2012 is going to be a tough year for those of you who are superstitious – today is only the first of three occurrences in the calendar of the infamous Friday the 13th! A good luck postcard seems in order, therefore, so here's a very fine example of an artist signed vintage postcard featuring work by the master of scissors and silhouettesGeorg Plischke.
Georg Plischke's signature logo
Whilst he appears to have been enormously prolific in his output, tracking down Plischke's personal history is a little tricky. He was born in 1883 in Neisse, one of the oldest towns in the politically contested Silesia, but the town was placed under Polish administration after the Second World War and renamed with the Polish spelling of Nysa. At that time, much of the town's German population was forcibly expelled, including Plischke, who was driven from his home and forced to leave his already established publishing house, setting up shop in Unterwössen, in Upper Bavaria, the following year, where he would live and work until his death in 1973.
This postally used postcard was sent as an Easter greeting from Lübeck, Germany to Canterbury in the United Kingdom on 14 April 1938. It carries a Deutsche Reichspost 5 Pfennig stamp with a portrait of Paul von Hindenburg, which had been issued some four years earlier in 1934, rather than a more recent portrait of Hitler whose grim scowl had started appearing on stamps in 1937. The stamp has luckily been placed slightly high allowing us to see the bottom of the distinctive Plischke Karte stamp box and the number of this design – 59. There is also a clear postmark advertising overseas telegrams and German cable routes, in a similar gothic font to that used elsewhere on the postcard.
As is often the case with vintage postcards, the jolly good luck message seems at odds with the historical events of the day - the card was posted a month after the Anschluß (Anschluss), when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, and as we now know, the outbreak of World War II was looming.
Anybody with even a passing interest in collecting vintage postcards from the early 20th century will have certainly come across an image published by the PC of Paris studio at some time or another; an enormously prolific company, PC of Paris was well known for its erotic nudes, as well as rather more innocent scenes such as this delightful New Year's Eve greetings card from the Golden Age of postcard production. This card is a little different, however, in that the publisher logo in the bottom right hand corner of the card – the initials PC inside a Star of David – is unlike the usual PC of Paris insignia which places the initials inside a circle and includes the name of the city. Very mysterious – it may be that this is an entirely different PC!
Regardless of the publisher, this hand tinted real photo postcard with hand painted additions of mistletoe and snow decorations, is a real gem. It was never posted, although it carries a new year's message on the reverse and was presumably delivered by hand. There is no date, but it was most likely issued during the 1920s or early 1930s.
The countdown to Christmas in Rome seems to start very suddenly on 8th December - a public holiday celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception – when the city's Christmas lights are switched on and tourists and Romans alike pack the streets of the Eternal City to admire the decorations and start shopping for gifts. With this in mind I thought I'd share a vintage Italian Christmas postcard that I picked up from one of my favourite market stalls in Piazza Borghese in Rome yesterday, when I joined the thronging masses in town.
This gorgeous artist signed vintage postcard of two children decorating a Christmas tree was posted just in time for Christmas on 24 December 1941. It was printed by the Florence-based postcard company Ballerini & Fratini (1912 - the present day) and features an exquisite lithographic design by the prolific illustrator G.Piattoli.
The details are particularly lovely on this card with the lucky horseshoe, the pattern on the vase and border picked out in gold, with only the slightest shift of registration in the offset printing with some mismatched edges around the boy's hat and the puppy dog. The illustrator's signature is in the bottom right hand corner and incorporates the city Firenze – Florence.
As we drew closer to today's unique date - 11th November, 2011 - there was some considerable speculation online as to whether something mystical might happen at exactly the eleventh second of the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour on the eleventh day in the eleventh month in this, the eleventh year of the new century! Lest we forget, however, 11th November has always been a special day on which we remember the fallen and recall the official end of World War I on that same date in 1918. Formally known as Armistice Day, it is now called Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and Veterans Day in the United States. On a recent trip back to the UK I found a wonderful collection of First World War military postcards issued by Bamforth & Co. Ltd. so thought today would be an excellent moment to share some of them here.
Bamforth & Co. Ltd. Logo
Bamforth & Co. Ltd. was a postcard publisher with a colourful history. Founder James Bamforth started out in 1870 as a portrait photographer in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, turning his attention to the making of lantern slides in 1883. From the enormously popular lantern slides, the progression into silent movies was perhaps a logical step and in 1898 Bamforth & Co. Ltd. started making silent films. The filmmaking side of the business, whilst prolific, lasted only a few years, and the company is best know nowadays for the thousands of comic and saucy seaside postcards it produced, right through to the 1980s. By 1905 Bamforth & Co. Ltd. even had a branch in the States, and indeed the reverse of these cards reads Holmfirth (England) and New York, together with its distinctive Art Nouveau logo.
Bamforth 'Song Series' Postcards usually featured a popular sentimental song or hymn and a scene depicting a soldier missing a loved one – either his sweetheart or mother.
When the war is over, mother dear - as featured on the first postcard in this post - was written and composed by A.J. Mills, J.P. Long and Bennett Scott. You can listen to the song performed by English tenor Ernest Pike (stage name Herbert Payne) in this 1915 recording – the verse on the postcard comes about half way through the song – or click here to listen on YouTube.
