark its 2009 ‘Scarecrow Day’ where the winner was this tableau of shepherd with sheepdog and sheep. We mentioned their 2008 cards in October PPM, asking if anyone had spotted any other cards from villages that hold similar scarecrow events. None forthcoming so far, so Trunch remains the scarecrow postcard leader! The 2010 event is on 27th June.

IWM PP0930, showing that identity cards were an issue in 1939 z A report in the Daily Telegraph that Tunbridge Wells, Kent’s spa town, had produced picture postcards to promote their image change from “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” to “Delighted of...” turned out to be unfounded. On the trail of the cards, PPM learned that no “Delighted” cards have surfaced yet, and the “Disgusted” postcards on sale were in fact fiveyear-old designs published by a private retailer in the town. Of course, if there aren’t any, there certainly should be!

Left: LTM SUB8, a 1926 poster by an unknown artist Right: prolific caricaturist Jean Claval designed this golfing theme postcard as a souvenir of the postcard fair to be held at Ozoir la Ferriere, southwest of Paris, next month

Tasteful comics in North Wales Llandudno’s postcard range would have no need of a 1950s-style watch committee to check the suitability of jokes on postcards. With gentle, subtle comics from artists Terry Irvine, Rupert Besley and Tony Hall on offer, no maiden aunt could possibly be outraged! It is strange that in our ‘anything goes’ on TV society, picture postcards have s e l f - c e n s o re d quite remarkably. Main publishers represented on the retailers’ stands were Judges, Salmon and local firm Origins, the latter providing a fine colour photo range of views. Judges of Hastings have also published a series of sepia views reproducing their Llandudno views of a century ago.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Promotional card for London’s Camden Market - “just two stops from Eurostar”

A very presidential-looking Martin Parr. The top photographer’s work is being shown under the ‘Planet Parr’ tag - this card advertised the exhibition’s arrival in Paris earlier this year

CANTERBURY POSTCARD & COLLECTORS FAIR at

HAYWARDS HEATH INTERNATIONAL Postcard, Cigarette Card and Collectors Fair The top event of its kind in the Southern Counties!

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SATURDAY 12 December

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OPEN 10am to 4pm

2010 dates: * 13 February * 17 April * 12 June * 28 August (club fair) * 9 October * 11 December Buy and Sell: Stamps ~ Postcards ~ Playing Cards~ Phone Cards ~ Militaria ~ Coins ~ Cigarette Cards ~ Books ~ Breweriana ~ Ephemera ~ Beanie Babies and Small Collectables

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10.30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

55 Tables specialising in:

Clair Hall, Perrymount Road, HAYWARDS HEATH West Sussex Admission £1

Refreshments

Free Parking

Dealers booked include: * Topo Plus * Brian Girling * Mike Felmore * Terry Nye * Magda Cards * Peter Holroyd * Philip Chipperfield * Mick Devonald * Beacon Postcards * Lesley Davies * Peter Robinson * Peter Lindfield * Betty Fuller * John Kidson * Jane Dembrey * Michael Goldsmith * Graham Green * Tim Notley * Peter Duncan * Jim Jackson * John Ainslie * Rob Roy Albums * Jackie Worling * Chris Hoskins * John Priestley (Sussex) * Mike Clark and more to follow!

For further information and bookings: Rosemary Shepherd/Beacon Fairs 01892-662132

Future Dates: 6 February, 6 March

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 9

The Dealer and Collector should be friends... says Kirsten Elliott I noted in the last PPM the objection from a collector to dealers dealing amongst themselves before fairs, and it seemed to me that this is one of two major gripes that those coming to fairs have about dealers, the other being the vexed issue of filing in front or behind. It seems rather a shame that such longstanding grievances should continue to rankle. To paraphrase Oscar Hammerstein - the dealer and collector should be friends. There's no doubt that the top whinge by collectors is the failure of dealers to decide whether cards are filed in front or behind. Perhaps, when I'm standing behind the stall, I don't look like your average dealer - whatever your average dealer looks like - but many collectors seem to choose my shoulder to weep on over this. I support them whole-h heartedly. I personally believe the natural tendency of most people is to look for things behind the divider, not in front. After all, when you are out driving, you expect the signpost before you get to the turning, not afterwards, and so it seems logical that you should look for the dividing cards with the subject name on them in front of the cards rather than behind. I know the advantage of filing in front is that you don't get dividers hidden against the front of the box. However, my husband Andrew Swift tried filing in front for a time as an experiment, and the cards ended up in much more of a muddle. What's more, the dividers seemed to get misplaced more often, ending up in the middle of the subject, instead of in front or behind. But my object is not to make a definite case for one way or the other, merely to say that I, and many other collectors, think dealers should get together over this. Please make a decision one way or the other and everyone stick to it. If you can't agree, then toss a coin. Nothing would make your customers happier. However, I cannot feel much sympathy for those who complain about dealers dealing amongst themselves at discounted prices before fairs start. Even when I was purely a collec-

tor, and not married to a dealer, I could see no objection to this. Can I ask collectors to spare a thought for the dealers? In order to supply you with cards, dealers are taking a risk with their money - not yours. They have thousands of pounds tied up cards for you to buy. They have to buy boxes to display the

One of my first purchases, which I bought mainly because it wins the price for unrealistic colouring. This picture of the Rock Gardens at Southsea cost me all of 10p, reduced from 20p. It was printed by Mills & Co of Portsmouth, is described as a Real Hand Coloured Photograph and was posted in 1939

I rarely buy greetings cards or multiviews any more, but when I started out, I bought all sorts of things at the cheaper end of the market. I still have considerable affection for this cheeky card, printed by the Rapid Photo Printing Co. of London. It cost me a stupendous 75p. I was getting bolder, evidently

I never thought then that I would be spending £40 on a card, such as this one of the driver of the van for Wards' Cakes, seen outside their works in New Road, Portsmouth

cards in, and sleeves to protect them. They have to pay stall rent and insurance. They get up much earlier than you do to set up the fairs, and they are there later than you. On the way home, you can drop into a pub or café for refreshment - the only way the dealer risks doing that is if he can find somewhere secure to put the car, or park where

This cartoon appeared in the Sheffield Telegraph on October 10th and was spotted by an eagle-eyed Tim Hale. It was drawn by Everard Davy, who has kindly allowed us to use it. Copyright everarddavy.com 10

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

TWICKENHAM IS COMING

JANUARY 15th & 16th at The Stoop Rugby Ground, Langhorn Drive, Twickenham TW2 7SX Specialist Postcard Fairs 0208 892 5712

This card had a price tag of £80, but thanks to dealers who, in the past, have spared the time to explain to me what makes a good card, I knew it was worth having. It shows the cycle shop of J. A. Lemmon in Gamble Road, Portsmouth, and is full of fascinating detail he can see it from the pub or café. There are other reasons why this complaint is not very logical. Shops buy in at wholesale prices and you don't think that's unfair - so why is it unfair for dealers to buy at discount? And where does fairness and unfairness end? Imagine that the fair is somewhere which does not have good public transport. Should dealing not start until the first bus or train has arrived? Because if it does, that's not fair to those who cannot drive. (In these liti-

gious times, I should perhaps not be making this point - just in case someone is inspired to take a complaint to the Human Rights Court. You never know what might happen!) And then, what happens if a dealer makes a private appointment with someone and sells at home, not at a fair at all. I obtained some of my best Portsmouth postcards from a Portsmouth dealer who, knowing I was a Pompey girl, was happy to have me

(continued on page 14)

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 11

Postcard Theme Page Television Liz McKernan My first memories of television were of watching the tennis at Wimbledon on a tiny blue screen in the headmistress’s study. Housed in a very large piece of furniture the flickering screen seemed to us schoolgirls a magical invention although I do not think we could even see the ball. The commentary helped to follow the matches and time spent there was a time out of lessons so it did not really matter that we could not see much of the action!

television system can be traced back to the discovery of the photoconductivity of selenium by Englishman Willoughby Smith in 1873. The telly, TV, gogglebox whatever we tend to call it, it is here to stay. It is so much part of our way of life that those few who choose not to have a set have been known to have been hounded for not having a licence - for their non-existant TV!

(right) A Belgian card from 1960 showing the good things of life books, booze, flowers and of course a television. Not a very inspiring design but it does show a typical television set from the late 1950s. It is a radio QSL from Prague in the Czech Republic.

People used to talk about viewers developing square eyeballs if they watched too much television! This French postcard shows an entire family including the cat and dog having developed ping-pong eyeballs. The illustrator’s pseudonym of BOZZ was used by artist Robert Velter, creator of the comic strip character ‘Spiron.’ Since then of course televisions have grown ever larger and the majority are now in glorious colour. When my eldest son was small he used to enjoy watching what he called ‘Granny’s

Many readers will recognise Muffin the Mule on the screen here. It was a very popular children’s programme featuring the puppet, animated by Annette Mills who was the sister of the celebrated actor John Mills. The ‘Taylor’ design published by Bamforth No K137 was produced for the French market.

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painted tele’ - my mother had a colour set while we still had a black and white one. The name of John Logie Baird is forever linked with the invention of television in 1926. However the origins of what would become today’s

Another Bamforth card this time posted in 1964 - and ‘Coronation Street’ is still going strong! The writer is obviously staying in a caravan park in Morecombe and comments; ‘Caravan OK but toilets a little way off.’ Not too far I hope!

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

(below) With the growth of television came the arrival of the celebrity who became instantly recognisable once they had appeared on the box. This card from the Nostalgia series shows Gilbert Harding who was a regular guest panellist on the popular programme ‘What’s my line.’ Harding - a well-known Brighton resident died in 1960 appropriately outside Broadcasting House.

(above) The arrival of Eurovision was a great event. I can remember watching grainy pictures coming live from Calais! Today we can watch perfect pictures live from around the world and the initial excitement of those early days has disappeared. This is a French Maximum card celebrating Eurovision with a ‘silk’ picture linked to the special stamp and postmark from 1980.

‘The Sky at Night’ presented by amateur astronomer Patrick Moore was the longest running television series with the same presenter. This postcard was one of a series produced by the BBC in 1997 to commemorate 75 years of the Beeb. A German postcard depicting a vintage television reflecting the interior of a room and a h e a r t drawn on a dusty screen. I think it is an advertising card for a product called SWIFFER. Perhaps a cleaning material?

I always enjoyed watching the wrestling on television even if we all knew it was staged for entertainment. This card shows the fashionable spindly legs on both television and armchair from the 1960s.

I have no idea how the expression ‘Couch Potato’ originated but this example printed in Korea and distributed by Great Mountain West of Utah is a fun design cut out in the shape of a potato.

‘(right) Camberwick Green’ and ‘Trumpton’ were great favourites in our house. This particular series of cards was produced for the BBC by Dixons. The card shows the Mayor sitting for his portrait - the series introduced children to the many characters who contribute to the running of a town. Great favourites were the Firemen whose names were recited every time they came sliding down the pole.

continued...... (above) Paul Ordner, a French illustrator, has designed several cards on a TV theme. Here the viewer is furious with his set because his horse has lost! (right) Another Couch Potato this time by artist Elizabeth Titcomb. No 161 in Pat Holton’s production it features a remote control and small aerial and I do love the contented cat curled up on the sofa.

Contributors and advertisers are advised that the January 2010 edition of PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY will be published on December 20th. Deadline for copy is December 10th.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 13

POSTCARD THEME PAGE TELEVISION continued from page 13

When television first entered households, complete attention to it was paramount. This is beautifully demonstrated here with the head of the household going off to work on his hands and knees so as not to disturb the family viewing! THE DEALER AND COLLECTOR SHOULD BE FRIENDS... (from page 11) round and look at his stock which contained some rare and exciting cards. Many of these were at a price which would make the average punter at postcard fairs blink a bit, so there was the added attraction for him that here was someone who was prepared to spend a lot of money for good and rare cards without quibbling. But was it fair to other Portsmouth collectors? However, I agree with the comment made by Ken Hassell that if cards are advertised as being on sale,

then they should not go on the table until the public arrive. But, as I write this, more possibilities of claims to unfairness strike me, if we take things to extremes. If I come to a fair with Andrew, thus allowing him to go buying cards, is that unfair to both collectors and to dealers who have to stay at their stall? I'm afraid the truth of the matter is that life frequently is unfair, and the more you try to make it fair, the more complicated it gets, as I hope I have demonstrated here. So, to return to my previous point, by and large, I don't think it is wrong for dealers to trade before fairs. I think there

One way of teaching those new to collecting why prices vary is to show contrasting cards of the same scene. I’m showing three postcards of South Parade Pier - but with very differing prices. The first is by the well-known Portsmouth photographer, Stephen Cribb. It shows the pier newly rebuilt after a fire, and was posted in August 1908. It cost me £3 The second one, by an unknown photographer just a few days earlier has, in addition to the pier, some of the bathing machines, and an intriguing piece of machinery in the foreground. This may have been to do with the building of the pier - if you look very carefully, you can see that work is still going on. All this is reflected in the price tag - £8

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

One of my favourite modern postcard artists is Fernand Zacot who signs himself simply ZACOT. This superb design was done for the French telephone directory and published as a postcard by PTT Cartophilie in 1994. may even be advantages for collectors. Let us suppose that Dealer A, who has a regular customer for a particular subject, sees a card on a stall where Dealer B does not specialise in that subject. He may buy it with his client in mind, obviously at a discount. When the client comes along, Dealer A pulls out this card and says, I've got this for you. He may add a slight profit,

he may even, in the spirit of good customer relations, make no profit on that particular card at all. His client now has the card with which he is happy, whereas he might never have gone to Dealer B. And once again, of course, this raises the objection - is this fair to other buyers and collectors? Where I do agree with collectors is that this is all

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fine if dealers then put these cards on sale at other fairs. I think it is unfortunate that some cards are going straight on Ebay or other auction sites, and I am not sure that this course of action is, ultimately, good for dealers. But that's an entirely different subject. I would end by saying, in my experience, most dealers give discounts to regular customers, and you can always ask if a discount is available, especially if you've made a large purchase. And of course, there's nothing stopping a collector from setting up as a dealer, thus getting to

fairs early and receiving trade discount.

Right: at £6, it would be tempting to turn up your nose at this apparently not very interesting card as being too expensive. But you’d be wrong! Valentine & Sons of Dundee printed just four scenes of Baffin's Pond at Copnor, in Portsmouth, and so far I've only tracked down two of them. The price tag is just about right Finally, this is where a collector can help out a dealer - by identifying a card. This is BA Gale's Premier Penny Bazaar at 175 Commercial Road, Portsmouth. On the wall are painted the words "& at Southampton". However, another card turns up with a double-fronted shop, and no clue to which city it's in. As I write this, there's one on Ebay, marked "Portsmouth Southampton", which is how dealers often mark this card. It's Southampton. Soon after these pictures were taken, Marks and Spencer opened up penny bazaars very close to Bertram Gale's shops in both places, and Gale then became a photographer. The card, incidentally, was printed for the company

Third of the pier trio is this Cribb-published postcard - and what a superb card it is! Photographed some time during the First World War, it shows wounded servicemen being entertained on the pier by the Southsea Sea Angling Society. There's just so much to look at in this picture. Cost? £35, but I think even the newest recruit to collecting can see the difference between this card and the other two

The Great Escape this Christmas is to..... The GLASGOW Postcard Fair Sunday 27th December 2009 10.30 am - 3.30 pm

Woodside Halls, Glenfarg Street, Glasgow G20 7QR FREE ADMISSION * FREE ON-STREET PARKING * FREE FIZZY WATER * DISABLED ACCESS * EASY TO REACH BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT Dealers standing:

Gareth Burgess, Dunbar John Cumming, Glasgow Anthony Duda, Helensburgh Stuart Marshall, East Kirkbride Chad Neighbor, Montrose Richard Stenlake, Ochiltree Frank Tonelli/Cornucopia, Dundee George Waugh, Glasgow plus any surprise last-minute bookings...

Enquiries: Richard Stenlake tel. 01290 551122 (daytime) e-mail [email protected] Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 15

Popp Fought The Law Alan Leonard tells how Postcards Celebrated Jacob’s Long Battle over Sunday Trading Postcards of the Edwardian era illustrate and exemplify a vast range of topics and occasions but unique among them must surely be the set of six satirically celebrating their originator receiving over 400 convictions for defying the law week by week through eight years, from 1902 to 1910. The transgressor became a respected citizen of High Wycombe, where he spent forty active years. Following his death there on 6th April 1939, aged 65, the Bucks Free Press published an obituary setting his life in focus. It began: “Mr Jacob Popp, former tourist guide and accomplished linguist, who came to High Wycombe many years ago to establish a tobacconist’s and newsagent’s business in what was then Frogmore Gardens, may be said to have contributed something to the history of High Wycombe. Certainly his contribution to the town’s history was unusual, but none the less any would-be historian could hardly afford to ignore the almost world-wide notoriety Mr. Popp secured for himself by the simple and original - if somewhat expensive expedient of defying the law for more than eight years. Mr. Popp, indeed, may be ranked among the pioneers, for he was, in truth, a pioneer in defiance of the old Sunday Observance Act of 1677”.

When Charles the Second reigned as King Some funny Laws he made, And one of them was that to stop All kinds of Sunday Trade. When he was dead the people saw This law was an abuse, In fact that it was like the King - Of very little use.

Who was Jacob Popp? His full name was Jacob Ivanovitch Popp. He was born in 1873 at Pernau, a port on the Gulf of Riga, now in Estonia but then part of a Baltic province of Tsarist Russia. It is not known when he came to England, whether as a young man on his own or earlier as a child with his family, emigrating from Russia for some combination of economic, religious or political reasons. ‘Popp’ may have been a convenient shortening of his original Russian surname. Jacob Popp had evidently established himself in England as a personable young man in his twenties, for in March 1899 he got married at Sevenoaks to a Kentish girl, Annie Kellaway. Within a year or two Popp had somehow found his way to High Wycombe,

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own account, at home”, then aged 27, with his wife Annie (29) and one-year-old Ivy, the first of his four daughters. She had been born at Stourbridge, where Popp may have resided briefly before settling in High Wycombe. Staying with him on census night was his Kentish brother-in-law, Albert Kellaway, 35, described as ‘independent’. If he had private means, perhaps in some measure he had assisted Jacob Popp’s business venture? The census-taker recorded Popp as born in Livonia, Russia, and being a ‘Russian subject.’ Most of Livonia became part of Latvia in 1918, but its northern section, largely inhabited by Estonians, was incorporated into the neighbouring Baltic republic of Estonia. Presumably Jacob Popp became a British naturalised subject as soon as he was able to apply as a permanent resident. In an interview with the correspondent of New York Times in March 1908 Popp recalled:

They dug it up and looked around To see on whom to drop And finally they found a man Whose name is Jacob Popp. They summoned their Head Constable And unto him did say: “Go, tell J.Popp of his vile crime And how we’ll make him pay.” “I came to High Wycombe and acquired a business at this little shop. After a time I began to open on Sundays and did a good trade. Then, one Sunday afternoon, the chief constable came in and said unless I closed up I would be summonsed. I declined to close, with the result that a summons was issued against me on the Monday (21 January 1902). It was taken out under the statue of Charles the Second and charged that ‘I on a certain date, being the Lord’s Day, commonly called Sunday, did at Chepping Wycombe, in the borough aforesaid, unlawfully do and exercise certain labour, business and work in the ordinary calling of a tobacconist and confectioner, the same not being a

On one fine day the Councillors Of Wycombe Town all met, And said “We must enforce the Law For we’ve done nothing yet. To lessen either Rate or Tax would surely be a crime, Let’s start with this old musty Law Of Charles the Second’s time.” where he set himself up in his own business, in a good trading location, flanked by a public house, ‘coffee tavern’, drapers and butchers etc. Living ‘over the shop’ at 23 Frogmore Gardens, he was recorded there by the Census of April 1901. It listed him as working “on his

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

He threatened Fine, Imprisonment, “The Stocks” he even said, “Would be the fate of him who brought This Law upon his head.” Would you believe: this awful man Whose name is Jacob Popp Just laughed at him and Sunday next Was serving in his shop.

They dragged him up before the Bench Of Justices, in line, Who scowled at him and said “We must inflict a heavy fine.” He paid and every Sunday Finds him serving in his shop And every Monday morning There’s a Summons for J.Popp work of necessity or charity’. I paid 15s - including costs - and since then regularly every Monday I get my summons”.

Sunday observance In Edwardian times the enforcement of laws relating to Sunday observance varied somewhat between town and country and between larger and smaller urban areas, according to the prevailing local religious and political sentiments and control. Since the Reformation, activities permitted or forbidden on Sundays had been regulated by the State rather than Church authorities. Members of various religious denominations and other groups held differing shades of opinion about the extent to which Sunday should be strictly observed as a holy day or regarded as a holiday i.e. a day of rest, on which some forms of recreation and other activities were allowed. By 1900 attendance at Sunday worship had long since ceased to be compulsory, but trades and other occupations were subject to various statutes dating back to the 17th century. In particular, the Act of 1677 decreed that “no tradesman or other person whatsoever shall do or exercise any wordly labours, business or work of their ordinary calling upon the Lord’s Day... works of necessity and charity only excepted”; convicted

offenders were subject to a fine of five shillings or two hours in the stocks or seven days in prison for non-payment of the fine. The 1677 Act also provided that on Sundays “no person shall publicly expose for sale any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods or chattles whatsoever”.. subject to forfeiture of goods involved. This was widely ignored, as Sunday markets became popular in London and elsewhere. Restrictions on Sunday travel also fell into abeyance. The Lord’s Day Observance Society (founded in 1831) and other groups promoted strict observance but the general trend was towards relaxation of restrictions. In late Victorian times museums, art galleries and libraries etc were freely open on Sunday afternoons. An Act of 1781 which prohibited Sunday entertainments making an entry charge was evaded e.g. at the Albert Hall, where concerts were held on the basis of free admission but payment of a charge for seat reservation. From 1871 prosecutions under the 1677 Act required the written authority of a Chief Constable, stipendiary magistrate or two Justices of the Peace. There was evidently no lack of authorisations for prosecutions in High Wycombe, where the town’s legal ‘establishment’ engaged in a week-by-week trial of strength with Jacob Popp - perhaps with an element of antipathy towards a defiant ‘incomer’ of foreign origin. Prosecutions became an on-going weekly drama, drawing large numbers to his shop and attracting widespread publicity, mostly sympathetic to Popp and critical of magistrates and police seen as out of touch with the more tolerant sentiments of the period. In the event, it was only after eight years that these persistent prosecutions

The Sequel you’ll be pleased to learn Although they fine him still Is that this nonsense only puts More money in his Till. were discontinued, enabling Popp to continue Sunday trading without further incident for the rest of his life.

