Pioneer aviation and trick photography postcard – early 1910s

Another spectacular Roman market stall find this week. I'm no fan of flying, but perversely am fascinated by the early years of flight, so this celebration of pioneer aviation caught my eye right away. This beautiful, hand-tinted, real photograph vintage postcard features another stock favourite from the golden age of postcard production too – trick photography. I've actually seen versions of this particular card online with the same monoplane and landscape, but with different “pilots” - romantic couples, young men courting a sweetheart, and of course, as with our card here, children.

On 25 July 1909 French aviator, inventor and engineer Louis Blériot took up the challenge set by the British newspaper the Daily Mail and became the first person to fly across the English Channel in a heavier than air aircraft, scooping the £1000 prize! Blériot had built a series of mono and biplanes in previous years, but it was the Channel-crossing Blériot XI that history remembers.

The aircraft featured on this postcard is certainly very reminiscent of the Blériot monoplane, with its light, open framework, propeller, large bicycle wheels, and even the system of pulleys and cables on the wings. All that's missing is the cockpit – instead the androgynous little girl or boy stands in a basket of flowers with the greeting “Un Bonjour” printed to the right.

The postcard was published by Velouté, with the series number 739, and is postally used with the stamp on the front, rather than reverse of the card. Unfortunately the postmark is too blurred to be legible. The stamp - the 5c green “Sower” - was issued by the French Post Office in 1907, and with Blériot's historic flight drawing the world's attention to the monoplane two years later, I think it's safe to date this postcard sometime during the early 1910s.

It would be fun to try and identify the village and lake the plane is flying over...but I fear that might be an impossible task! Check out the footage below of a modern air show flight of a 1909 Blériot XI
monoplane or click here to watch on YouTube.



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Artist signed vintage glamour postcard by M. Cherubini – 1910s

I found this spectacular vintage glamour postcard on a market stall in Rome recently. What struck me first was the exceptionally fine quality of this chromolithographic print. The illustration has been printed on heavy weight watercolour paper and at first glance really looks like the entire image has been hand painted.

This postally uncirculated postcard, with no publisher information, and only “Made in Italy” printed in the stamp box, with the code number 750-3 on the reverse, is a little tricky to date accurately. The back is divided, which puts the card after 1906 when divided backs were first introduced in Italy, whilst the artist who signed the card - M.Cherubini - appears to have been extremely prolific in the 1910s, so I'm guessing this card is from that decade. She rather reminds me of the character Lady Edith Crawley from the TV show Downton Abbey!

Over the years I've seen a huge number of artist signed postcard designs by M.Cherubini, usually featuring portraits of fashionable young women in Art Deco style, with the occasional tamely erotic image, but have been unable to discover anything at all about this Italian graphic artist. If anyone has any biographical information about “M.Cherubini” please feel free to leave a message in the comments below!

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Arnold House Hotel, Brighton - 1960s

The Southern Aspect, Arnold House Hotel, Brighton

I'm always thrilled when I come across a good story behind a vintage postcard. Sadly, on some occasions, these mementos of times past depict charming buildings which have been long since demolished, and serve as a pictorial record of our lost architectural heritage.

This real photograph postcard published by N.H. Portraits Ltd., depicts the southern aspect and gardens of the Arnold House Hotel situated on Montpelier Terrace in Brighton, Sussex. Once owned by Brighton philanthropist Mr Henry Willett (1823 – 1903), the house was originally built in 1861 on the site of an old farmhouse. On Willett's death his family continued to live in the house until 1917. By 1924 the house was owned by a certain Robert Heather who turned the house into a hotel in 1939, adding a putting green and a croquet lawn to the gardens.

In 1971 the beautiful Victorian building was knocked down and replaced with a nondescript block of flats, whilst the gardens are now, for the most part, occupied by a supermarket car park!

The postcard, which is in pristine, uncirculated condition, belonged to my grandfather, and is one of a few dozen vintage postcards that he had kept safely together with family photographs. Sadly, Granf is no longer with us so I'll never know the story as to how this postcard came into his possession; the date is my mother's approximate guess as to when my grandparents visited Brighton.

The fate of Arnold House has stirred up many a discussion online. You can read more about the history of the hotel and those who lived and worked there at the Brighton Bits and My Brighton and Hove websites.


Guests at Arnold House hotel 1950s

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Buon Anno! Italian Lucky 13 Horseshoe Postcard

With 2013 very nearly upon us I thought this Italian vintage postcard would be an excellent choice to celebrate the New Year! Published by a company indicated only by the simple initials T.E.L. printed on the reverse with no further markings, this uncirculated card was probably issued during the 1960s.

The lucky horseshoe has been a popular motif on postcards since the early 1900s, although there has always been some debate as to whether the horseshoe should be depicted with the open end up or down. Elves (or Gnomes) also seem to appear on New Year's Eve cards with alarming regularity! Less common in English speaking countries, of course, is the appearance of the number 13 on a greetings card. Fear of the number 13 is very common amongst the superstitious in many parts of the world, but in Italy 13 is, in fact, considered a lucky number – so the number 13 set inside a lucky horseshoe carried by Christmas elves makes this New Year's Eve greeting card even more auspicious!

Happy New Year!
 
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Joyeux Noël – French Christmas Greetings Postcard from 1924

The prolific Paris-based company Lèo of Pradot was famous throughout the 1920s for its series of erotic images, which look rather innocent today, as well as hand-tinted real photograph postcards with the garish colours that seem to have been so popular at the time. Lèo postcards are still easy to find today and I couldn't resist this lovely example when I found it on a Rome market stall recently. Vintage postcards are a great documentary source of historical fashions and styles of dress and this is a simply wonderful example of a fashionably dressed women in the mid 1920s. With her short hair under a cloche hat, the lavish use of lipstick, and her drop waist wrap coat fastened with a large bow, she must have been quite the Flapper!

What seems unusual nowadays, perhaps, is that these vintage postcards featuring beautiful women were simply adapted to the festive season by the addition of a glittery Joyeux Noël overlaid over the original postcard. It was posted from Lier, Belgium on 24 December 1924.

Merry Christmas!

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Find more vintage postcards over at Beth's postcard blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy and join other collectors on Postcard Friendship Friday.