Mother Machree
Mother Machree was another popular song of the time, written by Rida Johnson Young and composed by Chauncey Olcott and Ernest R. Ball in 1910. The chorus is featured on the postcard:
Sure, I love the dear silver That shines in your hair, And the brow that's all furrowed, And wrinkled with care. I kiss the dear fingers, So toil-worn for me, Oh, God bless you and keep you, Mother Machree.
A.J. Mills & Bennett Scott were joined by Fred Godfrey for composition of the hugely successful song Down Texas Way - the song went on to sell half a million copies of sheet music. Click here to listen to a 1921 recording by Frank Oldfield.
I came across this uncirculated 1920s French postcard of Le Port Saint-Nicolas in Paris (translated as St. Nicolas Harbour on the back of the card) on a market stall at Rome's most famous flea market at Porta Portese. It reminded me instantly of the postcard of the Pool of London that I last looked at on this blog, although this shot seemed to me to have something extra special about it that set it apart from the usual run of the mill topographical tourist postcards. Whilst it's less evident in the scan above, the tonality of the print is absolutely gorgeous and there's a real sense of depth – the foggy distant river bank and the reflective sheen on the water are in stark contrast with the looming steamer and dockside ships.
Printed by the Parisian publisher Edition d’Art Yvon, it was issued as number 46 in series 3 of Paris...En Flanant - Strolling around Paris – which featured scenes of less typical and carefully photographed Parisian views such as this. Pierre Yves Petit was a Parisian photographer who began publishing postcards of his photographs under the trade name Edition d’Art Yvon in 1919, signing the front of the cards with the pseudonym"Yvon". Initially using the black and white collotype method, he then moved onto bromide sepia tinted cards, finally adopting the “modern” rotogravure method in 1923. The Yvon name is still used to this very day and there's a potted history on their website here (in French).
Port Saint-Nicolas, a once busy cargo port, took its name from from the neighbouring collegiate church, but is today know as Port du Louvre. The quay where cargo ships docked is now a promenade for pedestrians running along the Seine from the Pont des Arts, which is just visible in the background of this postcard, to the Pont Royal.
Every time I visit London I'm struck by the amount of architectural changes that happen in the city - old buildings come down, new buildings go up – it's a city that is always in flux! No trip to London for me is complete without a walk across Hungerford Bridge over the Thames to the Southbank – the views from the bridge are spectacular, with the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye on one side, and the City and St.Pauls on the other. The City skyline always seems to be dotted with cranes and new constructions, but with the countdown to the 2012 Olympic Games well underway, the whole of London now seems to be abuzz with building activity.
This real photo 1940s postcard of the old London port at the Pool of London, with Tower Bridge in the background, illustrates perfectly just how busy London, and particularly the Thames, has always been. The cranes in this photograph are part of the docks – building cranes didn't arrive until the urban development of the area during the 1980s and 1990s. After centuries of use, the advent of shipping containers and coastal deep-water ports in the 1960s saw the dramatic demise of the Pool of London as an important commercial shipping port.
Reverse of card
Published by WHS, Bridge House, Real Photo Series, this uncirculated postcard carries a slightly misquoted line from one of Winston Churchill's most famous wartime speeches:
“Let us all strive without failing in faith or in duty”
Now known as the War of the Unknown Warriors Speech, it was broadcast by the BBC on 14th July 1940. A previous owner of this postcard has marked the back with the date 1945, but I suppose it would be reasonable to assume that it may have been issued at anytime between 1940 and the end of Churchill's first term of office in 1945.
The correct version of Churchill's words are towards the end of this passage:
"This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this island but in every land, who will render faithful service in this war but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded. This is a war of the Unknown Warriors; but let all strive without failing in faith or in duty, and the dark curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age."
I have recently returned from my summer holidays in the UK
visiting family and friends and as usual, I came home to Rome
with a new clutch of British vintage postcards in my suitcase! I'll
share my new finds over the coming months on this blog, but before
the summer hols finally draw to a close for kids in Britain I wanted
to kick off with this absolutely stunning seaside postcard
celebrating that most English of seaside resorts Clacton-on-Sea.
Red, yellow and blue dots
Situated on the Essex coast, with its sandy beaches, traditional
pleasure pier and arcades, and during its heyday, a Butlins holiday
camp too, Clacton it is still a popular day trip destination for
Londoners today. The postmark on this postally used postcard is
unclear, but it carries a red 1d (penny) George V stamp. Whilst the
1d red stamp was in use from 1st January 1912 until 1934, the
postage rate for postcards didn't increase to one penny until 3rd
June 1918, which most likely places this postcard somewhere in the
1920s. How strange to think that Clacton-on-Sea had, in fact, only
been founded as a seaside town half a century earlier in 1871.
There is no indication of the publisher other than the words “F.
M. Series” on the reverse of the card and it was printed using a
simple, yet effective palette of red, yellow, and blue dots and
stippled areas that vary in weight. Presumably the location could be
swapped for any seaside location – this chirpy chap, with his red bucket and
collection of seashells, would clearly be happy on any beach!
I am a British-born freelance Web designer, blogger and translator. After studying Fine Art at Reading University I moved from England to the foothills of the Sibillini Mountains in the Le Marche region of Italy in 1994. I now live in Rome, the Eternal City.
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