Eight Years Saga When he received his first summons in January 1902 Mr. Popp stuck it up in his shop window, with the annotation “King Charles is after me” He kept his subsequent weekly summonses as souvenirs of his on-going encounters with the High Wycombe magistrates and Chief Constable, Mr. O.D. Sparling. Constables were sent to Popp’s shop every Sunday: next day they duly declared to the justices that they had kept observation and seen persons enter and purchase tobacco, cigarettes, newspapers, sweets etc. Popp was duly called before them; as he did not dispute the police evidence, his conviction was quickly effected. For the first two and a half years, Popp was generally fined five shillings plus ten shillings costs, 15s in all. To quote again from his 1908 interview for the New York Times: “There are two alternatives to paying the fine, viz.: two hours in the stocks or seven days’ imprisonment in jail. I wanted to be placed in the stocks but they have been removed and I could not get the magistrates to replace them or cause others to be specially constructed for my benefit. If they would make the imprisonment two days instead of seven, I would go to jail. But I cannot spare a week from business and close the shop. It is not likely that I shall close the shop when I take in between £20 and £30 every Sunday.” As well as making news across the Atlantic,

Popp gained much domestic publicity for his defiant stand, which cast him as a popular martyr. To show sympathy with him or simply out of curiosity, numerous visitors sought out his shop on Sundays. Later he was able to open a separate lock-up shop in White Hart Street. He was encouraged by his extending Sunday trade and the fact that from 1905 onwards he was generally charged only 2s. 6d. on top of his 5s fine. Did this represent a concession to him as a regular subscriber? It became such a standard levy that early in 1908, as he said, “I sent the magistrate’s clerk a cheque for a quarter’s fine in advance, to save both him and myself trouble, but he returned it. Having once begun to prosecute, I suppose the police did not like to withdraw and the summonsing will go on for years probably.” Other retailers in High Wycombe and many more elsewhere seem to have been allowed to trade on Sundays. The Popp saga finally concluded after he had been convicted 403

”Popp the Martyr of High Wycombe” was the headline to this report by a correspondent of the New York Times, published in its issue of 8 March 1908. It gave a detailed account of his defiance of the Sunday trading law, based on an interview with him. (continued)

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 17

POSTCARDS CELEBRATE JACOB POPP’S LONG BATTLE OVER SUNDAY TRADING (from page 17) times over a period of eight years, during which he paid over £200 in fines and costs. The longer the confrontation continued, the more profitable it became for him; by 1910 he was saying that “if he did not take between £40 and £50 on a Sunday at his Frogmoor shop, he had experienced a bad time.”

Popp’s postcards Mr. Popp was a man of varied talents. He supplemented his shop takings by applying his command of several languages as a courier for Thomas Cook’s foreign holiday tours before and after the 1914-18 war. From his trips abroad he often brought back novelties to add to his retail trading stocks. He had a keen eye for publicity, which he promoted by producing a set of six artistic postcards presenting a satirical account of his prosecutions, with a commentary in verse of which he seems himself to have been the writer. The spirited artwork captioned by these amusing lines may also have been Popp’s but these postcard compositions do not bear any name. The New York Times report of 1908 stated that Popp had “issued a series of picture postcards illustrating his experiences and has sold one edition of 12,000 of these.” It is unclear whether this figure represented 2,000 sets of six or 12,000 of each of the cards. They were produced both in sepia and coloured ver-

sions; the former is more often found today, usually kept together as a set by original purchasers having retained them as souvenirs, enjoying Popp’s sense of humour. They are illustrated here, with the texts of their neatly hand-lettered commentary. For another postcard, Popp was photographed standing outside his Frogmoor shop.

Later years Jacob Popp was described as a man of fine physique and constitution, fully 6ft. in height. He was a keen sportsman, captain of the Wycombe Cycling Club, also a motor cyclist and motorist. He was involved with local football and cricket clubs and organised races for the benefit of street newspaper sellers and other causes. He was also an active Freemason. In June 1924 he fractured his skull and injured his legs in an accident while riding his motor cycle. After spending nine weeks in hospital he seems to have resumed his active life, until 1938, when his leg troubles became serious. Their ulcerous condition compelled successive amputations above the knee of both legs in 1938-39, but to no avail, as he died on 6th April 1939. The inquest verdict was “death through misadventure”. Popp had asked for no mourning but the widespread respect he had earned over four decades in his adopted town was shown by the large crowds lining the route of his cortege from Frogmoor to the parish church and the numerous and widely representative attendance at his funeral.

STAMP & POSTCARD FAIRS Modern postcards as well as old ones are well featured at each event

This month’s fairs: Sunday 6th December WOODBRIDGE, Community Centre Sunday 13th December MOUNTNESSING, Village Hall

Next month’s fairs: Sunday 10th January WYMONDHAM, Ketts Park Community Centre All fairs 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Details: Ray How 01702-544632

ALL

COLLECTORS ALL RISKS - NO EXCESS Insurance Cover for STAMPS: POSTCARDS: COINS: MEDALS: & all other Collectables DEALER COVER ARRANGED at premises and Fairs PUBLIC LIABILITY for SOCIETIES

STAMP INSURANCE SERVICES C G I Services Limited (Dept 16PP) 29 Bowhay Lane, EXETER EX4 1PE Tel: 01392 433 949 Fax: 01392 427 632 Authorised & Regulated by the Financial Services Authority This included his four daughters, two of them with their husbands, the other two then being unmarried. Popp’s widow was duly granted probate of his will in July 1939, when his effects were precisely valued at £3,891. 14s. 8d. She was then named as Philadelphia Priscilla Popp - which indicates that Jacob Popp seems to have married again after the death of his first wife. While his personal biography and contributions to the public life of High Wycombe may now have slipped into the shadows, his long campaign for Sunday trading remains a significant chapter in English social history, pictorially documented by the set of postcards he produced to celebrate it. Acknowledgements Grateful acknowledgement of their help with information for this article is made to the Local Studies Specialist, Buckinghamshire Library Service, High Wycombe; and to Tom Holder.

Jacob Popp posed for this postcard photograph outside his shop, probably in 1910.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

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The State of the Nation, Postcard Fairs, and why should I bother? John Wood I don't write public letters - it isn't my scene at all but this time I've had enough. I'm hacked off, disillusioned, despairing and generally frustrated beyond belief, even angry. At what? At the direction our postcard world is heading. The impact of the Internet means that the whole postcard industry and hobby is at a crossroads. Should that concern us? Too right it should if it isn't handled intelligently and responsibly, because it has already had an enormous impact on both dealers and collectors. And that impact is not all good; some of it is not good at all; in fact it is very bad. No Leadership cards, all I am is a customer, Many items are sold on the Internet by individuals operating alone and who have no other involvement in the world of postcards. That is good; it opens up new opportunities for everyone. The big concern for me is the fact that major dealers from the mainstream postcard fraternity are also climbing into the Internet. Nothing wrong in that, you might think; it's a free world (relatively speaking) anyway. Except that is, it isn't being properly managed at all. There isn't a balanced approach. There is no leadership. In many cases not even an awareness of what it all means, despite the inescapable fact that it greatly affects every one of us, sellers and buyers, dealers and collectors, all alike. I cannot believe the complacent, inward-looking, shortsighted, unprofessional attitude that leading figures in the postcard world are taking towards their industry and our hobby. It is an abdication of responsibility. People forget that the postcard world is an industry. A significant number of individuals rely on it to make their living; it needs raw material supplies to function; above all it relies on having regular customers. Without the customers it is nothing.

Customers I spent all my working life as a supplier to, or working for, or as a customer of the retail industry. Rammed in my head every day were phrases like - "quality and value", "listen to the customers", "if we don't give customer service they don't come back". I've seen, at first hand, what happens when the people at the top lose sight of those principles. When it comes to post-

nothing more than that. I like my hobby; I like the cards I collect; I like to look at cards I don't collect; I like the friendship of like-minded collectors; I like the repartee and friendship with many of the dealers. As one particular example, I like to go to postcard fairs. At fairs we don't just talk about postcards, but also football, politics, scandal and anything else of the moment. And, and it is a big ‘and’, fairs are also one of the main sources where we all learn more about postcards and our hobby, and we broaden our interests. Fairs and clubs and people are at the heart of postcards. Many collectors, like me, browse through all sorts of postcards at a fair, not just looking for the specific ones missing from our collections. For me, I finish up buying all sorts of cards that I didn't plan for. Maybe I liked the message on the back, maybe it was in better condition than the one I already had, or it was from a different batch, or it was of a town that I knew, or maybe I just liked it when I held it. I like to buy from the dealers I am familiar with, those who are friendly and helpful, and who know what they have in their stock.

Fairs - why bother? But what is happening now? I go to important fairs like Woking, Twickenham and Haywards Heath and there are precious few of the cards from my favourite publisher to look at, let alone buy. I get home, look on the internet a couple of days later and there have appeared lots of cards from that same favourite publisher, being offered for sale by dealers who had been at the fairs but had nothing new in their stock - those same dealers that I have been buying cards from regularly for years. What is the point of my

driving over 100 miles to go to Woking or Haywards Heath? - not much. Why spend £50 on the train to go to Bipex - I didn't, I couldn't be bothered, I expected it would be a waste of time. How sad is that? What price loyalty of dealers at fairs to their regular customers? Not a lot in some cases. Worst of all, we now have major dealers not even bringing their topographical stock to the fairs, but there they are at those fairs trawling other dealers’ stock prior to opening time (and during the rest of the day) to put away the cards to sell on the Internet. No wonder there isn't much for the likes of me to look at! Thanks a lot, everybody! It's ‘I'm all right Jack’, for the few, at the long-term cost of the majority. Doesn't anybody realise that? Don't other dealers realise they are going to lose out in the end, because, if they don't have some decent cards to sell, then they won't have the customers coming to visit them. The ‘I'm all right Jack’ approach is like having a cuckoo in the nest, but for how many years do cuckoos themselves survive, after they have destroyed the nest? Not many. Increasingly, there is much more enjoyment in going to smaller, friendly, local fairs like Ripley and Portchester, where the dealers know each other, they know their stock, and they know their customers. At least I know I have an evenhanded, fair chance of seeing some cards. And I can have a cup of tea and a laugh as well. Long may they prosper!

Postcard Industry But what are the senior members of the postcard trading community doing? Sniping at each other, criticising what the big fair organisers are trying to achieve, grumbling how things are getting difficult, and ignoring the big wide world called reality, and business reality in particular. There are many dealers who would read the above and say, "But I don't do that". Selling cards themselves on the Internet? I agree that many do not do that, but if they sell to those who do, then are they looking after their own business? I think not. Selling a few good cards to an ‘internet man’, who then gets dealers' discount as well is surely not the best answer. Getting a good price yourself, seeing the same customers next fair and next year, selling other cards to them as well. Is that not a better bet? Some dealers agree, they do not sell new

stock on the Internet, and they try to sell all their cards themselves. I applaud them. We should all applaud them and we customers should support them whenever we can.

The Internet Does all this mean that the Internet is the equivalent of The Great Satan? Of course not. Do I buy on the Internet? Of course I do. For people who cannot get to fairs, or auctions, or have no local shop, then the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. For sellers who maybe are geographically remote, or for whom postcards are only a part of what they do, then it is also a great opportunity. For the regular dealers, if they have had a good card in their stock and it has not sold, either because the normal customers haven't turned up to see it, or we won't pay the asking price, then we cannot object if they then choose to offer on the Internet, or sell to another dealer. On the Internet there is no doubt that some cards can, and do, achieve more money than if they were sold over the counter. But many other cards do not sell at all. By the time commission charges, scanning and uploading, packing and posting, are all taken into realistic account, does anyone ever work out their effective net hourly pay when selling on the internet? I really wonder about that.

No Level Playing Field None of us has any divine right to preferential treatment. But if, as regular customers and collectors, we are willing to shell out our hardearned money on a regular basis then we have every right to ask for a level playing field. That is now not the case, and it is getting worse. It isn't fair and it isn't right for the future welfare of the hobby. The danger of collectors becoming faceless user ID's on the Internet rather than regular customers is real. The danger of a few selfinterested dealers jeopardising the welfare of the majority of their colleagues is real.

Do Something - Now! I'm saying to everyone out there, who cares about our industry and hobby, that unless something is done, the postcard world will not just be changing, it will be withering at the core. What can collectors do? Not a lot in reali-

(continued)

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 19

STATE OF THE NATION (from page 19) ty, other than making our feelings known and trying to get those at the business end of postcards to listen to us. Otherwise, slowly but surely, inevitably and inexorably, the customers will vote with their feet. The leaders of the industry need to get their heads out of those places where they are currently so securely buried, stop bickering amongst themselves about the minutiae of postcard life, start looking outwards, and reach some common agreements and goals. Goals like:How do we re-llaunch those goals; let the customers know we care? How do we get the right publicity; to raise the profile of postcards; to replace the customers who have gone? How do we get commitment from the trade members? Don't support the cuckoos in the nest. Does there need to be a relook at such basic topics as stock rotation and replenishing, achieving a steady ongoing profit, successful fairs, auctions and the Internet? How do we agree a policy on selling stock to other dealers at fairs (even if it is to say the cards will be available at the end, if unsold, rather than before opening time)? How do we agree an acceptable compromise between handling cards for personal collections (including those of dealers) and cards for Internet sale? We need to talk to the customers, get their input, at postcard clubs, at fairs, through the Internet.

And through PPM I know for a fact that there are many of us who are very clear how great a contribution is made by the editors of PPM to the world of postcards, (and, yes, I would be saying that wherever I was sending this letter). That PPM is impartial; that it gives a forum for interested people's views, good or bad; that it appears every single month a considerable achievement. If the rest of our postcard world could be organised to the same standard the better it would be. Come on then… So come on postcard industry people, “Where are you?". The alarm bells are ringing. It isn't rocket science, it isn't nitpicking rhetoric; it is planning, organisation and leadership that we all need. If you don't do something, and quickly, we will all live to regret it.

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K

Postbag J

You’re all right, Jack

sales to overhead costs and consequently a more acceptable net profit. Next year, to There is so much in Eric Eunreduce the physical effort as son’s excellent article (Octowell as cost, we will be reducber PPM) that I would like to ing the amount of stock we respond to, but I will limit take to fairs by eliminating myself to just a few points. much of the low value materiEric bemoans the passal. ing of established methods of Approvals have not been trading and the emergence of killed off, as Eric suggests, but new. I share his feelings but there are fewer customers as recognise that one cannot some have ceased to buy stand Canute-like against because of financial pressures. change. The internet in generTo some extent this has been al and eBay in particular are offset by selling a higher perhere to stay. This will cause centage of the cards change elsewhere but, with despatched to approvals cusintelligence, this need not tomers. Perhaps new destroy postcard collecting. approvals customers will First, there is a need to come via eBay. accept that dealers are not eBay has already prothere to provide a local dropduced a number of benefits. It in centre. Yes, meeting old has brought friends with a shared interest many new is a valued g collectors to a attribute but the tb s o P e Pick of th the hobby. dealers must We now sell all over the world make an adeand an increasing percentage quate net income to justify the of these sales are to repeat financial investment in their customers. Also it has encourstock and the many hours aged new sellers, not just worked. This cannot be migrating fair dealers, into the achieved by six dealers in a market-place. This, in turn, draughty hall with a handful promotes a strong auction of collectors who will probamarket, helps attendance at bly spend only a few pounds fairs and increases the velocieach either through lack of ty of circulation of stock (a bit funds or, more likely, because like quantative easing!) their collections are so extenHowever, e-bay does not sive that finding a regular supprovide a realistic marketply of cards to sell to them is place for the dealer, wellnigh on impossible. established or new, to replenIn 1992, after redundanish his stock. For this he will cy and early retirement, I have to continue to rely on became a part-time postcard auctions, private purchases dealer. In the early years my and buying from fellow dealbusiness was purely fairers. Thus fairs will continue based. Gradually, I built up the but the trend will be to fewer approvals side until it became fairs where the larger one-day 60% of my business. The proand, preferably, two day ones portions stayed much the same will find more support relative until four years ago when my to the smaller ones. wife, not a techno-phobe like Little of the above will me, volunteered to start sellconsole Eric but at least it may ing via eBay. This side of the help him to think better of business has grown rapidly Jack who, as usual, is reacting whilst sales at fairs and to a changing world with a through approvals have clear-thinking revision of his remained static. business model. The economCurrently, the sales on ic survival of mainstream eBay and at fairs account for dealers like Jack is fundamenapprox 30% each whilst tal to the hobby. approvals remains the largest at 40%. However, there have Mike Pearl been significant changes in Macclesfield both of the “old-fashioned” routes to market. We are standing at far fewer fairs - yet sales are holding up. Why? Well we put it down to picking the fairs that are right for our stock range and by accepting that with limited supplies of quality new stock it is imperative to limit appearances. This makes for a better ratio of

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Postcard chronology I absolutely agree 100% with the article in Picture Postcard Annual 2010 on re-naming the groups that post-war postcards are listed in. The worst is the way dealers use the term ‘moderns’ for everything published from 1945 onwards, implying these just aren't collected. We have a fine example with F.E.Quinton's art postcards. A number of dealers apparently have never heard of him when asked for his cards. Others just don't bother to bring them. Why? Because they say no-one wants them as they are modern. In the late 1930s he spent two years pre-war at art college, was called up to fight for his country, returned home after the war and studied two more years at art college. Not only did he suffer because his cards were labelled ‘modern’ but I reckon so did Salmon because they were not sure what number of F.E.Q. cards to print. Consequently, it is easy to find those that Salmon thought they could sell easily at seaside places. But that has meant a large number are very difficult to find. With the popularity of A.R.Quinton on eBay it is making F.E.Q. popular too and many of his cards are selling at higher prices than you would expect when you see £1.50 printed in the catalogue. I know the subject has been mentioned in PPM earlier, but I am sure it needs working out very carefully by a small body of collectors and dealers under your leadership. Would "contemporary" or "current" be suitable for the last 20 years? Would 19451960 postwar, 1960-2000 - think of a word which means ‘collecting started new popularity’, and 2000-2020 be right? It is just my thoughts to start on, so someone else can work from there and think of something better?! How are your thoughts these days on the subject of ‘moderns’?! Jean Cullen Locks Heath [We have suggested 1960-90 ‘semi-modern’ (but that’s a rather meaningless term: can anyone come up with something better?) 1991-date ‘recent and contemporary’. Certainly anything prior to 1960 cannot be remotely classified ‘modern’. Thoughts from readers welcomed! Next month we will be having an in-depth look at all the ‘postcard periods’, based on the recommendations of Tonie and Valmai Holt some 40 years ago]

The Game at Sheffield

Picture Postcard Annual 2010 is now available at £4.75 with an up to date directory of dealers, fair organisers, auctions etc plus lots of features and articles, and a list of important 2010 postcard fairs. On sale from your favourite dealer or direct from the

publishers at 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT (plus postage £1 UK, £3 Europe, £5.50 rest of world)

Big sender Having seen the postcard with a big list of memberships of international postcard and correspondence clubs (November PPM, p.8), it seems that Andre Perlet must have sent a huge amount of postcards. I have a similar postcard, though with a different list of clubs he belonged to (shown below, along with the picture side). George Eimermann Wateringen, The Netherlands

It’s their business! As someone who had a good friend born in Hartlepool back in 1913 who died about a year ago, it was with interest I read of the 1914 Hartlepool disaster card that sold for £1,120 (PPM, November 2009). I certainly would have showed her the feature were she still with us. With regard to the price, it does seem excessive to anyone involved in the postcard world. Yet to the outsider with money to spare, it isn't really that expensive in this day and age, considering how much money people spend on their leisure activities. What's more, such individuals probably wouldn't want to waste time looking for a dealer, preferring to spend the money requested on eBay. And I suppose if they wish to do that, it is their own business! Tim Mickleburgh Grimsby

From the (Eastern) Front Roger Lee’s Cossack card on page 45 of the November issue is certainly a striking design, but I think his interpretation of it is mistaken. Although, from the spelling, the card was presumably published in France, I don’t think that the background is the French tricolour, which is divided vertically, blue in the hoist, white in the centre and red in the fly. The Cossacks were Russian cavalry, and I suggest that the background is the old Imperial Russian flag, also a tricolour, but divided horizontally, white over blue over red. This flag disappeared at the Revolution of 1917, but - in a fine example of “what goes around, comes around” - since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the old tricolour is once again the ensign flown by Russian ships and also, I believe, in general use ashore. Rick Hogben Hampstead

PPM keeps you in touch!

I was interested to see the "TITLES - The New Postcard Game" postcard illustrated in November PPM, in particular as I have a similar card with "Views of Sheffield and District" (left), posted in 1914 from Chesterfield. The only clue to the publisher are the words ‘The I.D.L. Series’ on the back. Like the Weston-super-Mare card, which has views numbered 25 to 36, my card also has twelve views, these being numbered 37 to 48, so presumably there were at least three more Sheffield cards in the game series, which carried the numbers up to 36. As to how the game was played I have no idea; most of the Sheffield views would have been easy to identify by Sheffielders of the day. Philip Robinson Sheffield [Tony Roberts turned up two more postcards in the Weston series, with views numbered 1324 and 37-48. Can any readers come up with other places featured in the genre?]

Pending Project In the November issue of PPM you reported that the launch of ‘The Postcard Society’ had ‘hit the deck’. This is untrue. All that happened was that despite a very good attendance at the Woking fair, only 14 or 15 people turned up for the meeting and, though I could have attempted to form a committee, I deemed it as silly to attempt to do so in such circumstances. Since the meeting however, various people have come forward who fully support the idea of a museum as well as other sensible ideas to put a bit of life into the hobby - and if and when I reckon that we have a sufficient number of them, (maybe 30 or 35) then we shall hold another meeting! The society has not ‘hit the deck’, therefore, but is merely in the ‘pending’ tray - though it is up to others to contact me if they wish the project to go forward. My address is 16 Heron Road, St Margarets, Twickenham, TW1 1PQ and my e-mail address is [email protected] Personally I find it hard to believe that only a small handful of people are interested in the future of the hobby in this country - but maybe that is the case. We shall see... Of course, the ones who actually count are those who bother to contact me and who are prepared to come to a future meeting - probably in this neck of the woods. Michael Goldsmith Twickenham

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 21

Jam today, jam tomorrow... Nick Hartley investigates a family firm Hartley's Jam was founded in 1871 in the Lancashire mill town of Colne. The firm's founder, William Hartley, had started in business as a grocer, hawking his products in the neighbouring towns and villages. A fortuitous accident led him into the production of the preserves for which he would become so well known. When a local manufacturer failed to deliver supplies to him, Hartley decided to make the jam himself.

Hartley’s Fruit Farm at Henlow, Bedfordshire - one of a series of postcards published by the firm

An attractive advertising postcard for Hartley’s Marmalade The business grew rapidly and in 1874 he moved to Bootle in order to take advantage of the cheaper supplies of sugar coming into the docks, as well as improving the distribution of his finished products. At Bootle, demand was such that he twice enlarged the works, but he was still unable to fulfil all his orders, and so in 1886 he built what was then one of

Another card in the ‘official Hartley’s series showing their works at Aintree, Liverpool

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Transporting oranges to Sevilla the largest preserves factories in the world at Aintree on the outskirts of Liverpool. The works covered ten acres and was sited at the junction of two main railway lines in order to facilitate the delivery of vast amounts of fruit and sugar. Hartley's was a huge business. The factory was capable of producing over six hundred tons of preserves a week and when the weather was warm and supplies abundant, special trains were laid on to collect the fruit from the fields. The construction of the Aintree works was followed

in 1901 by the opening of a factory in Bermondsey. The two factories between them employed over three thousand workers and next to the factory at Aintree Hartley built a model village, which in its day ranked alongside Bournville and Port Sunlight. At the turn of the century, Hartley's was the leading name in the manufacture of preserves. The firm sold its products the length and breadth of Britain and throughout the Empire. The principal outlet was the corner grocery stores, but its products were also sold to stores such as Harrods, as well as the railway companies and shipping lines. The White Star Line, owners of the ill-fated Titanic, served Hartley's Jams on its fleet of ocean going liners, as did Cunard and Union-Castle, the main shipping line to South Africa. Hartley's West End Marmalade was said to stand on the breakfast table of King Edward VII. William Hartley died in October 1922, at the age of 76. The following year, a photographer from the Northampton firm of Clarke and Sherwell was sent to the Aintree works to document the manufacturing process for a series of postcards that appeared soon after. The photographer took around fifty pictures of the works, as well as the nearby pottery at Melling, which made the stoneware pots in which the jam was sold (runners and riders in the Grand National annually cross the Melling Road) and the Hartley fruit farm at Henlow in Bedfordshire. The directors at Hartley's selected 24 of the photographs, which were initially reproduced as two million photogravure postcards. The photographs showed the interior and exterior of the factory. An aerial picture was effective-

Poster advert for Hartley’s preserves

Aerial view of the firm’s Aintree factory (below) The main entrance and offices at Aintree

Boxmaking department at Aintree ly the first in the sequence and allowed the firm to show not only the size of the works, but also the model village which stood beside it, complete with ornamental lake. The factory was built of red brick and was a largely self-contained unit. It had its own boxmaking department, where most of the apprentices started, turning out as many as three thousand boxes a day, garages to maintain the firm's fleet of lorries, and Dining Halls, one for women, who formed the majority of the workers, the other for men. Inside the factory, the photographer captured dif-

ferent aspects of the manufacturing process. The firm boasted that “fruit gathered at sunrise is Hartley's Jam

the same evening” and vast numbers of women were employed to hull and stone, top and tail, or to work in the Finishing Room, where nimble fingers labelled, wrapped and tied over a hundred thousand jars a day. (The Mayor of Liverpool on a visit to the works noted that a clergyman could not tie a knot as fast!) When it was first opened, the works had been a series of long, low buildings in which production moved from one phase to the next in a seamless process, but in 1891 the first of three great five storey warehouses in which the finished products were stored had been added. A second was built in 1899 and the third in 1924, too late to appear in the aerial photograph of the works, but which

Aerial view of Hartley’s London works

Hartley’s motor wagons being loaded with Seville oranges at the docks nevertheless featured in a postcard that was later added to the series. The popularity of the cards encouraged the firm to widen its horizons. In February 1924, the directors ordered an additional five million postcards, which included the original 24 photographs, as well as five photographs taken in Seville (Hartley's used almost a quarter of the world's supply of Seville oranges) and two others, taken on the docks at Liverpool. It also produced three million colour postcards, which were reproductions of its marmalade and preserve showcards. The firm's records are incomplete, but it seems that in total at least 37 images were reproduced. The cards

were distributed amongst the firm's travellers (salesmen) and to individual grocers to put on the counter. The cards were also given out at trade fairs and exhibitions, such as the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley at which the firm had two stands. In 1959, Hartley's was sold to the Schweppes Group, together with rivals Chivers’ and William Moorhouse of Leeds. A few years later, production of preserves ceased at Aintree and moved to the Chivers' factory at Histon, near Cambridge. It is not known when the firm discontinued the cards, but the images, which sell for between 5 £ and 2 £5, remain an invaluable record of a business that is an important part of Britain's industrial heritage.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 23

Crown Green Bowls John Mayhew Crown green bowls is played mostly in the north of England where it originated. Generally a game between two players, it uses a green which has raised ‘crown’ at its centre. Although the game is played mainly in the north there are greens situated as far south as Kenilworth, Southampton and Bournemouth. As crown green uses a deliberately contoured area which is difficult to replicate with indoor artificial surfaces, there is only one indoor green, at Birkenhead. The game was first played in the 1870s and Lancashire was the first county association, formed in 1888. The British Crown Green Bowling Association dates back to 1907 and in England and Wales there are 130,000 registered bowlers playing for 2,600 clubs. No two greens are alike as they can be round, square, oblong or mis-shaped with the raised portion not always in the centre. Most greens are either square or rectangular and can be 35 metres long and 20 metres wide and the surface may be irregular. The ideal green is 37 metres square with a 30cm - 37.5cm crown enabling four singles or pairs matches to be played at the same time. Each player has a pair of bowls weighing up to 3lbs each and points are scored by getting bowls nearer to the jack than your opponent. Bowls are manufactured so they run on a curving course known as bias and unlike flat green bowls the jack is made in a similar way. The crown jack is 95-98mm in diameter and coloured black with white mounts and spots or white with black mounts and spots. The person who wins the toss bowls the jack a minimum distance of 19 metres while his toe is resting on a circular rubber or plastic mat up to 154mm in diameter termed a “footer”. There is one big difference between flat green and crown green bowls as the names imply. With flat green the surface has to be as flat as possi-

ble and specified rectangular areas known as rinks are allotted to each group of bowlers. A crown green bowler has no such restrictions and can bowl from one side to the other and even to either corner. The laws of the game state that if a running jack or bowl appears to be in danger of striking a still bowl or jack belonging to another set, such running bowl or jack should be stopped and returned to be replayed. It is easy to imagine one singles or pairs game being played but to envisage four games taking place at the same time all bowling over the one crown is as they say “another ball game”. The bowling green at Blackpool shows bowlers on three sides of the green bowling at the same time. It is not easy to detect the crown on a postcard and the circular mat or footer is the only clue to a crown green game. Players compete for their county championships but the big singles event is to decide the champion of champions held at the Waterloo Hotel in Blackpool at the end of the season. Fifteen county champions plus seven other competition winners compete for the title. There are two cards dealing with the Waterloo Bowling Handicap, one commencing on Sept 2nd 1929 and the other on Aug 31st 1936. I have not been in Blackpool when the “Waterloo” is taking place and my only viewing of it is by looking at the edited TV coverage spread over several days. The big difference between the flat green championships played at

Bowling Group. The bowls are at the women’s feet but were they in the team?

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

New Manchester Hippod r o m e Band in a bowling match at a pub green in Stockp o r t Road, A r d wick. A pub green was a popular venue for a famous match like the ongoing “Waterloo” at Blackpool.

Bowling Green, Hoylake. The bowler in the foreground is bowling straight ahead, while two bowls far left indicate another match being played across him from right to left. Publisher unknown. ‘Clarendon’ series. Postally used 1919.

The Bowling Green, Alexandra Park, Oldham. Footer being used by bowler on left bowling to far corner of green. Card published by Valentine of Dundee in 1939. Worthing and the “Waterloo” is the large number of bookmakers sited around the ground

offering odds on the players. Quite a shock to a southener brought up in the genteel world of flat green bowls.

Group with Trophy The footers under the chair of the second person sitting on the left marks this out as a crown green triumph.

Waterloo Bowling Handicap. Blackpool Sept. 2nd 1929. Sponsored by Magee Marshall & Co. Ltd. First prize unknown.

Waterloo Bowling Handicap. Blackpool Aug 31st 1936. Same sponsor as 1929 and a first prize of silver cup and 5 £0.

(above) Bowling Green, Stanley Park, Blackpool. The photo shows bowlers bowling across one another.

(above) Bowls Match. Close up of a bowler about to release his bowl. postcard published by H. Naylor, Bridlington.

(left) Two bowlers with marker. The marker’s task is to keep the score on a card and ensure the rules are followed. Photograph by Stringer.

Oakdale Bowling Club 1912. Group showing footer, bowls and jack. Message “This is the new club formed of which your humble has been made secretary off (sic)” Postally used 1912.

Crown Green bowler. All ready for the photographer - bowl in one hand, jack in the other and foot firmly planted on the mat.

(right) Two bowlers with marker holding card to record the score.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 25

Enigma Variations Rick Hogben

the 1870s, it also received a number of assisted-passage immigrants from Scandinavia. I don’t know how long the use of their native languages persisted, but names certainly fit; I was at school in the 1930s with boys named Hansen, Johansson, Christopherson and so on. And the sender’s name on this card, Berntsen, might be Scandinavian too....

I remain baffled; the code-breakers at Bletchley Park had the support of one of the world’s first computers, a massive machine filling a whole room. I do not have even a small lap-top, and my decyphering practice is limited to the occasional cryptic crossword puzzle. So any solutions will be gratefully received, on a postcard of course and in plain language!

In August 2009 PPM, under the heading “What the Postman couldn’t read”, Harry Hicks wrote about the codes and devices that senders have used to hide the meaning of their message. More recently I found that I have in my collection my own example of a coded card, rather more baffling than just written backwards or upside down. One Sunday at the Bloomsbury I searched as usual for sailing vessels, but without great success - as with any collection, the more one has the more difficult it is to find anything new. As a parting gesture, before going home I looked, as I often do, at one dealer’s stock of New Zealand cards. It was quite a small bundle, but in it was a real photo card of Dannevirke High School. This was a great “find”, as my father had taught there early in his career and had later been Headmaster for seven years, and it was the The original core school building. The school where I had start- stamp has been carefully removed from the card, and with it the ed my own secondary post-mark date, but from the new extension visible on the left, the view probably dates from the early 1920s. education. I was so delighted with the front of this card that I didn’t really study the back until some time after I had read Harry Hicks’ article. When I did, I found it bore a message that looks as if it needs the attention of Bletchley Park - a mixture of long-hand written words, a selection of block capital letters, some of them separated by full-stops, a figure 5, and two blots which might or might not be part of the message. It even poses an additional difficulty not faced by those who tackled the Enigma code; our war-time code breakers decyphering messages between the German naval command and individual U-boats at least knew that the solution they sought would be in German. But this card was sent from an English - speaking country to a man with a Spanish name at an address in Spain, so the message could be in either English or Spanish - or, for that matter, in Esperanto! There is one other possibility, admittedly rather

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The cryptic message, together with the sender’s name and address. The card was published by the well-known Wellington firm, Tanner Bros. Ltd., in their “Maoriland Photographic Series”. The printing and the rather faint NZpalm, a frequent feature of their cards, are in green. In the bottom right corner is the rubber stamp of a postal history dealer in Madrid. I wonder how it ended up in London. remote, suggested by the name of the sender. New Don’t miss out on a single copy of PPM ealand was settled mostly Z from Britain, but when - take out a subscription or place a regSouthern Hawke’s Bay, where Dannevirke is situat- ular order with your supplier ed, was first developed in

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Edwardian Postcard Project Julia Gillen investigates who wrote all those postcards The history of everyday writing has received much less academic attention than have other areas of writing history. One reason is that most surviving texts have been from educated or elite groups; another is that until later in the nineteenth century access to writing education was limited, resulting in many people having little skill in writing and little use for its production in their everyday lives (Mitch 1992). As access to education increased, eventually leading to compulsory education for all, ability with written language spread. Accordingly, when a really cheap, efficient and attractive communicative object arrived, it was actually used by and useful to many people rather than a few.

This object was the postcard, which from 1902 achieved mass popularity when the Post Office finally allowed one side to be used wholly for a picture and the other for the address and message. The consequence is that for anyone interested in everyday writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, the millions of Edwardian postcards to be found at today's postcard fairs provide a massive resource. For us 'everyday writing' is writing that is not regulated by the formal rules and procedures of dominant social institutions and which has its origins in people's everyday lives. Thus it is the writing that people do for themselves in everyday life. While the majority of people interested in old postcards are more concerned with the picture side of the card, as researchers into everyday writing we are using the written texts. In 1875 one journalist wrote in Appleton's Journal, 'Postal cards have not been long enough in use to admit of an inquiry as to the nature of the courtesies and social laws that do or should pertain to them'. We are interested in how by the Edwardian period the texts reflected how writers had devel-

oped and adapted to these new literacy objects. Thus it is not simply to look at the topics people write about but to consider the nature of the writing, examine how it was adapted to the very distinct material nature of the post-

almost 2000 cards. A mass of data is then entered into a large database and this forms a core for our research. It is slow and very time consuming but has been very rewarding. We have already published a number of book chapters on the topic and have been amazed how much public and academic interest the project has demonstrated.

One of the ways we are communicating about the project is through Twitter, with the help of Cath Booth. If you use Twitter do follow eVIIpc. For further information do see our project website at: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/ce ntres/llrc/activities/641 Finally, we'd be pleased to hear from people with an interest in the topic and especially from anyone who can help us find Edwardian cards very cheaply.

Julia Gillen, Senior Lecturer, Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University. Email: [email protected] Nigel Hall, Emeritus Professor, Manchester Metropolitan University. Email: [email protected] .uk

card, and especially to consider its use in initiating and sustaining social relationships. We have gradually been collecting really cheap Edwardian cards (we have no funding for the project despite it having received worldwide interest). Condition is not important to us and cards are selected solely on the basis that they have some sender-produced message on them. Every card then has both sides scanned. So far we have done this for

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 27

K Auctions J A commemorative postcard for the flight of the Graf Zeppelin between the USA and Germany was the star item at Trevor VennettSmith’s postal auction in October. The postal history interest took the price to £208. Another aviation item, a postcard of Alcock & Brown’s 1919 Atlantic flight published by Beagles, made £74. Topographical and social history cards included a Catholic Congress parade at Brighton (£64), decorated van at Chipping Norton (£50), and Co-op interior at Lesmahagow £93. Best embroidered silk postcards were an HMS Inflexible design at £154 and 17th Lancers at £137. A novelty Boer War card satirising Kitchener realised £90, and a scarce RP of Winston Churchill with village scene and stirring quotation £50. Advertising cards included Shell ‘More miles on Shell’ at £137, while a Mucha Months of the Year made £125 and two Kirchner Fleurs d’hiver cards £71 each. A set of 12 Months of the Year by Guggenberger looked good value at £77. An Irish Gruss Aus-style card of Cork sold for £43.

Naval collection sells for £891 October’s Warwick and Warwick auction included a number of large collections offered intact, which all sold in excess of estimate. A collection of 700 British Naval cards, estimated at £240, steamed to £891 and 174 miscellaneous shipping, made £690, almost quadruple estimate. Sports cards are perennially popular and a miscellaneous collection of 180, including a few Olympics, estimated at £200, made £517. A collection of Post Office, postalrelated and postal stationery cards, appealing to philatelists as well as postcard collectors, realised £690 after a £200 estimate. Best results, though, were in the topographical section. There were two large Scottish collections, making £1,437 (400 cards) and £1,322 (450 cards). 320 London and suburbs, with a pre-sale estimate of £550, made £1,064 and 100 Manchester and suburbs, estimated £250, made £460. A Coventry city centre collection contained a good range of real photographic cards showing the city prior to the WWII bombing. The 300

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eBay notes Suffragette comics were much in demand on the internet sales site in the past month, with cards selling for between £52 (an Ellam design) and £122 (five different cards achieved close to this figure). An artist-drawn Titanic made an astonishing £387 - but it did have an overprint for a showing in Tonypandy of the film of the disaster, and further information on the reverse. A different art card made a more orthodox £59. Louis Wain came in with a £235 result for a Wildt & Kraypublished ‘Song’ design - there were six bidders and 58 bids on this one, which started at £4.95. A huge number of large one-country or one-town large lots were sold last month, including 1,000 Portugal, which made £1,054, 400 China (£748), 800 Spain(£921) and 700 Salonica (£610). Most, however, remained unsold. Other highlights: Swanscombe, parade at football ground £271 Capt. Smith of Titanic RP £255 Embroidered silk satirical, The Iron Grip £255 Olympic/Titanic sizes cf. world’s biggest buildings £250 Holmsley, railway station exterior £190 Aviation, Hall Caine aerodrome at Ramsey 1930s £144 Embroidered silk, Dragoon Guards £137 Football, Man Utd team 1911 ptd (tatty & torn!) £133 Pellon (Halifax) rly station £132 Bonzo, radio/golf theme £131 Warrington, street scene RP £123 Emb’d silk Queens Royal Lancers £123 Ireland, RUC at Donegal RP £122 WW2, Japanese card, UK surrender of Singapore £122

cards, estimated at £550, realised £920. County selections included 350 Yorkshire (£977) and 300 Sussex (£471). A wide-ranging accumulation of 950 cards, with Africa, the Far East and the Caribbean well represented, sold for £1,275 against a conservative estimate of £320. A fine collection of Irish rural cards was on offer, including village and countryside cards as well as the more common city views. The 280 cards were estimated at £320 and realised £1,064.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Arthouse postcards score

1930s German collection at Warwick

Wiener Werkstatte postcards were again headliners at Markus Weissenbock’s latest auction in Salzburg, with prices as high as 6,500 euros a card. Artists Oskar Kokoschka and Rudolf Kalvach were among the most sought-after. Unsigned WWs, on the other hand, made around 500 euros.

A comprehensive 19-album collection of German Third Reich cards of the 1930s and early 1940s will be offered as a single lot in Warwick and Warwick's December 9th auction. Included are official postal stationery cards, portraits of leaders and soldiers, Nuernberg Rallies, propaganda cards, Hitler Youth, 1938 and 1939 Motor Show poster adverts and many more. In the subjects section, a Punch and Judy collection of 61 cards will go under the hammer, along with a rare Louis Wain Ettlinger 5256 series, including the desirable Golfers, all offered as single cards. The poster adverts section has a collection estimated at £850 and several attractive single card lots, including Fry's Cocoa With Captain Scott at the South Pole. Topographicals include 500 Banbury for £1,200 and a wonderful collection of 400 New Zealand, with many real photographic cards, estimated at £900.

Embroidered silk, Rugeley Camp £115 White Star Line, crew RP £103 Titanic, Nearer My God To Thee hymn cards (6) £102 Trapani, Italy, fiesta £102 Louis Wain A Cat’s Matrimony £91 Kuwait, customs 1960s £90 Ebberston village scene RP £87 Rudyard Kipling RP £81 Hong Kong, Queens Road £81 Blandford, gypsies £80 Kuwait, street scene 1958 £79 Knocklong, Co. Limerick, RC church £78 Guernsey, LL postcard booklet (12) £77 X-Ray postcard £77 Lundy Island beach £75 Alloa, ferry boat £74 Roscommon Castle £73 Southwick, oil depot £72 Turkey, postman & telegram £68 Crawley, marching troops RP £66 Bruntingthorpe, pub £65 Liskeard, sheep fair RP £65 Golf, Cruden Bay course £62 Liverpool FC 1914-15 £62 Pauli Ebner (2) £56 RP Phillimore signed card £52 Shirley Temple on greetings card £52

Original artwork Fitzpatrick Arnold Taylor Trow

£178 £117 £107

Above: an unusual embroidered silk postcard that sold for £255. Below: lots of suffragette comic cards have proved popular on eBay in the past month.

A good roomful of bidders at Birmingham Auctions’ sale in Worcester in October saw most postcard lots pass their room estimates, with a Titanic silk making £825 despite a corner stain. Among the topographicals, five cards of a Barnsley paperworks fire hit £100 and canal disasters made £30 each. Glamour and nude postcards sold well, though advertising cards struggled a little. Anything of quality was in demand, but ordinary printed British topos were shunned. Overseas cards from the Pacific Rim and Africa were also popular. z A couple of court size Bristol cards caught the eye Dalkeith’s at sale in Bournemouth last month. One showed a sketch of Clifton Suspension Bridge, with the card cancelled by an 1895 Bristol squared circle postmark. The other featured Bristol College Green used in 1901 with a Queen Victoria stamp. z Star item at Reading Card Club’s October auction was a rare Edwardian real photographic postcard of a scene at Pinkneys Green, near Maidenhead, which sold for £26. Sounds a bargain!

PPM keeps you in touch with the postcard world!

Sale date 9th December 2009

(left) This child about to discover the surprises in two full stockings is rather reminiscent of those Victorian cake decorations called Snow Babies. An embossed postcard with a PP imprint.

Stockings Galore

Shapely, capacious, even darned Wendy Mann collects them all, provided they’re on Christmas postcards One record which doesn’t appear in any ‘Book of Firsts’ concerns the first English child to receive a Christmas stocking in this country. The social historian John Pimlott remarked in his 1978 ‘The Englishman’s Christmas’ that we shall never know just when and where the first English stocking was filled. In ‘The English Year’ (2006) Steve Roud agreed: “The Christmas stocking is one of several elements of the modern Christmas that still puzzles the histo orian, as it is not at all clear exactly when or how it came into vogue in Britain”. Brewer’s ‘Dictionary of Phrase and Fable’ reckons it was around 1840, saying the custom came from Germany. But whenever it was and whatever the circumstances, it couldn’t have been any more satisfactory than my first remembered stocking - the largest of my father’s I could find, hand-kknitted by my grannie, and wonderfully and reassuringly stretchy. (left) My first remembered stocking was borrowed from my father and looked something like this. Handknitted by my grannie, it was wonderfully and reassuringly stretchy. A Rotary RP postcard.

like the idea and shall stick with it! And just as personal example and word of mouth were likely to have played a part so too must have books. Serious stocking filling began to gather momentum earlier in the States than in England due to the changing nature of the gift nearer there. On that side of the Atlantic Washington Irving’s Christmas figure in his satirical ‘History of New York’ appeared in 1809. Still called St. Nicholas, he was, however, most unsaintlike and rode ‘jollily’ over the rooftops in a wagon dropping presents down chimneys. He was followed in 1821 by a Santa and his reindeer. This was in a

(right) An Agnes Richardson design from Photochrom in their ‘Celesque’ Series. Posted 1920. I have in my wider collection a 1908 letter written to Santa by an 11 year old American girl. She’d also have needed a large stocking for her 28 requests. Amongst them and with sometimes creative spelling, she wrote that she’d like a muff and fur, a sailor suit and - hedging her bets - a big doll or a small one with a coach to put it on.

That lucky first youngster maybe - just maybe - had associations with the royal household. However, my tentative suggestion, as someone who enjoyed a number of Christmas stockings in Oldham, is that the first national stocking may have been hung up close to my old home. After all, German merchants had nostalgically taken Christmas trees to Manchester at least as far back as 1822 which is the earliest non-Court related reference I can find and they may also, in time, have introduced the European stocking cus-

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tom. It would seem logical that this lovely concept might then have been copied by a small Mancunian friend of a German child resident in the city. Early Court references focused on gifts being laid around trees and probably in regal and aristocratic circles the humble stocking would have been considered a poor tool compared with the glorious Christmas trees of the truly privileged young. Much is conjecture and any self-respecting compiler of records would rightly regard my notion as woolly and unsubstantiated but I

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

In America in the 1870s there was some debate about the relative merits of trees and stockings. It wasn’t taken for granted in families with small children that they should necessarily have both. An embossed American postcard designed by Ellen Clapsaddle. Publisher unknown and postally used 1910. poem in the lengthily-titled annual ‘The Children’s Friend, A New Year’s Present to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve’ which also

At the time of Prince Albert’s influence and earlier very privileged English youngsters had such toy-bedecked Christmas trees stockings might have seemed superfluous. They’d have been grander than this small version about to be taken indoors but it’s an attractive image from Ethel Parkinson on a postcard from C.W. Faulkner. Postally used 1905. included an early colour lithograph of Santa. And the following year saw the appearance of ‘the right jolly old elf’ of ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ fame, again with reindeer. This trio showed Dutch influence as did New York itself having been named New Amsterdam by the early Dutch settlers. However, not only had they shed their ecclesiastical past in terms of appearance but they were also beginning to share a new characteristic and that was a jovial personality. It’s true there could still be a dark side as in ‘The Children’s Friend’ poem where if Santa found “the children naughty, in manners rude, in tempers haughty... [he] left a long, black birchen rod......” expecting it to be used. But in spite of this injunction he was a largely amiable fellow in his increasingly numerous portrayals and his friendliness and approachability increased with the years although, as Santa/Father Christmas postcards collectors will know, he was slow to completely relinquish his birch rod. The stockings themselves go back, of course, to

Books such as ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Carl Krinken’ struck a chord and encouraged charitable giving. Scrooge’s nephew said of Christmas it was the only time he knew of when men and women seemed ‘to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys’. Here a thoughful boy leaves gifts for a small girl less fortunate than himself. Birn Bros. embossed postcard. Postmark unclear. Father Christmas must have been pleased to encounter such an accessible fireplace. Tuck’s ‘Christmas’ Postcard Series 1757. Undivided back and postally used 1903. the famous legend which gave rise to the custom in the first place when, wishing to save three impoverished sisters from prostitution, the fourth century Bishop Nicholas is said to have thrown bags of gold through a window which landed in stockings or shoes put before the fire to warm. But this new emerging character had far more universal appeal than the pious and constrained bishop could have hoped to aspire to. Dickens’

Whilst Tiny Tim had no Christmas stocking he and his family had great hopes - expectations even - of their pudding. The Victorians were beginning to recognise that manipulative use of the resurgent Christmas season would help heal social divisions as well as being good for business and Dickens gave them word pictures that suited them well. A Tuck ‘Oilette’ No. 9852 in their ‘Character Sketches from Charles Dickens’.

St Nicholas, with whom it all began. Dutch settlers took his legends with them when they sailed to New York in the 17th century, it then being called New Amsterdam. He’s being so generous here his gifts wouldn’t fit into a mere stocking. An embossed postcard produced by Paul Finkenrath for Woolstone Bros. who distributed it in their Milton Series. apparent silence on the subject of Christmas stockings is significant, though he did write evocatively of Christmas trees, calling one ‘that pretty German toy’. He was born in 1812 and while this childhood wasn’t all unmitigated misery there were bleak times. At the age of 12

(below) A ‘Christmas Time’ unsigned Susan Pearse design published by Henry Frowde and Hodder & Stoughton.

ment the old man probably wouldn’t have paid stockings any attention unless they encased a shapely pair of ankles! His merger with this new Santa was still for the future. As far as I’m aware Christmas stockings didn’t feature in any of Dickens’ numerous articles and he didn’t mention them in his Christmas books. ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published in 1843 and became hugely influential on both sides of

that the desire of the reformed Scrooge to improve Christmas for the Cratchits focused on food and the purchase of a giant turkey. There were no quickly bought toys, no hastily assembled stockings left on the doorstop for Tiny Tim and his siblings. There are hardly any toys in the book and where they are mentioned the children concerned received them directly from their father. Crucially, this was before

An embossed Birn Bros. postcard showing very necessary stealth. he had to work for a time in a shoe blacking factory and his father spent time in prison for debt. But it was the era he was born into which was more likely to have denied him a stocking rather than family circumstances. In his childhood the English Father Christmas was still a grown up concept. With the emphasis on food, drink and merri-

Getting stockings ready on a spacious four poster bed. Publisher unknown and postally used 1908. the Atlantic. Festive food is going to bed on Christmas an important aspect and Eve - they didn’t hang up with the parallel themes of any stockings. It was a rumsocial altruism and Christ- bustious occasion and great mas feasting it followed (continued)

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 31

STOCKINGS GALORE continued from page 31

Some stockings definitely held more than others! Artist: T. Gilson. Publisher unknown. fun but rather different from how things are done today. Christmas as we think of it was still taking shape. Eleven years after the appearance of Dickens’ famous ghost story a book which was to prove another best seller was published in both New York and London. Even though it hasn’t stood the test of time, Susan Warner’s ‘Carl Krinken: His Christmas Stocking’ quickly ran into several editions after it first came out in 1854. As an American she set this moralistic children’s tale around her country’s still evolving Santa Claus who was, she wrote, kept very busy filling half a million rich little stockings. Santa’s targets were children who could reasonably expect presents such as fur tippets and rocking horses ‘and what have poor children to do with these? ’ Very occasionally the poor received some discarded clothes or a mince pie which had slipped, almost accidentally, into his load

A modest stocking by today’s standards perhaps but some children weren’t destined to receive one at all. Flora Thompson, author of ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ was born in 1876 and brought up in a rural Oxfordshire hamlet. Of childhood Christmasses she wrote ‘Mothers who had young children would buy them an orange each and a handful of nuts but, except at the end house and the inn, there was no hanging up of stockings and those who had no kind elder sister or aunt in service to send them parcels got no Christmas presents’. An undivided back postcard and publisher unknown. but that was about it. Nevertheless, the eponymous small hero did hang up an old darned stocking which, perhaps with an eye on book sales over here, had started life in England. Not trusting to a selective Santa, Carl’s poor fisherfolk parents filled it with ingenious trifles and when Santa visited, merely out of curiosity it has to be said, he wondered at the care taken with so few

Robins well provided for on a Tuck ‘Christmas’ Series postcard No. 162. Posted locally in Norfolk at 7.45p.m. on Christmas Eve, 1910. Alice probably received it in time too.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Oh dear! Auntie’s anti-wrinkle cream and false teeth beside the bed and her bedtime reading being ‘Youth and how to attain it’ and all she’s going to find in her stocking is a ‘Kantleek’ hot water bottle! Illustration by Albert Carnell for Photochrom in their ‘Celesque’ Series.

resources. Deciding to give Carl something special, he gave him the ability to hear the stories his simple presents told including that of the stocking which had once belonged to a country squire. I wonder how many English children began to hang up stockings as a direct consequence of this book? But in spite of its undoubted suc-

Looks like a washing line on this embossed Tuck ‘Christmas’ Series postcard No. C1033. (below) Still some surprises left on a lovely study of the delights of Christmas morning from A.L. Bowley. A Tuck ‘Oilette’ No. C3782. Postally used 1910.

cess, in the days before television and the instant transmission of new ideas the stocking-filling Santa moved slowly into the general English public’s awareness. An indication of this is that as late as January 1879 a puzzled member of the Folklore Society still didn’t know who he was. Calling him Santiclaus, it was then that Edwin Lees contacted

An advertising postcard for Faulder’s chocolates designed by M. Morris. Publisher unknown and postally used 1910.

Alcohol galore. Let’s hope Bert who received this postcard from brown eyed Betsy in 1910 had a more temperate Christmas than this fellow! C.G. was the artist and although the publisher’s initials are somewhat obscured they could be C. & H.G. of London in which case the artist might have been one of the publishers.

This bare footed lass seems down to her last pair of stockings as she makes an urgent repair before that all important visit. ‘You never darn my socks’ my husband grumbled when I showed him this postcard acquisition. Very true and I’ve no intention of starting - unless I borrow one to hang for myself this year, in which case I might have to do some darning on my own account! Publisher unknown and postally used 1909.

A Bamforth RP postcard which will strike a chord with those who remember inspecting their own stockings too early. Postally used 1906. correspondents recognised that the name was a contraction of Santa Nikolaus and described some of the continental practices, they neither mentioned the United States nor seemed to understand that although he had his roots in St. Nicholas this Santiclaus or Santa had become a per-

(continued) With eleven stockings to fill it’s hardly surprising this worried man would like a word with whoever invented Santa Claus! The postmark’s unclear on this Bamforth postcard. No 25 in ‘The Xmas’ Series. the periodical ‘Notes and aware that youngsters Queries’ as he’d heard that hopefully hung up stockings on Christmas Eve just gone and, therefore, although he this stranger had been fill- didn’t mention him specifiing stockings in Hereford- cally the assumption has to shire and Worcestershire be that, as a folklorist, he and an Exeter resident had knew of St. Nicholas who told him he’d also been had been part of legends in known to do the same in continental Europe for so Devon. ‘From what region long. However, he was perof the earth or air this plexed by Santiclaus. Whilst benevolent Santiclaus takes one or two of the subseflight I have not been able to quent ‘Notes and Queries’ ascertain.....’. He was

A bizarre embossed Valentine postcard where Tommy dreams of a nightmarish Christmas scenario. Having been put in a stocking for young turkeys here, on another of their postcards he’s been cooked and is about to be served up. Serves him right for indulging in too rich a supper before bed!

(left) A sleepless night for this young man on a WWI postcard as he wonders if Father Christmas has callup exemption. Artist: D. Tempest. Bamforth Topical ‘Xmas’ Series No. 8008.

(above) Determined their dolls shouldn’t miss out on the excitement these girls have strung a line between toy beds to which to attach miniature stockings. After a black and white drawing by Max Cowper. Tuck ‘Oilette’ ‘But Once a Year’ No. 9444. (above) There’s real anxiety behind these preparations. Helen Gay’s ‘What’s the use of a gas fire at Christmas!’ says it all. An Inter-Art ‘Comique’ Series postcard.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 33

STOCKINGS GALORE continued from page 33

Bright eyed children showing no signs of tiredness after staying awake till the magic hour. The artist’s signature is faint but looks like A.L. Bowley. Tuck ‘Oilette’ No. C7160. Postally used 1921.

Not taking any chances both stocking and shoes have been put out on this embossed postcard postally used in the States 1910. Publisher unknown.

the payroll of some stores and at the peak of the Golden Age of postcards he must have been known to everyone. It was the whole package of this new and largely secular Christmas which was to prove a winner and

(below) ‘I do wish Santa Claus would bring me a .................... this year from Harrod’s Toy Fair’. To avoid disappointment children with indulgent families could fill in postcards like this in advance.

There’s an ominous lack of a parental presence as this sheet is about to be cut up and made into giant stockings! An embossed postcard from Whitney of Worcester, Mass. Postally used 1915. sonality in his own right. But if knowledge of Santa was patchy here in 1879 the pace of change accelerated after that. By 1885 there was a Santa Claus Society in London, by the ‘90s it wasn’t uncommon for him to be on

the phrase ‘invented tradition’ sums up some aspects very neatly. By gliding expectations and giving them a chocolate box wrapping on both sides of the Atlantic its future was ensured. Stockings might only have been part of the developing magic but they were fundamental, and it was thoughts of them which prevented boredom one dark, rain-lashed Saturday afternoon recently and provided an excuse (as if one were needed!) to reexamine some of my own Christmas stocking postcards. It’s a long, long time since I hung up a stocking for myself. I wonder if I

hang one this year St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas will be kind enough to treat me as an honorary child? My requests would be (left) Caught at last!’ The six pull- modest. I’d like a Christmas out pictures on this postcard from ‘green’ Dennis of Scarborough show a please. Some recycled wooden doll going shopping oblongs of old postbefore having a tea-party and cards which just happulling crackers with a teddy. From pen to have festive illustrations on one their Dainty Series.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Children must have enjoyed receiving greetings that could be personalised in this way. Valentine’s ‘Artotype’ Series.

Left: hanging up her stockings on a Christmas night’. A novel take on the subject from Fred Spurgin on an Art and Humour Xmas Series postcard. Postally used 1916. The old English Father Christmas - pre Santa - had no dealings with stockings but he’d probably have noticed this pair! side would suit me fine!

* This is the latest of Wendy Mann’s Christmas postcard contributions that have been a feature of December PPMs for many years. If you missed any, ask about availability of back numbers!

Got a point of view or something to say? Write to PPM Postbag!

FESTIVAL OF CARDS ’10

FESTIVAL OF CARDS 2010

140+ Dealers at Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet

Friday 26th February

Admission £3 10am - 6pm (incl. free admission on Saturday)

Saturday 27th February

9.30am - 4pm

Admission £1.50

and

Wood Green Animal Shelter - PE29 2NH Godmanchester (Signposted from A14) Nr. Huntingdon

Friday 13th August

Admission £3 10am - 6pm (incl. free admission on Saturday)

Saturday 14th August

Admission £1.50 9.30am - 4pm Postcards ™ Cigarette Cards ™ Autographs ™ ™ Ephemera + All Accessories ™

Details/Enquiries: Barrie & Katie Rollinson Telephone: 01278 445497

07966 011027 or 07854 127252 (mobiles) Email: [email protected] Web page: www.festivalofcards.co.uk Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 35

Valentine’s Show Jumpers

(right) Diana Mason on ‘Tramella’. Card published by Valentine of Dundee and posted at Bognor Regis in August 1956

Ron Severs profiles the horsey set Many famous riders and their favourite horses have become household names as we watched them originally on black and white television competing against each other in British and International events. There were several outdoor and indoor venues that became well known to the armchair fans whose numbers grew providing fan clubs that would individually travel long distances to witness the strong competitions. The first International Horse Show took place in Dublin in 1864. The venue for the first National Horse Show was in Madison Square Garden New York in 1883. These events stimulated detailed interest

Another of the ‘Show Jumping Horses’ series Agricultural Shows with disamongst the male owners plays of competitive jumpwho began to attract spon- ing over perhaps locally sorship which gave an made hurdles were intendimpetus to those who could ed to be included to interest earn considerable income if owners of horses that were their horses won the chal- ridden in cross country lenges that became more events and “point to point” and more numerous and races for example. Steeplevaluable over the years. chasing and similar events Under headlines such stimulated the interest of as ‘Leaping Horses’ it was farmers and country folk thought that the country

Valentine ‘Real Photo’ series postcard (right) Anneli Drummond-Hay on ‘Merely-A-Monarch’

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

(below) Valentine ‘Showjumping horses’ series featuring Miss P. Moreton on ‘Red Sea’

(below) Valentine postcard from the 1950s

One of Britain’s most famous showjumpers, Pat Smythe (1928-96). Pat became a prolific writer, penning lots of biographies, riding tutorials and novels based on the sport of showjumping

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David Broome on ‘Discutido’. He won the European Championships three times in the 1960s, got an Olympic bronze in 1960 and 1968 (the latter on the famous ‘Mr. Softee’) and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1960. He still operates stables near Chepstow who had never before competed with Rule Books to follow. Today Associations and Pony Clubs are the mainstay of equine sports. They have improved the standards of riding instruction and the competitive activities of, for example, dressage. It is essential that one checks the saddle to ensure that it fits both the horse and the rider. The horse’s centre of gravity shifts with its every movement and change of gait. It is likely that the horse is to

carry on its back an unstable burden of about one fifth its own weight. In order to give complete freedom to the hindquarters and to the hocks the rider should not sit back in the saddle until at least two strides after landing. Racing on horseback probably began about the 7th century BC. in Italy. All the postcards featured with this article were published by Valentine of Dundee.

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ENQUIRIES: 023 8044 6143 Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 37

K What the postman saw! J Messages on the back of postcards

case for the soldiers in the field, the card was sent without pre-payment. In transit it was marked ‘postage done’ (10c), payable on receipt. However, the War Office, after some hesitation, agreed to pay all postage on unstamped cards and letters

THE MENDIP POSTCARD CLUB

Postcard Fair Saturday 19th December at Glastonbury Town Hall, Somerset 10am - 4pm Free admission * All day refreshments * Car parking For details phone: BARRIE ROLLINSON 01278 445497

Christmas with the Postcard Artists 1898-1940 a new book by Peggy Hawksworth Over 300 artists and 400 pictures in colour. History, Folklore and Biography. £64. available from Borders, Amazon or from the publishers

Probably the most well-known events of the second AngloBoer War (1899-1902) were the sieges of Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith. Though the towns were of no strategic importance, the sieges tied down a large number of Boer Soldiers who otherwise could have taken part in the invasion of Cape Colony and perhaps changed the course of the war. Ladysmith was besieged from 2 November 1899 and relieved on 28 Feb 1900 by General Buller, a total of 116 days. On the whole the siege was a leisurely affair with no fighting on a Sunday. The local printer produced ‘Siege Postcards’ of which there are three main types: 1. Has a soldier and sailor on the bottom right of the cards on the address side. 2. Has a soldier, sailor and a Natal soldier. 3. A souvenir issue that lacks the word NATAL under the coat of arms on the address side and was for philatelic use only. Each of types 1 and 2 have a number of minor varieties. The card illustrated is of type 1 with the message dated 9 Feb 1900, handed in at the post office on the 10th. It was held there until the first mail out after the town was relieved. Since no stamps were available, as was the

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and the card was cancelled on arrival at London on 25 March, reaching its destination, Stamford, the following day. The message reads: “Dearest Nettie, Just a line to tell you we have been besieged 99 days to-day. I was wounded in taking Gun Hill but am all right now. I don’t know when this will reach you so am just trusting to luck. I will write? after we are relieved. From your affectionate brother (signature illegible) Guides Groups.” With regard to the latter, there were a number of mounted Guides such as Rimington’s Guides but they were usually colonial volunteers, and without a full signature it is impossible to identify his company. The postman wouldn’t have had time to read this one! Jan managed to squeeze 343 words onto a real photographic postcard of the “Pied Bull” public house at Bull’s Cross, Enfield. It reads “My Dearest Ada, Got your letter all right, sorry as regards th enews I said I’d send you tonight, I’m sorry but it can’t be done, for we heard nothing one way or the other, still, no news is good news they say, so we’ll wait & see, perhaps I shall be able to

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

www.trafford.com/07-0143 (UK order desk 0845-230-9601) tell you when I write tomorrow. You said in your letter that your Aunt Lil wished she could have had one of yuor coupons, well, she will be able to have one of Mo’s when she gets them if she’d care to, it would do just as well wouldn’t it. How’s that head, still aching, Mums just been telling me that an overdose of Iron served her just the same, the Parrishes did as well if you remember, so I’m hoping that after you’ve lessened it a bit you’ll rid yourself of that head ache, for goodness knows you can do without it. I’ve just finished that

sketch in Elsie’s album, & written for a job that Mr Abbott recommended to me, & now I’m going to take a lock off a door & mend it, not a bad variety is it, tell your Ma that I saw that chap about the pictures this morning again, & he said that he beleives they’ne got the order in to do some more, & he expects to be able to get them shortly. I had a look at your feather last night, its quite O.K. the next time I come I’ll fetch it. Hasn’t it been an awful day, I thought two or three times I was an iceberg. I reckon you’ve not been hot, I thought of you several times & wondered what sort of a colour your little N. was (I don’t want to give you away you see, so I don’t put it in full). I reckon you had the second pink on though. Still I hope you see it before long. I shall hear tomorrow night about that though, I expect. Shall write tomorrow night. Fondest Love Jan. (contributions from John Markks and Stephen Sellick)

Sidmouth, Newton Abbot, Bexhill, Crawley, Henley-o onThames, Cirencester, Swindon, Cromer, Norwich, Cheltenham and Dudley.

K Clubscene J Philip’s Norfolk tour Philip West was born and brought up in North Norfolk, so was well-p placed to deliver an ‘A-K K’ of towns and villages in the area to NORFOLK Postcard Club’s October meeting. He chose picture postcards of quality and rarity to illustrate his journey around the highways and byways, and talked at length and knowledgeably. Even the smallest settlement produced something of interest, be it a shop, brewery, railway, circus parade or golf. Change was a recurring theme in the presentation.

Reading singalong Postcards of World War One were screened at READING’s early October session, when Paul Langton underlined the importance of postcards for maintaining the morale of troops at the Front and their loved ones back home. Postcards as propaganda tools were, of course, used by both sides in the conflict. Paul focuses on poignant messages, and showed how he’d researched the fate of some of the senders and recipients. On a more cheerful note, he led a sing-song of the chorus of Dolly Gray, a favourite of the troops that was featured on Bamforth song cards. Lorraine Maguire revealed something of the work and lives of a range of picture postcard artists at the WEST LONDON club recently. Mabel Lucie Attwell, Cynicus, Bairnsfather, Tarrant and Dudley Buxton were among those under the spotlight. The sugar-sweet Asti, outrageous Pedro and unfortunate Ellen Clapsaddle (stranded in Germany in 1914) added fascination, as did Lorraine’s concluding feature on the highly successful Queensland artist Anne Geddes, whose postcards are sold around the world.

Deep in the heart of Dixie! SOUTH WALES Postcard Club held an audience participation evening in October when speaker Chris Wood, a Baptist minister, gave an enjoyable talk on the history of the American Civil War. He brought along several complete reproduction uniforms from both sides in the war, and several genuine artefacts were on display, along with powerpoint pictures. Chris also produced his guitar and the audience sang with gusto songs from the period including Battle Hymn of the Republic and John Brown’s Body - with the words appearing on screen!

Art class Masterpieces from Constable, Turner, Hals and Hogarth were featured by Sue Edwards at NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Postcard Club in October. She highlighted how deliberate inaccuracies were often included in paintings to draw attention to the nuances and foibles of a particular artist.

* Contact details for all postcard clubs can be found in Picture Postcard Annual 2010.

Retiring Plymouth Postcard Club chairman Graham Brooks (right) receives a new Plymouth Argyle book from the club’s publicity officer Harley Lawer

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

December 2009 highlights Aberystwyth - Angela Davis with Victorian Christmas cards(7th) Aylsham - Christmas dinner(7th) Bradford - Christmas party(10th) Bristol - Christmas social, quiz and raffle(7th) Croydon - Christmas social(3rd) Dorset - Christmas fayre and entertainment(9th) Ellesmere Port & Chester - informal meeting(15th) Exeter - Christmas dinner Ferndown - three more of my favourite things(14th) and Christmas events(21st) Frinton & Walton - John Barter looks at the Festival of Britain plus Christmas party(8th) Huddersfield - Christmas party(9th) Lothian - Christmas social(11th) Maidstone - chairman’s evening(21st) Mendip - club fair(19th) Mid-E Essex - Christmas social(17th) Norfolk - Rosemary and Peter Salt tell the story of Great Yarmouth(9th) North Wales - Gwyn & Christine Williams’ Christmas selection box(14th) Northamptonshire - competitions(8th) North-W West Kent - joint social evening with Gravesend Stamp Club(11th) Nottingham - ‘Gordon Richards Trophy’ display competition(8th) Plymouth - Elaine Clifford, former Bluebell and Tiller Girl, recalls highlights of her career plus display of theatre programmes, posters and photos plus Christmas draw and buffet(9th) Potteries - Christmas quiz, seasonal refreshments and raffle(21st) Reading - AGM, picture quiz & Christmas party(10th) Red Rose - Christmas party(16th) Shropshire - Christmas ‘noggin & natter’(8th) Southampton - Christmas meal(14th) South Wales - Christmas dinner at the Village Hotel(10th) Strathclyde - steps towards Congress(14th) Surrey - Christmas social with raffle and fun competition(16th) Tayside - Christmas party(16th) Torbay - Christmas quiz night & bingo(10th) Wirral - Christmas buffet & wine plus quiz(3rd) PLYMOUTH Postcard Club have awarded Graham Brooks life membership in appreciation of his decade of service as chairman. The decision was approved at the club’s AGM, when Graham stepped down, citing a combination of age and health conditions. Vicechairman Ron Furzeland has taken over until the club finds a successor. It was also decided to suspend the club’s annual auction following two years of disappointing sales, and to publish the club newsletter bi-monthly in future.

Negotiating Dartmoor EXETER welcomed Tony Burges, a blue badge Dartmoor guide, to their late October meeting, where he featured the National Park on their doorstep. He gave tips on visiting lesserknown parts of the moor without falling into bogs! Tony recounted various local legends topical to Hallowe’en to add to the atmosphere. David Walker from Wellington was guest dealer.

Scene at Mid-Essex Postcard Club’s annual fair in October. The club’s meeting that month had Michael Cox talk on ‘Women at war’, accompanied by some truly remarkable memorabilia relating to the areas where they provided much-needed s u p p o r t . Michael also brought along his stock.

Channel Isles displays Some 23 members of the CHANNEL ISLANDS SPECIALISTS SOCIETY attended the postcard meeting held at the Royal Philatelic Society's headquarters in London in early October, when 18 varied displays were given. LL cards were shown by both John Hirst and Ron Osborne. Mark Bailey displayed Herm cards and photographs by the Grut family, photographic publishers of Guernsey. Dave Edwards showed postcards by the Guernsey photographer T. A. Bramley published between 1907 and 1927: these included island scenes and events. Steve Wells showed cards of Jersey, Chausey, Granville and Mont Saint Michel published by J. Puel of Granville. Anne Gough gave two displays of modern postcards, the first being of cards in the 'Naturally Guernsey' series, and some new publications of the Jersey Shell House. Her second display was of postcards by the publisher John Hinde. A number of members chose to display a theme. Richard Flemming showed Jersey's Corbiere Lighthouse; David Gurney the Jersey Sub-Post Offices; Gerald Marriner Jersey hotel cards and ephemera; Keith Raymond and Roger Harris, Jersey's railways; and both Roger Harris and Peter Saunders showed aviation, including cards of the Saint Malo to Jersey air race of 1912. Some of the railway and aviation postcards were particularly unusual, a number having recently appeared on the market and drawn from an album a dealer had been holding for 18 years.

Great War memories BRISTOL’s audience was treated to audio-visual presentations by Graham Best, member of the Western Front Association, last month. His headline feature was on Edith Cavell, half of the illustrations for which were drawn from postcards. Nurse Cavell’s execution was a propaganda bonus for the Allies, and Graham showed a large selection of relevant postcards and newspaper pictures. Other presentations featured WW1 comic cards, the wounded, and nurses, the Avon Gorge, Marilyn Monroe, WW2 newspaper headlines and the Bristol blitz. All were accompanied by suitable music, songs and sound effects, making for a very entertaining evening.

Passengers and coaches at Gorey Pier railway station, Jersey, on a postcard from the French publisher L. Bourry of Villedieu, Manche Considering that HUDDERSFIELD’s October speaker David Brown introduced himself as primarily a stamp collector, his collection of local postcards amazed the audience. To top that, he also produced a range of Isle of Man cards and a selection from North Borneo! NORTH WALES enjoyed one of Lawrence Corrieri’s amazing talks in October, this time on the remote Sutherland area of Scotland. Lawrence has collected a huge number of postcards of buses of a region where the average service is two a day - one out and one back! The fact that the major part of one route is through a military firing range and is frequently out of bounds due to military activity added to the scarcity value of these buses en route to Cape Wrath! Gareth Burgess and Fiona Gebbie made the journey from Dunbar to Dundee to entertain the TAYSIDE club in October. Fiona displayed postcards of the East Lothian Coastal Trail from Cockburnspath to Prestonpans, with eyecatching scenes of Skateraw, Belhaven and Aberlady. For aviation enthusiasts, there was a card showing the first plane to land at North Berwick. On a more wide-ranging theme, Gareth exhibited a selection of cards from 60 different Scottish postcard publishers, ranging geographically from J.D. Rattar of Lerwick in the north to A.R. Edwards of Selkirk in the south. Gareth himself has a keen interest in the history and output of famous postcard publisher George Washington Wilson (GWW). Other highlights included photograaphic gems by Urquhart of Dingwall, Gammie of Aberdeenshire and Dunn of Brechin.

Bygone Shrewsbury SHROPSHIRE club members were taken back in time to the pre-postcard era at their October meeting, viewing a large selection of early photographs of Shrewsbury, the county town. Martin Ryder did the honours, revealing some wonderful examples of shopfronts from the 1880s and 1890s. These were followed by further high-class material from the horse and cart days, with a wide range of subjects displayed, from early fire appliances, hansom cabs, steam wagons and railways to local flooding problems and public houses, all of which proved very much to the liking of those present. September at the COTSWOLD club featured a guided walk with club members Alan and Joan Tucker. Earlier this year, Joan made an in-depth study of Lower Street in Stroud, close to their home. She traced the history and development of their road and also of the properties on either side of the road. On a glorious late summer afternoon, she gently conducted the group along the road, explained its past and present, and showed many old postcards and photos. The afternoon was rounded off admirably with tea at the Tucker household! The previous month, Ken Goddard had talked on one of his favourite topics - railway postcards. He used a large number from his extensive collection to illustrate points he was making, and the audience was able to examine the cards at leisure.

There’s more club news on page 56

Gareth Thomas corrected our note last month when we said there wasn’t a postcard in sight at South Wales Postcard Club’s September session on Nelson. Apparently, the club presented speaker Roger Morgan with a set of postcards entitled Caricatures of Nelson’s Navy, designed by an artist who signed himself simply ‘Oggy’. One, shown above, was most appropriate to the subject of the talk.

Hatless in Ilkley Tony Christy provided a cracking display at BRADFORD’s latest meeting, showing part of his extensive collection of Ilkley postcards. It was, however, far from the usual range of topographicals, with Tony coming up with several Bartholomew map cards of the town, a large array of comic cards and a lovely collection relating to Ilkley Moor’s famous hatless song. Most interesting was a selection of pull-out postcards which fully demonstrated the tourist aspect of the town.

Spellbound at Wirral Bromborough dealer John Ryan had WIRRAL club members spellbound last month with a fascinating account of his research into the ‘Dingle’ series of postcards published by Wiliam George Bevan of Heswall. John has amassed a big collection of the cards of the photographer, whose postcard work was distinguished by its clarity and quality. Bevan had an eye for the picturesque scenes of the Wirral coastlines and the photogenic shots of Liverpool docks. He also included human interest in many postcards, with an emphasis on the prominence of children, dogs or horses in the foreground of photographs.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 41

Alaska’s Igloo Mission Liz McKendrick Postcards of the arctic regions are unusual finds in this country - the only ones seen with any regularity are the set produced by Tuck ‘Wide Wide World - the Arctic’ showing different artist drawn scenes by the artist Operti. So I was quite surprised to turn up ten French Missionary cards all showing both views and Eskimos around a township called Mary’s Igloo. The cards were all published by Levenq et Cottin of Lyon. The rather strangely named village of Mary’s Igloo can be found in Alaska on the bank of the Kuzitrin River, on the Seward Peninsula just below the Arctic Circle. It came into existence during 1900 when the nearby village of Kauwerk, 15 miles down river, was abandoned. Most of its inhabitants (Inupiaq Eskimos - the Inuit people of Alaska’s Bering Straits region) moved to one of the nearby cities either Teller or Nome but some decided to settle on the coast and create a new town which they called Aukvaunlook (or ‘black whale’).

Le Degel pres de la Mission de Mary’s Igloo au milieu de Juin This postcard shows a view looking towards Mary’s Igloo in June. The sea is thawing and great pieces of ice are floating in the sea in the foreground. Huts and boats from the settlement can be seen in the distance. Gold has been mined in Alaska since 1870 and was discovered in the area around Nome in 1898 by Swedish prospectors. Word of the strike spread rapidly and by the following spring

a major gold rush had begun. It wasn’t long before 20,000 prospectors, gamblers, shop and saloonkeepers and prostitutes were all living in a tented city around Nome. The gold deposits were found over many miles and by 1899 more than a million dollars’ worth of gold had been found. Supplies for the gold fields and the growing city of Nome arrived at Aukvanlook and were offloaded from ocean boats onto barges which were

Famille chretienne de la Mission de Mary’s Igloo. According to the title of this postcard shows a Christian family of Inupiat Eskimos. They are wearing reindeer skins to keep warm.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Deux Chretiens de l’Ocean Arctique. These two Christian Eskimos are posing in front of a tepee and come from near the Arctic Ocean. They look rather grim. then towed up the river to their final destination. Many of the new arrivals stopped off at Aukvanlook looking for hospitality and the village soon became known to everyone as ‘Mary’s Igloo’ after Mary, an Eskimo woman, who welcomed many of the newcomers into her home for coffee. The village quickly grew in size and by 1901 a Post Office

Mere et Fille Alaska This card shows a mother and daughter from Alaska posing for the camera. and supply store were opened. By 1910, Mary’s Igloo had become a large mixed community of Inupiat Eskimos, white traders, miners, innkeepers and missionaries as well as support crews for the barges. The pioneering French Jesuit missionary Father Bellarmine Lafortune came to this remote area of Alaska to help the native Inupiat Eskimos establish a self-sufficient social, economic and religious community. He was stationed in Nome and chose a second Missionary, Father Bernard, to be the priest at Mary’s Igloo. Father Bernard arrived in September 1908 and during his seven year stay as well as his normal duties, he managed to learn the Eskimo language as well as take a large number of photographs, some of which may well have been turned into these postcards. He had

Le Chef d’une ile du Detrroit de Behring et sa Femme. The Chief and his wife posing in this card are from an island in the Bering Strait. The Strait links the Bering Sea (northern part of the Pacific Ocean) to the Arctic Ocean.

great respect for the Eskimos but sadly had to leave when he was called up for military service in 1915. At the end of WWI he asked to return to Alaska but permission was refused. For the next forty years, Bernard spent his time writing articles about the Eskimos for French missionary magazines as well as sending devotional literature to the Eskimos of the Mary’s Igloo area. Lafortune himself took over the mission at Mary’s Igloo on 21st September 1915 but found the life hard. Without Father Bellarmine’s help he had to do everything himself, including the ministry, housekeeping, woodcutting, water carrying, and dog keeping. “If the good Lord had not given me a constitution of steel,” he wrote, “I could not hold out for two weeks.” Mary’s Igloo was the venue for an annual reindeer fair held in January where Eskimos brought their reindeer from miles around to compete for prizes in assoing, butchering, driving, feeding and herding. There were races of many kinds as well as prizes for the best harness, sleds, and fur clothing. Prizes were contributed by the merchants from Nome and the fair, which lasted for several days, was the great event of the Eskimo year. Often the

(left) Pres du Cercle Arctique Un Missionaire en voyage. This unnamed Missionary is holding the back of a sledge during a trip around the frozen arctic. (below) Eglise et Maison d’habitation de la Mission la plus proche du Pole Nord. Mary’s Igloo (Alaska) This card shows the rather bleak looking church and house of the Mary’s Igloo Missionaries with a dog sled and man in the snow outside. The title says it is the nearest mission to the North Pole.

Arrivee de Viande fraiche (Les Esquimaux apportent au Missionnaire de Mary’s Igloo un phoque gele). This postcard shows a group of four Inupiat Eskimos bringing a dead frozen seal on a sledge being pulled by the three dogs to the right of the image to the Missionaries at Mary’s Igloo. The seal is one of the few sources of fresh meat available in the Arctic region. temperature fell well below zero yet people still slept on the snow in tents keeping warm inside their reindeer

L’Organiste de la Mission de Mary’s Igloo This happy looking native girl is playing the organ for the Catholic services held at the Mission Church in Mary’s Igloo.

skin sleeping bags. The flu epidemic of 1918-9 swept through Mary’s Igloo leaving many people dead. Then two years later the survivors were hit by a tuberculosis epidemic. Both of these events were to see the beginning of the end of the settlement. Many of the children left without parents were helped by the missionaries, led by Lafortune, who, in 1918, opened a Catholic orphanage, “Our lady of Lourdes Mission” at nearby Pilgrim Springs as well as a Lutheran orphanage at the nearby township of New Igloo. Mary’s Igloo continued to decline and by 1948 both the local schools closed due to lack of pupils and the Post Office and Store finally shut in 1952. By then the remaining residents had moved on to Nome or Teller. Today Mary’s Igloo has no permanent population - it is only used as a seasonal fish camp during the summer months.

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TWYFORD COLLECTORS FAIR (including LODDON AUCTIONS) at Loddon Hall, Twyford, Berks (Just off A4 on the A3032 nr. Maidenhead - RG10 9JA)

SUNDAY 29th NOVEMBER Postcards, Cigarette Cards, Books, Magazines, Printed Ephemera etc Card dealers booked so far include: Bernard Wickham* Peter Meyer* John Clarke* John Forrester John Kidson Roy Sheppard Gordon Collier Sally Glennie Kingfisher Cards Mike Huddy Lesley Davies Simon Collyer Paperchase

Attelage de la Mission de Mary’s Igloo Dog sleds were the only means of transport available to the early Missionaries and were invaluable in their work. This card shows the outdoor structure used as a dog harness keeping the dogs tethered when they are resting. During his time at Mary’s-Igloo Father Lafortune made many dog team trips to see his converts scattered over the vast Seward Peninsula all the way from Cape Prince of Wales to Council, saying mass, giving instructions, and filling baptismal, marriage and burial registers.

Mike Barter Julian Burgess Brian Girling Julian Dunn Richard Holworth Tony & Rosa Lawrence John Priestley Margaret Pierce Ruth Pratt Neil Baldry Peter Robards * dealers with cigarette & trade cards

™ Choice Refreshments ™ Free Parking ™ Public Admission 10am to 4pm £1 ™ Early Admission 9am £2.50

Promoter: Neil Baldry, 32 Westborough Road, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 4AR Tel. 01628 622603 LODDON AUCTION details: Gary Arkell 0118 961 1915 500 LOTS OF POSTCARDS/CIGARETTE CARDS etc.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 43

Edwardian Cheapside A marvellous view of a crowded London street on a postcard by unidentified publisher. St. Maryle-B Bow Church, of Bow Bells fame, is on the right

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Cheapside’s postcard heritage Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police, keeps watch on Cheapside on this Edwardian postcard view. Peel (1788-1850) was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and as Home Secretary oversaw the creation of the police force as we know it today. The statue, sculpted by William Behnes, was unveiled in 1852. It was moved to Postman’s Park (near St. Paul’s Cathedral, on the site of the original General Post Office) in the 1930s, and now stands at the Metropolitan Police Training Establishment at Hendon. Many other statues of Peel can be found around England, including ones in Parliament Square, London, and Peel Park, Bradford. A number of pubs were named after him, and many other memorials exist.

Cheapside itself was originally the site of various produce markets. Charles Dickens rated it “the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London”, though today it is just one of several routes from the East End and City to the West End. It was badly damaged by German bombing in 1940. The detail in this photograph is amazing, with a procession of horse-drawn buses and carriages. It illustrates perfectly why old postcards, with their often unique (though not in this case!) images, are so useful and fascinating for social, transport and fashion historians. The vantage point used to create the image of this scene was a popular one for postcard photographers.

PPM keeps you in touch with the postcard world!

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Just published a postcard? Want to advertise sets or series of cards for sale? An ad here costs just £9.50 for a picture and approx 45 words (colour £15) CHILDREN IN NEED. Our 2009 postcard is a spectacular ‘Pudsey in Wonderland’ design from York artist Brian Partridge, and features a variety of collecting themes. Every penny of the 50p per card goes to the BBC ‘Children in Need’ charity. P/p 40p per order. 12 previous designs available - list on request. Reflections of a Bygone Age, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT.

STEAM AROUND BRITAIN. Latest postcard (no. 36 in the series) features the Llangollen Railway on this design by Timothy O’Brien. Other cards in series available, but 2, 4, 7, 11, 16 out of print. 40p per card + 40p per order or £10.50 postfreefor the 31 cards available from Brian Lund Postcards, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT. Also just released: nos. 16-19 in the ‘Railway Specials’ series, including two of the GWR in Gloucestershire, one of the Swanage Railway, and one of a Norfolk station.

What are you doing in February? We’re all going to Shepton Mallet Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 45

Mike and Sue Huddy’s Moderns of the Year As in previous years the top of our top ten has a strong transport element. This year we start with a card from Real Lachance the Canadian publisher of shipping cards. This one, Cunard’s Queen Mary II just one of a number of Cunard ships published by him.

2009 was the 50th year of the Iconic mini car still produced near to us at Cowley Oxford although sadly no longer a Britishowned mark.

Readers that know our Libdem enthusiasms will be surprised at the inclusion of our next card, published by Pat Holton to commemorate the election of her granddaughter, Chloe Smith, as Conservative MP for Norwich North.

Continuing the political theme, the next card commemorates the election of President Obama. This postcard was published by Zazzle in the USA.

Still with aircraft, a postcard published by Carl McQuaide in his wingtip series - this one of the iconic Concorde at Bristol Filton.

The organisers of the monthly Bloomsbury fair published several very collectable cards during the year - this one marking the 50th anniversary of mans first walk on the moon. Next of our cards published by Reflections of a Bygone Age in their ‘Railway Specials’ series, this one, no. 19 showing an engine of the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire railway at Toddington station.

Our last card takes us back to shipping, this time a card published within the Auk by Colin Roach - this one to mark the naming and the maiden voyage of the celebrity Equinox.

This feature was due to appear in the 2010 Annual, but was delayed in the post from early September until mid-October.

Comforting postcards 2009 saw the organisers of the Picture Postcard Show issue a set of six entry/promotional postcards on the theme of the British seaside holiday.

Returning to our transport theme, our next card is from New Zealand, published by Contour Creative. This one is part of a set of five postcards of Tasman Empire airways - an S30 empire flying boat.

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Among the pleasures of research is the occasional chance find of an intriguing story or article about a personal interest or passion. I was delighted to find in my local record office this mention of picture postcards in an article in the ‘ladies’ column’ of a September 1914 newspaper. "In these days when picture postcards accumulate so rapidly that there is soon no place to put them a good plan is to take two and paste them together so that no writing shows, and then, when a good-sized box full has been collected send to a hospital. Hospitals welcome them because they can be sterilised; whereas many gifts have to be destroyed through a fear of infection. Also the preparation of them forms a splendid rainy day amusement for the children of a household, while the convalescent patients greatly appreciate them". What this shows is the endeavours of everyone to assist in the war effort so quickly in the initial weeks, and that the writer believes this is a support for wounded men. Apart from wondering how many got stuck together and sterilised, what would the value for in completion and collection terms be to us today? And how many postcards were used in this way? - John Gallagher

New political cartoons by Martin Rowson Eight new postcards in the ‘Cynicure’ series feature cartoons by top artist Martin Rowson Cynicure series 13. Northern Rock 14. Blair’s conversion 15. Harry the Hero 16. Punch & Judy politics 17. Extremes meet 18. Same old crew(e) 19. Labour’s tax U-turn 20. Boners culture

Two of the cartoons are based on Donald McGill designs, and a number of politicians are featured in the set, including Gordon Brown (on three of the cards), Tony Blair, Ann Widdecombe, Alastair Darling (three), John Prescott, Peter Mandelson, Jacqui Smith, David Cameron and George Bush. All the cartoons originally appeared in The Guardian. Until 10 December, the postcards are 50p each or £3 for the set of eight (+ 60p postage) from Brian Lund Postcards 15 Debdale Lane Keyworth Nottingham NG12 5HT (after 10 December a set will be £4 + post) or order via email - [email protected] Cynicure cards 1-12 available at 40p each.

Martin Rowson’s work appears frequently in the Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Mirror. He was appointed ‘Cartoonist Laureate’ of London when Ken Livingstone was Mayor. He has written three books and illustrated several more. CAN YOU HELP?

368/A Richard Evertt recently bought the illustrated postcard. It shows the 2nd battalion of the Cameron Highlanders at an unknown location. The regimental history states that the battalion was in China from 1908/9. En route they spent some weeks in Hong Kong before moving to Tientsin where they were used to provide guards for the British Legation in Peking. So the card could be in either Hong Kong or Peking (Tientsin) which is where the scan of the back might help, for to the right are some oriental characters which presumably will name the publisher and his location. That hopefully might unlock the identification of main picture, as some readers might be ex-servicemen who have

served in Hong Kong, where I suspect the picture was taken. 368/B Bill King of Saltash is trying to checklist the ‘D’ series of photographic postcards of the Porlock/Minehead area published by Alfred Vowles. If anyone can provide captions to any of nos. 12, 13, 19, 24, 35, 36, 40, 43, 44, 51, 66-8, 71-3, 75-7, or any after 78 in the ‘D’ series, he’d be delighted to hear from you on 01752-303966.

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Card Chat Mark Routh searches out the tasty and unusual in modern postcards. My wife Jo and I have just returned from the World of the Mouse, better known to many as Walt Disney World, Florida. This was our fourth visit and our first without the children (who have, of course, all grown up now). Since our first visit in 1993 I have collected every Disney theme park related postcard I could find. This is made a lot more fun by Disney's policy of constantly changing and updating issues. Back in 2003 I bought some attractive art cards which I saw this year with fancy embossed borders (not present on the cards in 2003 - so of course I had to buy these new ones). There are also annual year-dated postcards and this year I found three different 2009 dates (one for the Magic Kingdom Park, one for Epcot and one general design for the whole Florida Disney World). I know a lot of people collect Disney as a theme, but these new cards are not cheap to buy. The really good ones were priced between $2 and $3 each (£1.50 to £2) and it would be difficult for a dealer to make any money selling these with a margin of profit if he or she had to make this initial outlay. Therefore I doubt many of the postcards issued over the last few years will turn up on stalls (unless found postally used which might be a bit cheaper). I still bought copies for my collection but if I offered my doubles to someone at £2.50 a postcard would I have any takers? I suspect not, but I put it to you that this is their real value. Would you consider placing your loved one’s funeral plans in the hands of a company you saw advertised on a postcard? I suppose you might consider it appropriate under certain situations. I only ask because an advert postcard for 'Golden Charter Funeral Plans' fell out of my National Trust Members’ magazine. It is a sympathetic postcard showing an autumn wooded pathway and apparently they offer 'Unrivalled choice and peace of mind from only £1,655' - a most unusual postcard.

Readers’ postcards I enjoy receiving postcards from readers, some from a long way away. Willy Allan sent me one depicting a Green Ant from Darwin in the

One of the BBC Poetry Season postcards

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beastie'), Christina Rossetti, Benjamin Zephaniah, Alfred Lord Tennyson (one of my favourites - The Charge of the Light Brigade - although only an extract of this long poem is printed on the back of this particular card), Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owen (this WWI writer can be a bit of an acquired taste but this one - 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' - has a cracking opening line which goes 'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?') The set also includes poems by Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats and John Betjeman. I am sure you will agree that this is an esteemed collection of writers and a most collectable set of postcards. I depict the Tennyson card to give you a flavour of how these look.

Stampex and The Falklands The autumn STAMPEX show held in London had yet another free exclusive postcard for visitors, published in their ongoing series (this was no. 17). Personally this was a must for me as the postcard depicts artwork entered by Peter Morter for the 1982 Maritime Heritage issue. Although not used for the stamp

Moderns at Woking I spent yet another enjoyable day at the South of England Postcard

Fair held at Woking Leisure Centre. My reason for visiting was the Saturday Moderns section of the fair which is a great event. Again I came away with a couple of hundred postcards. If you are a moderns collector and can make either of the two annual events you will not be sorry. Alan Bower was there and his stall is always worth looking through. Alan had not long returned from Ireland, where he said the postcards had become quite expensive with even the basic view cards costing 50p each. Alan suffers from the same problem that many of the modern dealers do, that collectors seem reluctant to spend more than 50p for a modern postcard. This means that he has to somehow buy postcards under this price and then try and sell them for 50p and still make a profit. There are dedicated and knowledgeable modern collectors who realise that there are modern cards which are worth much more and who are willing to pay the true value (I happily parted with £6 for a smashing hovercraft card which was well worth that amount). Northern Territory in Australia (but then he was on holiday at the time - postcards beat any other form of correspondence). He very kindly informs me that these ants (he calls them 'critters') make nests in trees by folding leaves together. Joe and Christine King sent me a smashing series of poetry postcards issued by the BBC as part of a poetry season. Each card has a simple piece of artwork on the front which is representative of the poem featured on that card. There are also four or five lines from the featured poem on the front. Thankfully the poem is printed in full on the reverse side. I was sent ten cards (and unless anyone knows otherwise I assume that's the set) which have a wide range of writers including Wendy Cope, Robert Burns (the well known poem 'To a Mouse' 'Wee, sleekit, cow'rin tim'rous

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

1958 poster reproduced on a card published by The British Postal Museum & Archive issue, this design shows a painting of HMS Invincible, which in 1982 had been involved in the Falklands War (I know we are supposed to refer to it as a 'conflict' but soldiers died and one country was fighting another and in my mind that is a war!). As I keenly collect Falklands War postcards I was pleased to receive my copy and have placed it in my stack of items waiting to be mounted as a Falklands War display (which I will get around to mounting one day especially for the members of the Canterbury Postcard Club who have suffered six - yes six - displays by me but who still seem to want me back! - but I have currently run out of mounted material to show them).

Ryan’s postcards Moderns dealer Alan Bower was actually selling at Woking (see panel, left) a smashing set of postcards recently obtained from Ireland for what he had paid for them because he could not see how he could sell them for more, but they were so nice he wanted to have sets to sell. This was a special set of six postcards that were (are?) only available in

Terry Wilson has sent me a cracking postcard advertising an exhibit at the 'Gate Gallery' in Grimsby titled 'Long Distance Information….give me MEMPHIS TENNESSEE'. This was a display of digital illustrations by David Pitcher. The photograph on the front shows a black and white image of a female telephonist (from the good old days when you used to be asked to be connected with somewhere who remembers those days?) See what you think

my package complete and unopened (in 'mint condition' or as my granddaughter says - boring). I would love to have given these a go and if I ever come across any that have been 'played with' I shall buy them as examples and look at them longingly and wonder what fun I have missed out on!

which depicts a cracking Rupert Besley cartoon of Santa with his sleigh on the moon (one of the reindeers - clearly Rudolf as he has a red nose - is seen to be saying "So much for the satnav!") and no. 492, a lovely painting by J o h n

Postcard girls

Dingle, County Kerry. It was near here in Dunquin that the movie 'Ryan's Daughter' was filmed in 1968-9 (it’s now the 40th anniversary of the filming). The six sepia-toned photographs have a nostalgic look and depict some of the scenic views from the film and some of the stars (John Mills, Trevor Howard and Sarah Miles - no picture of the main star, Robert Mitchum, though). The area of the Dingle Peninsula gave the film some of its charm and these postcards show this. Bought in Dingle and believed exclusive to the area, these are the type of postcards that modern dealers bring our way and which we would not see any other way (so my thanks go to Alan for these). Just take a look at the houses shown in the background behind Trevor Howard, who is depicted dragging two naughty youths along by their ears, and you can just feel the quality that went into this film (it did win two Academy Awards after all).

Delcampe potential At the Postcard Show the internet sales site Delcampe had a stand where they showed visitors how to access the site and what sort of thing was on sale. Similar to the eBay idea, but without the costs, this site has a wide range of collectables on offer. I had a look and found more televisionrelated postcards here than on eBay, so the site is worth a look. Also around the hall, and on their stand, was a free advertising postcard for this web-site auction company. This was the company logo with a stamp, coin and postcard placed behind it, all on a green background. When I turned my copy over I saw that this was a dated card for 2009 and no. 3 in a series (although they call it an edition rather than a series), one of a 5,000 limited edition production. The design rang a bell, so when I got home I had a look through a couple of boxes and found a very similar one (same logo and items behind it) but this time with two large faded images of postcards in the background. This one had a very light brown background and was the year card for 2008 and was

Mac Publications postcard in their ‘Bygone Ireland’ series shown as Edition 1 in a limited number of 2,500 copies. What I want to know now is whether the edition 3 on the 2009 card means there have been two other editions this year or whether there is just one other card issued between the two different postcards I now have. Can any reader help? Whatever the outcome, these free postcards are welcome, and I can recommend this site as being well worth a look www.delcampe.net.

I was pleased to see Keith Edmondson's Freecard Gossip article back again last month, and it was interesting what he said about Boomerang issuing cards in sets of five. The all-girl pop group 'The Saturdays' have promoted their album 'Wordshaker' with promotional boomerang postcards. In my local cinema rack I found individual postcards for two of the girls in the group, Rochelle and Vanessa. I assume, naturally, that there are also cards for Una, Mollie and Frankie, who are the other three members of the group. I have some dou-

Magazine freebies It has been some time since I last mentioned any free postcards with magazine issues and there has been a bit of a decline in these. Regardless of that, a real cracker came out in August with a television connection. Lazy Town is an unusual children's programme from Iceland which has cast and crew from Iceland, America and Great Britain and which has now been shown in over 100 countries. The two main characters are Sportacus and Stephanie, and if you have children then there is every chance that you have seen at least one of the many shows. Issue no. 36 of 'Lazy Town' magazine (30th July - 26th August, £2.15) came with two attached free postcards. At first I did not grasp what these were and thought they were black and white colour in cards as each showed one of the two main characters in black and white on a colour scene background. What confused me initially was a number of little bags of coloured sand that came with the postcards! I now know that each segment of the character is actually a peeloff label and the area underneath is sticky. Over this you sprinkle the coloured sand and then shake off the excess. You then move your way through the various peel-off areas until you have used the sand to colour the whole character depicted on the postcard. This is a very unusual and quite magical concept which makes these true novelty postcards. Despite my eagerness to give this a go (kids have so much fun stuff these days) I have kept

Boomerang postcard promoting a new album bles of Rochelle and Vanessa and am looking to swap with anyone who can help me complete my set. If you have these two missing and have doubles of any I am missing then please get in contact as apparently 'Everyone Loves a Saturday' (as printed on the front of the cards!). I also have an interest in, and collect, some stamps, so read the monthly magazines including 'Stamp and Coin Mart'. Recently in copies sold by WH Smith they gave away a free postcard from The British Postal Museum & Archive poster series. This poster advertised buying stamps in stamp books and is an attractive 1958 design by Peter Huveneers. In the following issue there was a form you could send off for another free card from the series. These are interesting designs and if you can buy a set it is worth seeking out if this is your sort of stuff.

Pat’s last cards I just have to mention the smashing two Xmas postcards recently issued in the PH Topics series by Pat Holton. These are no. 491,

Pat Holton promotes the idea of using postcards as Christmas cards again with her PH Topics no. 492, designed by John Pulham Pulham of two children posting letters (Christmas cards?) into a wall-mounted post box (the added snow and robin create that 'Xmas' feel). A new Besley card is always greeted with pleasure, although a rare event unfortunately, and this one shows what we have been missing. Next year Pat is apparently due to release her last card when she hits the magical number 500. When this happens we will be losing one of our very special postcard people and it will be a sad day, but I wish her luck with whatever she moves onto. * You can contact Mark at 165 Raphael Drive, Shoeburyness, Southend on Sea, Essex SS3 9UR.

Picture Postcard Annual 2010 is now available at £4.75 with an up to date directory of dealers, fair organisers, auctions etc plus lots of features and articles, and a list of important 2010 postcard fairs. On sale from your favourite dealer or direct from the publishers at 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT (plus postage £1 UK, £2.50 Europe, £4.50 rest of world)

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Picture Postcard Sales List no. 9/09 Brian Lund Postcards, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT MODERNS (all coloured and in VG condition unless stated) 1. THE BEATLES. Mix of two sets pub’d London Postcard Co. (12 cards)..................£5 2. COCA-COLA advert set (6)...........................£2 3. DR. WHO mix pub’d Slow Dazzle Worldwide (10).................................................................£5 4. DUFEX Teddy Bear set (10).....................£4.50 5. EUROPE. Don’t let Europe rule Britannia! anti-EU sentiment pub’d This England magazine. Bulldog, flags etc. (4).............£1.20 6. HARRY POTTER artist-drawn images pub’d GB Posters (8)...............................................£3 7. PHQ no. 1. the scarce County Cricket design..........................................................£25 8. PICTURE POSTCARD SHOW 2008 souvenir cards/entry tickets with comic theme (6) CM.................................................................£3 9. PICTURE POSTCARD SHOW 2009 souvenir cards/entry tickets with seaside theme (6) CM.................................................................£3

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MODERN ARTISTS 10. TIM O’BRIEN. Cargo plane at Southend Airport.........................................................50p MODERN RAILWAY STATIONS 11. Bewdley pub’d Severn Valley Rly...........75p 12. Arley pub’d SVR.......................................75p 13. Crowcombe with train pub’d Judges.....40p 14. Crowcombe pub’d West Somerset Rly...40p 15. Dent pub’d Pedley....................................50p 16. Leyburn with train pub’d Wensleydale Railway.......................................................40p 17. Bridgnorth with train pub’d SVR.............75p 18. Ramsbottom with engine........................50p

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OLD POSTCARDS ARTISTS 19. Sylvia BARHAM pub’d CW Faulkner CG (4).................................................................£15 20. Stanley BERKELEY We kissed beneath pu 1904 VG.........................................................£2 21. Charles FLOWER. Canterbury ser. III Tuck Oilette 8934 CVG (2).....................................£4 22. FLOWER. Tuck Oilette - Cologne CVG...£2 23. T. GILSON Carry On CVG..........................£2 24. Lilian GOVEY Sister Susie’s sewing shirts pu 1916 CF.....................................................£3 25. Florence HARDY pub’d Misch ‘Little Friends’ pu 1914 CVG...................................£4 26. Suzanne MEUNIER. Parisian Girls no. 5018 CVG................................................................£6 27. Xavier SAGER watercolours 1st April theme - Avril Tendre (3) CG.......................£15 28. Lance THACKERAY. Tuck write-away 1765 An early Bird pu 1907 CG............................£5 29. THACKERAY. Tuck write-away 985 How is it you u/b pu 1905 CVG...................................£6 30. THACKERAY. Tuck write-away 542 I am delighted u/b pu 1903 CVG..........................£6

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SUBJECTS 31. ADVERTISING. Poster advert for Brighton CG................................................................£35 32. AVIATION. CL Temple, well-known aviator, with racing bike RP F................................£20 33. DR BARNADO funeral procession, animated RP pu 1905 VG...........................£25 34. CIRCUS. Les Rigolos de Barnum & Bailey pu 1903 VG..................................................£30 35. COLLECTION JOB. 1906 Calendar by Duvocelle VG..............................................£50 36. EARLY. Sandwich Men court size pub’d Beechings pu 1901.....................................£45 37. FATHER CHRISTMAS motoring design pub’d Birn Bros. CVG...................................£7 38. FATHER CHRISTMAS A Merry Yuletide. Santa & Angel CVG......................................£4 39. FILM STARS. Sepia RPs pub’d Woolstone Bros. in ‘Milton’ series, or by one of the film studios. Lionel Barrymore, Brian Aherne, Richard Arlen, Frank Lawton, Otto Kruger, Jan Kiepura, Edmund Lowe, Claude Hulbert, John Loder, Gyles Isham, William Lundigan, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Young, James Dunn, Carl Brisson, George Brent, Fred Macmurray, Larry (Buster) Crabbe, Richard Cortez, Jackie Cooper, Fredric March, Herbert Marshall, Warner

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28 Cheque with order, please. Refund sent on any items already sold. Satisfaction or refund. You can ring to order on 0115 937 4079 C = coloured M = mint condition VG = very good G= good F = fair

Order from Brian Lund Postcards address above. Order by Lot number. Postage in UK 50p extra per mailing. pub’d = published by pu = postally used c/u = close-up

Baxter, Tom Walls, Henry Wilcoxon, George Raft, Franchot Tone VG EACH.................. £1.25 40. FOOTBALL. Autographed RP of J. Parker, Nottm Forest £25 41. GOLF. RP of Henry Cotton in Switzerland 1940 G..£50 42. HATS. Birn Bros. design pu 1911 CVG...£2 43. LONDON LIFE. Tuck 612 After The Play u/b pu 1903 CVG...£5 38 44. MOTORING. AA road patrol assisting during floods pub’d AA RP VG..£30 45. RAILWAY, Woolwich Arsenal pub’d WH Smith pu 1908.............................................£20 46. TEMPERANCE. Advert for Grand Bazaar at Newcastle-on-Tyne Oct 1902 written by Guy Hayter, leading light of Temperance Movement CG.............................................£25 47. TOBACCO. Webster Cigars pictorial scene CF.................................................................£35 48. WOVEN SILK Hands across The sea RMS Victorian. Slight foxing. G..........................£40 TOPOGRAPHICAL. 49. BRIGHTON. Visit of Earl Beatty Oct 1922. Animated RP. G..........................................£40 50. DULVERTON, crowded street scene RP pub’d JH German pu 1908 G....................£40 51. LIVERPOOL playscene RP of ‘Strike’ alluding to local strike pub’d Carbonara G..................................................................£30 52. MANCHESTER, Radcliffe Parish Church procession & street scene RP pub’d locally VG................................................................£20 53. MANCHESTER, opening of Seymour Gardens, Hollingwood RP pu 1909 G.......£25 54. MANCHESTER. Close-up trams and lorry in RP street scene VG.....................................£18 55. ORMSKIRK crowded street scene RP VG................................................................£25 56. PARIS VECU - Le Marchand de Coco pu

Early posting dates Latest additions to our ongoing listing are as follows: Places *Leatherhead 20 May 1902 Overseas *Canada *Rhodesia

18 May 1887 15 July 1899

* indicates an earlier date than previously recorded. If you can contribute to this feature, please send photocopy of both sides of any submitted postcard. The important side is the picture - the location of the postmark is irrelevant. The latest updated listing appears in 2010 Picture Postcard Annual. 1907 VG......................................................£30 57. PARIS. Motor car excursion outside Thos. Cook offices with crowd VG.......................£35 58. SOUTHALL railway station int. RP pu 1913 VG................................................................£30 59. TOOTING Broadway animated street scene pub’d Johns pu 1925 with tram, horsedrawn vehicles VG.....................................£35 60. WANTAGE Tramway RP pub’d Chapman VG................................................................£35 61. WELLS. 1909 Royal visit RP pub’d Dawkes & Partridge VG............................................£45

Unusual postcards from Edwardian publisher This old picture postcard is obviously in bad taste, and we don’t wish to be flippant about a very serious subject but we spotted this postcard published by the Pictorial Stationery Co. of London in their ‘Peacock’ series c.1905. This is no. 18 - does anyone know who represented the first 17 or any later numbers?

The earliest Rhodesian postcard (until someone turns up an older one!) , posted at Bulawayo in July 1899. The card was published by the Press Association, 21 St. George’s Square, London. New Pictorial Postal Cards Edward Hill sent news of Queensland’s first postcards, published by the state’s Post Office. The information comes from The Brisbane Courier of 24 June 1898: “We have been shown some advance proofs of the pictorial postcards which the Postmaster General (Hon. W.H. Willson) has decided to issue, with a view to inviting the attention of persons residing outside the Colony to the scenery and products of Queensland. The first series, comprising eighteeen views of Queensland scenery and products, which are very handsome, will be issued to the public today....”

FERNDOWN Postcard Club’s first October meeting featured an evening of Bugs, Butterflies, Bees and Birds, followed by a session of six sheets in two minutes of postcards. What a selection! There were cards showing missionary work in Papua & New Guinea, the 1939 Mailomat machine used by the U.S. Post Office, cards from Brunei featuring pipework taking water to the town, pop-up letter cards and even more butterflies. The 35th Division of Irish volunteers in World War One competed with highly sought-after camp postmarks, WW1 armoured vehicles of the Royal Naval air Service, natives of Singapore, early views of Boscombe, and Sonning Lock.

Contributors and advertisers are advised that the January 2010 edition of PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY Y will be published on December 20th. Deadline for copy is December 10th. Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 51

Cultural and Entertainment Freecards It would be wrong of me, writes Keith Edmondson, to imply that cultural freecards are something new. The French freecard scene is dominated by cards advertising Film Festivals, Museum events, Theatre programmes etc and in this column at the same time last year when I reviewed some of the cards of 2008 I included a Boomerang card for an exhibition at the Museum in Docklands and one for Proms in the Park. Perhaps it is the fact that this year there have been fewer cards distributed that there appear to be more cultural and entertainment cards in the racks, and in the London area Boomerang and Big Smoke Media look as though they have tagged on to specific customers for promoting their events.

National Gallery promotional card

illustrated for “Sister Act”, “We Will Rock You” and “Treasure Island” at various

Big Smoke Media include among their customers the National Gallery, The Dali Universe and The Animation Art Gallery, and three cards issued during the year are illustrated. Only the “Renaissance Faces” event at the National

racks advertising the Michael Jackson Opus. The cards gave a discount of £50 on the list price of £199 for the book. By the time you read this the cards will probably have long since gone but I suspect there will still be plenty of copies of the book available.

Students are targeted by this advertising postcard Gallery is a postable card. The reason, however, for illustrating a not particularly good card in terms of image reproduction, from the Animation Art Gallery is the reference in the top right hand corner to “postcard not for sale”. At least I am not the only one to consider this as being a “postcard” even if you cannot strictly post it. Boomerang cultural and entertainment clients

included the British Library, one of four cards illustrated for the “Talking Liberties” event earlier in the year, and the RSC, one of two cards illustrated for “Arabian Nights” currently at the Courtyard Theatre in StratfordUpon-Avon until the end of January. There have over the year, however, been many Boomerang cards for shows and four are

Royal Shakespeare Co. publicity London Theatres plus one for the touring “ABBA the Show”. At the time of preparing this column at the beginning of November Boomerang were distributing a set of six cards in their cinema

This Michael Jackson card is likely to be in demand from collectors

These postcards featuring high-profile performances make an interesting addition to a related postcard collection

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COST

Classified

Lineage: 16p per word per month (1-3 insertions) 13p per word per month (4 or more consecutive insertions without text change) e.g. 12 words: £1.92 for 1 month, £3.84 for 2 months, £5.76 for 3 months, £6.24 for 4 months, £7.80 for 5 months, £9.36 for 6 months. Minimum cost of single insertion £1.50. Minimum cost of multiple insertions £1.20 per month. Semi-display (boxed) £7.50 for 3 col. cms, £1.75 each extra col. cm. (price includes lineage). These rates are inclusive of V.A.T. PAYMENT: All classified adverts should be prepaid. When calculating cost, do not count street number, and calculate tel. no./postal code as one word each. PRESENTATION: Please type or write advert clearly, underlining words required in bold. Include your name (and not just an address) within the advert. TRADE ADVERTISING: Traders advertising for postcards in the ‘wanted’ section must conclude their advert thus: (T) if they require postcards for resale and expect trade discount/prices from other dealers. This avoids any misunderstanding by prospective vendors. Dealers who fail to comply with this instruction will in future be refused advertising space. ALTERATIONS: If any changes are required in an advert, or it is to be resumed after a break, please make sure you resubmit the whole advert.

POSTCARDS WANTED HULL CITY FC postcards wanted: team groups, players and crowds. N. Turner, 21 Wolfreton Mews, Willerby, Hull HU10 6PW. Email: [email protected] LYDNEY, CINDERFORD, COLEFORD, Mitcheldean, all Forest of Dean areas, Gloucestershire. Brian Clutterbuck, 32 Templeway West, Lydney, Glos GL15 5JD. Tel. 01594841206. FOWEY, FOWEY, FOWEY, Cornwall. Quality postcards, photos and ephemera wanted. Marcus Lewis 01726 832089. Mobile 07973 420568. [email protected] LEICESTERSHIRE STATION INTERIORS RPs - GNR, GWR, GCR. Royal Leicestershire Regiment scenes. Better Shipping cards: Liners, Warships, Cargo; British, german, American, Russian, Japanese. Nazi zeppelins, Nazi propagande, Irish political cards 1920s. RPs of port scenes - Humber, Liverpool, Tyne, Jarrow, Dublin, Cork, hamburg, Barrow. German Uboats WW1, WW2. Harry Potterton, 63 Keyham Lane West, Leicester LE5 1RS. Tel. 0116 243 3444. CASTLES. Appreciative price paid for postcard of Dinas Powis Castle. Harry Welchman, 19 Orchard Crescent, Dinas Powis, South Glamorgan CF64 4JZ. Phone 029-20512439. A.R. QUINTON 2986, £00’s reward! P. Cove, Sanjoby, Eype, Dorset DT6 6AP. MORETON - LEASOWE - SEACOMBE. New Brighton, Liscard, Wallasey, Birkenhead, Upton, Hoylake, Rock Ferry, New Ferry, Bebington, West Kirby, Bromborough, Cammell Laird. L. Clow, 52 Saughall Road, Moreton, Wirral CH46 5NG. WELSH WAR MEMORIALS - dedications especially. Graham Farthing, 106 Ashridge Way, Morden, Surrey SM4 4ED. POSTCARDS OF FULHAM plus Fulham-associated football. John Martin, 1 The Rise, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5PT.

PPM keeps you in touch with the postcard world!

MADEIRA ISLAND POSTCARDS all types 1894-1950s. Shipping at Madeira + photos large and small 1880-1930s + travel albums. J.R. De Silva, 147 Buxton Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire SK7 6AN. CRICKET - anything considered. Local teams if named or located. Approvals to - G. Jennings, 4 Henry Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham - Postage refunded.

PIERROTS, MINSTREL TROUPES AND CONCERT PARTIES (1860-1 1930) wanted by private collector Postcard collections, ephemera. Any condition. Uncle Tacko! Cleveland House, Cleveland Place, Dawlish, Devon EX79HZ E-m mail: uncle@prom-p prom.com DENTAL POSTCARDS wanted. Also postcards from LUXEMBOURG. Postage always refunded. John Lesch, 133 Rue E. Beres, L-1232 Howald, Luxembourg. NORWAY. Early cards/Postal History - Scott Simpson, 14 Dower Road, Sutton Coldfield B75 6UA. Email: [email protected]

PALESTINE I am a collector looking for all series from all periods. Please send even single cards. I will usually pay your price plus your postage costs, or I will exchange for your own subject David Pearlman 788-7 790 Finchley Road London NW11 7TJ Tel: 020-8 8201-8 8998 email: david@centrum-u uk.com

GREECE Postcard collector seeking all areas of any subject relating to Greece including Costumes, Personalities, Royalty, Ships, Trains, Cartoons, Art, etc. etc. Prompt response J. Tsatsas, 1A Netherhall Gardens, London NW3 5RN

YORKSHIRE CRICKETERS AND CRICKET TEAMS. Private collector. Details to: Ron Deaton, 20 Hill Top Road, Harrogate HG1 3AN. 01423 507690. DEVON AND CORNWALL cards required. J.R. Adams, 2 Devon Square, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 2HN. BLACK & WHITE SCOTTISH VILLAGE and town views, especially Angus, Fife, islands, plus Hallowe’en, posted Caymans, Sudan. Chad Neighbor, 8 Dalgarno Park, Hillside, Montrose DD10 9JF. (T). Email:- [email protected] SYNAGOGUES (WORLDWIDE) JEWISH PALESTINE (PRE-1 1948) BRITISH FORCES PALESTINE JEWISH STREET SCENES (W WORLDWIDE) PALESTINE HOTELS (INC. CACHETS) GRUSS AUS PALESTINE OR Any other interesting postcards on a Jewish or Palestine theme eagerly sought by collector. For immediate response please write to: Adrian Andrusier c/o Sheldon Monk & Co. Ltd., 15-1 19 Cavendish Place, London W1G 0DX or telephone 020-7580 5866

KEYWORTH & PLUMTREE postcards wanted, please, on approval. Help me improve our collection! I’d also like any postally used cards sent to an address in either village 1900-11. Brian Lund, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT. SUFFOLK, NORFOLK and Cambridgeshire Postcards published by F.G. Pawsey & Co. Ltd and Langhorn Pawsey & Co. (L.P. & Co.) of Bury St. Edmunds. Bob Pawsey, 82 Westerfield Road, Ipswich IP4 2XN. Tel: 01473 252893.

MEXICAN POSTCARDS WANTED Single cards or collections Contact: Grenville Collins Flat 81, 95 Wilton Road London SW1V 1BZ Tel. 020 7834 1852 e-mail: [email protected] WANTED - Postcards (modern & old) & ephemera of Tenerife, Canary Islands & Spain in general. We pay with UK cheque. Please contact before sending on approval to: Sophie Baillon, PORTOBELLO, Cruz Chica 84, Guamasa, La Laguna. 38330. Tenerife. (T). [email protected] skype-rastrilloportobello. BURNLEY, PADIHAM, EAST LANCS, BURNLEY F.C. Photographic postcards always required. Prompt response, postage refunded. Mark Yates, 8 Shakespeare Street, Padiham, Lancs BB12 8SN. Email:[email protected] SOUTHPORT and SUBURBS BIRKDALE, AINSDALE, CROSSENS, CHURCHTOWN Single items and collections welcome. Postage refunded IAN SIMPSON 55 LARKFIELD LANE SOUTHPORT LANCASHIRE PR9 8NN Tel: 01704-2 227765 [email protected] GOULBORNS, old Millgate, Manchester. Postcards of skittle alley, cheese store etc. K. Warrender, 36 Moss Lane, Timperley, Cheshire WA15 6SZ. CHANNEL ISLANDS: vintage and modern cards wanted. Any quantity considered. P. Dunn, 12 Wyndham Crescent, Burton upon Trent, Staffs DE15 0DF. Tel: 01283 845190

EARLS COLNE, WHITE COLNE & COLNE ENGAINE, CHAPPEL & WAKES COLNE (ESSEX) Good R.P. cards always required

Gerry Kelly, 20 Waldemar Avenue, Norwich, NR6 6TB Phone: 01603 417961 E-mail: [email protected]

PORTLING, PORT O’WARREN - in Kirkcudbrightshire wanted. Brian Cox, Kirknewton House, Kirknewton, Wooler NE71 6XF or [email protected]. GERMANY - All areas and subjects particularly aviation up to 1945. P. Dickerson, 20 Easson Road, Redcar, TS10 1HJ. INDEX CARD & CARDS 3 & 5 of series 5 Misch & Co. “The Holy Scriptures” Old Testament. Also any cards of New Testament Series. A. Butterick 01483 769974, 07706 190604. Walnut Tree House, Kingfield Road, Woking, Surrey GU22 9DZ. SUSSEX RAILWAY STATIONS: Ardingly, Barcombe, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Horsted Keynes, Lewes, Newick & Chailey, Sheffield Park and West Hoathly. Send cards/photographs to J. Young, 28 The Garstons, Bookham, Surrey KT23 3DS. Postage refunded. NORFOLK AND NORWICH CINEMA postcards and ephemera wanted. P. Yaxley, ‘Polperro’, Silfield Road, Wymondham, Norfolk NR18 9AU. (Tel: 01953 603549). ITALY POSTCARDS WANTED also postcards of all other countries, world postal history and postmarks Single items, collections and accumulations welcome RICHARD GEE 7 Brooks Malting, Kiln Lane, Manningtree CO11 1HP Tel: 01206 393682 Mobile: 077987 48350 email: [email protected] FRENCH & ITALIAN anti-Kaiser postcards. Graham Farthing, 106 Ashridge Way, Morden, Surrey SM4 4ED. GOOD PRICES PAID for postcards of Stockwood Park, Bedfordshire, and Stoke Edith, Herefordshire. Alan Hamblin, 50 Overstone Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 5PJ. Tel. 01582-763571. ANY AIRPORTS & AIRLINE ISSUED PROPELLOR aircraft wanted. Mike Charlton, 4 South East Farm, Horsley NE15 0NT. Email: [email protected] or www.aviationpostcard.co.uk SALVATION ARMY postcards wanted. David Pickard, 1 Beauval Road, East Dulwich, London SE22 8UG. Tel: 020 8693 2585. BOY SCOUTS/BADEN POWELL. (Cards, Badges, Memorabilia). Comic & Greetings cards of Plymouth area and Royal Air Force. Graham Brooks, 28 Rawlin Close, Eggbuckland, Plymouth PL6 5TF. Tel. 01752 774467.

WANTED: REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS OF PEOPLE Seeking quality RP cards of individuals or groups: all classes and kinds. Portrait and Social History type; formal or informal. Must be postcard backed and British. No commercially published cards. TOM PHILLIPS 57 TALFOURD ROAD LONDON SE15 5NN Phone 020 7701 3978 Fax 020 7703 2800 [email protected]

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 53

POSTCARDS WANTED NORWICH, STACY ROAD. Postcard urgently wanted. Julie Jakeway. Tel. 01603-437411. DOGS wanted, any breeds considered but no Bonzo, Comic or Puppies, thanks. John Rolfe, 39 Combe Avenue, Blackheath, London SE3 7PZ.

SHROPSHIRE, CHESHIRE, STAFFORDSHIRE, WORCESTERSHIRE All postcards wanted Top prices paid for better and RP cards PHIL JONES T.P.S 6 PASTEUR DRIVE, LEEGOMERY, TELFORD TF1 6PQ Tel/Fax 01952-223926 e-mail [email protected] BULLDOGS Comic, Patriotic, Real Photo anything considered. Approvals to - G. Jennings, 4 Henry Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham. Postage refunded. BARTON, YORKS. Cards are marked Barton, Yorks, or Barton, Darlington. Related interest, groups of soldiers at Catterick Camp. W. Robotham, 17 Marygate, Barton, Richmond, North Yorkshire DL10 6LD. Tel. 01325-377772. PADDY THE IRISHMAN wants any good quality Irish cards you have for sale. Paddy Macken, 10 Villa Park Road, Dublin 7. DULWICH, CAMBERWELL, CATFORD postcards wanted. David Pickard, 1 Beauval Road, London SE22 8UG. Telephone 020 8693 2585. BATCHES OF INTERESTING UNLOCATED UK topo. Must be clueful and reasonably priced. Postage refunded. Nigel Bown, 45 Eastern Avenue, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 3WL.

ISLE OF MAN, GIBRALTAR, SCOOTERING. Quality cards desired. MAX COLLISTER, 20 CREGGAN LEA, PORT ST MARY, ISLE OF MAN IM9 5BE Tel: 01624 832062 HULL CITY FC postcards wanted: team groups, players and crowds. N. Turner, 21 Wolfreton Mews, Willerby, Hull HU10 6PW. Email: [email protected] DISS & DISTRICT, 5 miles radius, especially villages of Burston, Shimpling, Palgrave, Dickleburgh, Scole, Winfarthing and Tibenham. Also Crested China of Diss, and Norfolk & Suffolk railway stations. D. Cross, 60 Uplands Way, Diss IP22 4DF. Tel. 01379-651897. MOELFRE, ANGLESEY postcards of lifeboat & crew wanted, pre1945 only. Approvals, scans, copies. Richard Roberts, 8207 Regency Drive, Pleasanton, CA 94588, U.S.A. [email protected] DAPPER JUVENILE DELINQUENTS? Dashing hooligans? Stylish, punky criminals? Photos? Negatives? (1850-1940). Mr. Hartnett, Brewery, 19 Brow Road, Haworth BD22 8LD. EXHIBITION CARDS wanted by collector, especially cards of stands and advertising cards, no foreign exhibitions wanted. Also Church Missionary cards, Crystal Palace, and topo’s for the following areas: Anerley, Beckenham, Elmers End, Hayes, Keston, Penge and West Wickham. Postage paid. Bill Tonkin, 23 Bramley Way, West Wickham, Kent BR4 9NT.

54

MALE FASHION Photographic 1870 - 1950 Tintypes? Cabinets? CDVs? Real photo postcards? Quality silver gelatin photog graphs? Private collector seeks sharp, clear images depicting changing male fashions - tailoring styles, hairstyle trends, ‘looks’. From casual (farm/factory/occupational workwear and sportswear) to traditional/formal (‘suited and booted’, starched collars, bow ties, top hat ‘n’ tails, fancy dress, ‘eccentrics’). No commercially published visuals, please. Approvals welcome and dealt with promptly, postage refunded. Mr Paul Hartnett, The Old Brewery, 19 Brow Road, Haworth, Yorkshire, BD22 8LD Questions? Tel: 01535 646 985 or via [email protected].

Postcards of GHOSTS or HAUNTED PLACES required by serious collector - must either show apparition or text refer to haunting No Halloween, comic or Cornish Litany please Also looking for GWR ‘Legendland’ series Approvals welcomed and dealt with promptly, postage refunded G.M Wheeldon, 9 Ashtree Court, Feltham Hill Road, Ashford, Middlesex TW15 2BU Tel: 01784 246399 (eve) RAILWAY PHOTOGRAPHS, POSTCARDS, EPHEMERA, books and relics required. N.J. Bridger, The Warren, Curridge, Newbury, Berkshire RG18 9DN. Tel: 01635 200507. (T).

LITERATURE QUANTITY OF PPM back numbers early 1990s available. Contact Peter on 0208-300-3705. CARTES POSTALES ET COLLECTION, the French magazine for postcard collectors, costs £5.30 inc postage. CARD TIMES is the regular monthly magazine for cigarette card collectors. Current issue and back numbers £3.05 each (inc. postage). Reflections, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT. PICTURE POSTCARD ANNUAL 2010 is now available at £4.75 plus postage, with an up to date directory of dealers, fair organisers, auctions etc plus lots of features and articles, and a list of important 2010 postcard fairs. On sale from your favourite dealer or direct from the publishers at 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT (postage £1 UK, £3 Europe, £5.50 rest of world)

Got a point of view or something to say? Write to PPM Postbag!

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

POSTCARDS FOR SALE 12,000 UK POSTCARDS for sale as one lot, unsorted. They are part of a large collection of cards accumulated over 38 years by rare bookseller Anah Dunsheath in Auckland. If any dealer has connections with New Zealand, maybe visiting for holiday, please get in touch to view.

ALSO for sale in lots. 4600 EUROPEAN POSTCARDS 1500 USA 500 SOUTH AFRICAN [email protected] Tel. ++64 21 934 016 or P.O. Box 4181, Auckland 1140 New Zealand LISTS. Topographical - England, Ireland, Wales, Channel Islands. Detailed lists including condition. Please state interests and send SAE. Ken Simson, 14 Old Farm Road East, Sidcup, DA15 8AE. [email protected] BARRY WRIGHT - part exchange vintage postcards & coins. www.barandshe.clara.net

EBAY SELLER: GLOBALHISTORY

WEB SITES [email protected] BARRY WRIGHT - part exchange vintage postcards & coins. www.barandshe.clara.net PAT HOLTON (PH TOPICS). Give Moderns a Go! www.phtopics.clara.net FOR A SELECTION of quality topographical and photographic postcards visit www.footstepspostcards.co.uk [email protected] BARRY WRIGHT - part exchange postcards, covers, postal history - sent on approval. www.barandshe.clara.net

*Oldpostcards.com* All Topics - take advantage of weak US Dollar, Buy

Oldpostcards.com Email: [email protected]

Accept: Credit Cards, Paypal, Western Union POSTCARDENMARK Vintage Quality Postcards www.delcampe.net/stores/postcardenmark PIPWICK’S CHURCH POSTCARD SHOP now on ebay.co.uk with over 40,000 church postcards also available directly from Pip Barker. Send wants list to: [email protected] or phone 07778-560241. www.internetpostcards.co.uk UK topographical sales, approvals, wanted lists. Auction lots bought. Website updated weekly.

www.postcardworld.co.uk

BARGAIN BUNDLES! 20 postcards for £7 inc. post; A-Z of Counties, Foreign, Subject & Moderns available. Send SAE for sales list. Tom Carr, 8 Church Road, Thorrington, Essex CO7 8HH. Tel. 01206 250881. 20 GENUINE OLD DONALD McGILL POSTCARDS £15 inc. post; also Bamforths, Pedro, Mike, Xerxes, Trow, Flip, Wilkins and many other saucy Sixties postcards 50p each. Eric Kent, 8 The Croft, Flitwick, Bedfordshire MK45 1DL. Tel. 01525-752222.

VINTAGE POSTCARDS FOR SALE Visit my online shop at http://alfapostcards.com 1000’s still to list Colin Williams 31 Rivington Drive Burscough, Lancashire L40 7RN 01704-895056

FAIRS NOTTINGHAM Postcard, Cigarette Card & Ephemera Fair at Harvey Hadden Sports Centre, Wigman Road, Bilborough, Nottingham. Sunday 7th February 2010 from 10am to 5pm. 50+ postcard dealers including moderns specialists. Postcard display competition.. Admission £1 (to ‘Children in Need’. Contact Reflections on 0115 937 4079 or see our website www.postcardcollecting.co.uk for more details and locator map.

Try a PPM Classified!

Visit Postcard World for many surprises. We have thousands of vintage subject and UK topographical cards on offer here on our site. All of our cards are illustrated for your interest and information and we trust that this will add to your enjoyment of Postcard World. Please browse around and hopefully you will find something of interest. Our website is updated weekly so bookmark us and visit regularly Deryk and Brenda Whitfield 5 Gipsy Close Balsall Common, West Midlands CV7 7FU www.postcardworld.co.uk DALKEITH POSTCARDS for Railway and Shipping see:www.dalkeithpostcards.co.uk M.E.P. POSTCARDS. www.meppostcards.co.uk. Modern specialists. www.ukpostcards.com POSTCARDENMARK. Vintage quality postcards. www.stores.ebay.co.uk/postcardenmark

Scotland starts November www.Postcards-ffor-S Sale.com 8,500 images of Great Britain with details and prices. Art cards listed by number Sylvia/John Jones On-lline daily for queries www.grbcollectables.com www.carlton-a antiques.com www.peterspostcards.co.uk for interesting and unusual old paper collectables.

SHOPS PAGE POSTCARDS at HUNGERFORD ARCADE Only 5 minutes from the M4 (Junction 14)

A constantly of UK, Foreign and Subject postcards - also some stamps, postal history and ephemera.

20% discount on purchases over £50 HUNGERFORD ARCADE (Unit 7) 26 HIGH STREET HUNGERFORD BERKSHIRE RG17 0NF

Opening Times: Monday to Friday - 9.15 to 5.30 Saturday - 9.15 till 6.00 Sunday - 11.00 till 5.00

Sunny EASTBOURNE has a Collectors’ Shop, trading in a wide range of collectables. Over 40,000 OLD POSTCARDS always in stock. Also stamps, coins & medals, cigarette cards, toys, silver, ephemera SORRY NO APPROVALS Open Tues and Sat 10 - 5 Other times by appointment

“FRANCOIS” 26 South Street, Eastbourne, Sussex Tel: (01323) 644464 (Home) 01323-646694 after 6 pm

POSTCARDS CIGARETTE CARDS BOOKS PRINTS STAMPS ACCESSORIES GRAHAM LEADLEY LITTLE PERFORATIONS 59 HIGH ROAD WORMLEY, HERTS EN10 6JJ 01992-467631 Over 35 years at this address OPEN WEEKENDS Please ring first if travelling any distance

AUTOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATED BI-M MONTHLY AUTOGRAPH SALES LIST issued in aid of Children in Hunger. Send SAE for a copy to L. Marchant, 40 Cornard Road, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2XA.

WEB SITES

SHOPS

APPROVALS

COLLECTABLES YARD. Books, [email protected] BARRY ephemera, photos, prints, post- WRIGHT - part exchange postcards on all subjects plus bric-a- cards, covers, postal history - sent brac. De Silva, 2B Stockport Road, on approval. Cheadle SK8 2AA. Tel. 0161- www.barandshe.clara.net 4832086 or 07950-547243. NEW APPROVAL SERVICE. All categories and subjects. Postcards, photos and prints, books and PcPostcards ephemera. Wants list to CollecWe have now re-llocated tables Yard, Rear of 2B Stockport Our premises are now at the Road, Cheadle SK8 2AA. Tel. 0161side of The Foley Hotel 483-2086 or 07950-547243 CARLTON ANTIQUES (evenings). R/O 12 Worcester Road,

Foley Bank, MALVERN, Worcestershire WR14 4QU (open weekends and afternoons) Parking at rear on weekends only (Tel: 01684 573092) Cig cards, Books, China, Dinky Toys etc Over 5000 cards on our Website www.Pcpostcards.co.uk We specialise in Web Site Sales: Site updated every week Overseas Customers Especially Welcome (Ebay Trader - PcPostcards)

APPROVALS SERVICE for z ALL SUBJECTS FROM ACTRESSES TO ZOOs z UK TOPO, including topo art. NO MODERNS. NO FOREIGN. Send your wants list to Mike Pearl 10 Peter’s Close Prestbury Macclesfield SK10 4JQ

EPHEMERA

FOSTERS OF FILEY When visiting the East Coast please call in for:- Postcards, Stamps, Postal History, FDC’s and small collectables 28 BELLE VUE STREET, FILEY, NORTH YORKSHIRE YO14 9HY 01723 514433 Open Mon, Tues, Fri, Sat WARWICK ANTIQUE CENTRE 22 HIGH ST., WARWICK CV34 4AP Comprehensive range of 25,000 + postcards Good stocks of Coins, Banknotes, Cigarette Cards, FDCs, accessories, including postcard cases etc Buy, sell, exchange Mon-Sat 10am-5pm 01926 491382

ORIGINAL ARTWORK WANTED: ORIGINAL COMIC POSTCARD ARTWORK by the likes of Pedro, Taylor, Fitzpatrick & McGill etc. Top prices paid by private collector. Call David on 01903 234432 or 07961 795333.

Don’t miss out on a single copy of PPM - take out a subscription or place a regular order with your supplier PLEASE MENTION PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY WHEN REPLYING TO ADVERTISERS

Looking for vintage old postcards? Please visit our online shop

www.hoogeduinpostcards.com Jac. Verloop, Schoolstraat 1, 2202 HC Noordwijk, The Netherlands Tel: +31 71 3617568

POSTCARDS, EPHEMERA, BOOKS Send for latest free catalogue which includes a large section of British topographical postcards or see web site www.paperbygones.co.uk PAPER BYGONES PO BOX 4443, BOURNEMOUTH BH5 1ZX Tel: 01202 302842

AUCTIONS FOR THE DALKEITH AUCTIONS CATALOGUE please go to www.dalkeithcatalogue.com. If you are not on the net and would like a copy of our monthly auction catalogue phone 01202 292905. LODDON AUCTIONS. Long established May and Nov/Dec auctions, regularly with 600+ lots comprising a wide range of printed material. Catalogues £3 by post. Entries invited. Enquiries to G. Arkell, 39 Falmouth Road, Reading, Berks RG2 8QR. Tel: 0118 9611915 (evenings).

MODERNS WANTED TEDS? MODS? ROCKERS? Skinheads? Prints? Negatives? Mr. Hartnett, Brewery, 19 Brow Road, Haworth BD22 8LD.

MODERNS FOR SALE MINT STANDARD SIZE from 1960s/70s: Tom Browne Nurses reprints, Medici (Children, Artists, Salmon, Rural), Maps etc. SAE for list. Ruthven 01708-760049.

M.E.P. POSTCARDS (Moderns) John & Margaret Pearsall Most Subjects Stocked - Lists Available Free Monthly Stock Additions List Fairs Attended - Refer to Website or Contact Direct 34, Franche Road, Wolverley, Kidderminster, Worcs DY11 5TP Tel: (01562) 850915 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.mep-postcards.co.uk

POSTMARKS POSTMARKS WANTED Stamp, Postcard & Postal History Dealers urgently require English, Welsh, Scots postmarks on cards/ envelopes for re-sale to collectors. Must be clear impressions: Squared Circles, Duplexes, R.S.O.’s especially wanted. Highest prices paid, send for our offer.

BAY STAMPS Nigel Davidson Freepost, Rogart, Sutherland IV28 3BR Tel. 01408-641747 Contributors and advertisers are advised that the January 2010 edition of PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY will be published on December 20th. Deadline for copy is December 10th.

HOSPISCARE CHARITY (reg no. 297798) This month’s sale of bargain packs of modern cards include (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15)

Pack of 50 UK/IRELAND MAPS (all different) @ £5.00 Pack of 50 MALDIVES (mixed used/unused) @ £7.50 Pack of 50 DISNEY (faces and places, all different) @ £5.00 Pack of 50 (ART UNLIMITED) unused, all different, new from Holland @ £5.00 Pack of 100 SHROPSHIRE @ £5.00 Pack of 100 FRITH old and new @ £5.00 Pack of 500 WILTSHIRE (heavy in tourist areas) @ £7.50 Pack of 500 NORFOLK (GOLDEN AGE SIZE) @ £20.00 Pack of 100 NEW ZEALAND (mixed used/unused) @ £5.00 Pack of 100 HORSES @ £7.50 Pack of 500 U.S.A. (golden age size) @ £10.00 Pack of 100 BOOMERANG (all different), (many out of print) @ £1.00 Pack of 100 FOREIGN FREECARDS (all different) @ £1.00 FULL SALES LIST FREE OF CHARGE UNWANTED/UNLOVED (1-1000) no charge except for postage

Invoices will be sent with orders and postage/packing added. Order from Alan Nethercott at P.O.Box 268, EXETER EX2 9ZS or telephone/telex 07800 841 816 or email [email protected]. Single cards available on approval. Please ask for details.

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 55

K Books J Wales in the Golden Age of Picture Postcards (David Gwynn) sounds a pretty daunting challenge. How to cover a large country in one 96-page volume and under 200 postcards? Nevertheless, in this recentlypublished book from Amberley Publishing, David has a good stab at putting across Welshness through the medium of postcards, all in full colour or sepia. His aim, he says in the introduction, is to “examine the range of postcards that were sold in Wales in the early years of the 20th century”. In essence this is a tourist’s view of Wales, which after all is part of what picture postcards have always been about. The author begins with pageants and patriotism, showing Welsh wizard Lloyd George before Welshness: the lady and the bridge on moving on to card ref. 31 published by ETW Dennis of Welsh women Scarborough. The artist was Warren in national cos- Williams tume and a generous 19 pages of comic Clubscene extra postcards. Then we travel to the various parts of Wales WEST KENT and a succession of touristy NORTH-W a talk and postcards. In truth, the enjoyed selection is fairly pre- slideshow by Tony Farnham dictable, with few examples on ‘The Romance of Lonof what postcard collectors don’s River’. He featured call ‘gems’, but then these barges, people and places are not the cards the gener- on the Thames starting al public might empathise from Shoeburyness and with or buy a book of. To ending at Sonning. Tony the bookshop browser, a worked on the sailing card of Llandudno’s Great barges when he was a Orme and Happy Valley young man and so has firstwould strike a more familiar hand knowledge of life for chord than a real photo- those working the barges. CANTERBURY & EAST graphic animated back street of downtown Rhyl. KENT’s AGM was an upbeat There are postcards of affair, with chairman Roger South Wales industry, but Stone in optimistic mood, that is part of outsiders’ and all officers returned for perceptions of early 20th another year. Then guest century Wales. Having said speaker Douglas Chapman that, it would have been gave the club an insight into nice to have found a bit lesser-known aspects of Cathedral. more information about the Canterbury These included the curious card publishers or artists in the captions (my pet gripe!). story of murdered ArchbishThomas Becket’s In all, a pleasant tour of op Wales - but hang on - there remains. are no cards of rugby or singing? What’s going on? - z Tim Ward of Put The Clock back postcard fame B.L. launched his latest book at Ross-on-Wye and * ISBN 978 1 84868 303 7. 96pp. both £12.99. Amberley Publishing, Presteigne last month. EntiCirencester Road, Stroud, Glos tled Roses around the door? GL6 8PE. the book looks at rural images of Herefordshire from 1830-1930. Naturally, The NORTH WALES club postcard images loom large enormously enjoyed a talk - of harvesting and hopfrom auctioneer David picking, cidermaking and Rogers-Jones. He focused cattle breeding, blackon social history and smiths, beekeepers and notable bills (like the 1946 basket-makers. Tim has bill for a week’s treatment done painstaking research and maintenance at Banto unearth the stories gor Hospital, £6-7s-3d) and behind the pictures and also confessed himself a ‘noscharts the history of the tagia nutter’. agricultural unions.

56

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

Military photographs and how to date them (Neil Storey) is published by Countryside Books. So many postcard collectors look for military cards, either as a regimental or war interest, or as part of family history research, but find that many photos of groups or individuals are uncaptioned or unidentified. At last a book has come along that could save them time and trouble in unearthing the origins of some of those frustratingly anonymous postcards. The author, a Military and Social Historian of 25 years’ experience, offers advice on how to identify military uniforms, ranks, badges, insignia, medals and equipment, and because he specifically covers the period 18701940, the information is particularly relevant to the postcard scene. A wealth of photos, many taken from postcards, guides the reader through the complexities of soldierspotting, with big sections on the Edwardian era and the First World War. Many are naturally from studio or army camp photographers, and fortunately the participants in these situations normally showed off their uniforms proudly and prominently, to make identification easier. Neil Storey’s detailed text explains the nuances of dress and insignia in this very useful publication. B.L. * ISBN 978 1 84674 152 4. 192pp softback, £12.99. Countryside Books, Highfield House, 2 Highfield Avenue, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 5DS.

Special reader offer: Countryside Books, the publishers, are offering copies of MILITARY PHOTOGRAPHS & HOW TO DATE THEM to Picture Postcard Monthly readers at a special price of £10.99 - £2 off the cover price of £12.99 - inclusive of postage and packing. If you would like a copy, please print your name, address and the title of the book you want clearly on a sheet of paper and send it with a cheque (payable to Countryside Books) to Picture Postcard Monthly Offer, Countryside Books, 2 Highfield Avenue, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 5DS. Tel: Newbury (01635) 43816 - e-mail address: [email protected]. uk

Right: investigating the military with Neil Storey

OBITUARY Ron Linsdell, long-standing supporter of Northamptonshire Postcard Club and a former mayor of the town, has died at the age of 80. He was a councillor for 25 years. Ron worked for a postcard printing and publishing firm in Northampton, and collected postcards of the town and county, along with many other interesting subjects.

John signs off John Gent, speaker at CROYDON Postcard Club last month, told his audience that he had been giving talks on local history and postcard-related subjects for over 50 years! This was to be, however, his final presentation. He showed over 200 social history postcards from his 10,000-strong local collection, including fires and fire brigades, railways and railway accidents, buses, trams, motor and steam vehicles, portraits, adverts, comic cards, pubs, cafes, hotels, military parades, brass bands, sports groups and suffragette meetings. There were also several cards of Croydon Lifeboat Day Carnival in 1908 which attracted thousands of spectators and included lifeboats from Eastbourne and Southend. It was not clear what would have happened in either of these two towns had there been an emergency at sea!

* A profile of John Gent’s amazing postcard life appeared in PPM in April 2006. z Nottingham Postcard Club member John Atherton won the Gerry Weston Cup at the annual Military Historical Society Exhibition in Farnham with a display of Royal Marine badges.

Picture Postcard K Puzzles J Another selection of puzzles for you to identify, all on picture postcards sent in by readers. If you know the location, tell us (write, fax, email or phone) and give yourself the chance of a prize. First authentic identification of each puzzle wins you a choice of: pack of modern social history cards, a free classified ad in PPM (max. 25 words), a Reflections pen, one of the Yesterday’s series of books based on old postcards, or a set of Reflections Postcard Centenary cards (state which you’d like when writing). If you have a postcard (or cards) you’d like identified, send in, enclosing two first-class or three secondclass stamps per card submitted (for administration costs). List any identifiable clues on a separate piece of paper, and write your name in pencil on the back of the postcard. Email scans/photocopies not accepted. Address for all correspondence: PPM, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT.

368/2 This postcard features a service by a war memorial in a churchyard. Where? (Nigel Bown collection)

368/3 The banner on top of the high-flying decoration appears to read ‘Mission Bridge...’ .The cobbled street is on a steep hill, too (Colin McLean collection) 368/1 Does anyone recognise this street scene of terraced houses, with a tram wending its way downhill? (Mark Bown collection)

November results Brian Lowther identified 367/1 as a hotel just outside Conwy in North Wales, close to the Sychnant pass. The Oakwood Park Hotel (right) was built in the 1930s and used as a school during World war Two (Brian was there!). It is now a complex of country residences. Chris Jackson was first to place 367/3 as Beoley, near Redditch, while Terry Blud located 367/4 as Hadley, Shropshire. The area is now part of Telford New Town and the pub on the postcard demolnedy reckoned 367/7 was Bearished in 1961. Peter Kenn wood, Birmingham, while 367/8 was recognised by Nigel Bown as Birchington-o on-S Sea. The arch on 367/15 was erected in Sheffield for the Royal visit of 12 July 1905 (King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra), Mark Bailey told us. Finally, Gerald Lamont was quickest to spot 367/19 as Fakenham, looking down Bridge Street from the Market Place. Still plenty to identify from last month - have another look! From October, Alf Carney placed 366/20 as the Cerebos Salt Factory at Greatham, near Hartlepool - it produced Cerebos and Saxo salt as well as Bisto gravy.

Contributors and advertisers are advised that the January 2010 edition of PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY will be published on December 20th. Deadline for copy is December 10th.

368/4 (above) This postcard of Jacques’ Family Hotel was published in Reed’s Pictorial series. Can someone give us the location? (Peter Snartt collection)

368/5 (left) A Singer sewing shop is on the corner of this distinctively-architectured street in the 1930s, with the shops of Leo and A. Butler & Co. to its left (Doug Forton collection)

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368/6 Traction engine action on this card of Newbiggin Rectory. Which of many Newbiggins is this? (Mick Liversedge collection)

368/7 Gloverson’s Ales were on offer at the “Park Hotel”. Where? (Barrie Rollinson collection)

368/8 Can anyone identify this attractive village scene, complete with pond? (John Chesworth collection)

368/9 There are lots of Whitchurches, too, so we need to know which one this is. The card was posted at Kilburn in June 1914 (D. Sandland collection)

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Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009

368/10 Here’s an attractive rural panormaic topographical, with clues in the church tower and the distinctive range of hills in the background (Verna Palmer collection)

368/11 St. Lawrence Schools, Cowley - clear enough, but many Cowleys exist. Which is this? (Julian Dunn collection)

368/12 (above) The Rev. S. Whitehead was the minister at this new Wesleyan Chapel somewhere (Tom Norgate collection)

368/13 (left) Worth & Son ran a music shop and cafe - and the shop next door sold postcards and fancy goods (Andrew Swift collection)

Picture Postcard K Puzzles J 368/14 The “Lion Hotel” stood behind this impressive war memorial. Where?(Len Whittaker collection)

368/15 (below) Where was Moxon’s milliners’ shop at no. 130?(Derek Hurst collection)

Children in Need Postcards All proceeds to BBC Children in Need appeal 1990 Pudsey Bear & Friends (Rosalind Wicks) out of stock 1992 Not all kids have a colourful life (Frank Burridge)40p 1993 Maybe Robin Hood can fix me up (John Green) 40p 1993 Poverty St (John Green) o/s 1993 Teddy Bears & Money Boxes no. 2 (R. Wicks) o/s 1996 ...and these little piggies (Michael O’Brien) 40p 1996 Pudsey & Building Blocks (Boomerang) o/s 1997 Girl & Pudsey Bear (Brian Partidge) 40p 1998 Wishing you the best of health (Rosalind Wicks) o/s 1999 Join in the fun (BBC) o/s 1999 To make a donation please call (BBC) o/s 1999 Remember remember (BBC) o/s 1999 Pudsey Bear and building blocks (BBC) o/s 2000 Girl, Teddy Bear & Doll (Brian Partridge) 40p 2000 Boy & Football (Thought Factory) 40p 2001 Teddy Bears & Money Boxes no. 20 (R. Wicks) o/s 2002 Art Class (Rupert Besley) 50p (signed copies £1.50) 2003 Offence to impersonate (Terry Irvine) 50p 2004 Posting my donation (Rosalind Wicks) 50p 2006 Children in New Brighton (Martin Parr) (2) 50p each 2007 Whose bright idea?(Terry Irvine) 50p 2009 Pudsey in Wonderland (Brian Partridge) 50p (signed copies £1.50) Order from: Reflections of a Bygone Age, 15 Debdale Lane, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5HT

Please make cheques payable to: Reflections ‘Children in Need’ Appeal

368/16 Does this street scene ring a bell with anyone?(Gerald Wright collection)

368/17 Peace celebrations at Milton in July 1919 outside the “.... Arms” pub which sold Young’s Noted Ales (Brian Clutterbuck collection)

Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 59

National Motorcycle Museum Solihull B92 0EJ POSTCARDS & CIGARETTE CARDS Sunday 6th December Hello Playmates, Here We Are Again...... 10am the curtain rises - your cast list is as follows Peter’s Postcards Simon Smith Rosalie Postcards Mike Tarrant Picture Postcard Co. Barry Davis John Ashford R.F. Postcards Terry Powell Maxam Cards Birmingham Stamp Auctions David Benson David Calvert Rob Roy

Geoff McMillan* Vicki Greenwood Jack Stasiak Geoff Ellis Tracy Powell

Mike Huddy (moderns) Simon Rapstoff Peter Lincoln Elm Postcards Ron Holmes Ray Jones Andrew George Mike Cant Neil Parkhouse Andrew Swift David Seddon Richard Flavell Ian & Lynne Hurst Derek & Jean Garrod John Ryan David Lapworth Jim Jackson (postcards &

(accessories)

David Walker Mary Wheeler Reflections of a Bygone Age Melanie Mordsley Mike Pearl Derek Garvey John Priestley (autographs) Mike Heard* Julian Dunn Ted Gerry Christine Booth Derek Warry

cigarette cards)

Blue Bridge Postcards Mike Cremin Paul Willmott Peter Robards Gordon Collier Mark Bown Andrew Reid Greg Pos Pat Morriss

Final curtain 5pm

Full catering, large car park Admission £1.50

look Peter & Simon forward to seeing you all

A.M.P. Fairs

Andrew Dally Ephemera Warehouse Bill Kirkland Phil Vass Keith Irwin Chris Vaughan-Jones Chris Bates Ann Gray Mike & Sharon Bennett Mike Clark G & C Cards George Nairn * Cigarette cards

Next year’s dates at this venue: Sunday 11th July Sunday 5th December

DETAILS SIMON COLLYER 01283-820151 mobile 07966-565151 PETER ROBARDS 01588-640474