A lovely, durable and decorated hindged metal tin of postcards with 4 vintage flower designs, measuring 15cm x 10 cm.
James Blunt, The Who and even Siouxie and the Banshees have performed songs about Postcards and there is an interesting history behind them…
Post card collecting
With the introduction of postcards in the mid 1860s, Deltiologists came into being and the collecting and studying postcards started. It was the invention of the penny post that promoted the feasibility of postcards in the UK. By creating the International Postal Union which guaranteed delivery in member countires made postcards a sensation within a few years. Before the 1840s people covered paper with writing to minimise cost because the recipient paid and charged by letter weight.
Local History
Collecting postcards seems like collecting cigarette cards, except establishing the date of cigarette cards is often easier than postcards. As official documents, Stamps are much easier to date. There’s also no doubt that the breadth of subject matter is much wider for postcards. Our selection of postcards mainly use old illustrations of flora or fauna. Of great interest to me are illustrations of little known but known to me places, which tend to be local. There is an historical narrative for well known landmarks, eg London Bridge, that have been ‘captured’ over time. Betraying my ignorance, it seems to me that well known local paintings all seem to be by Turner. These include Ruskin’s View in Kirkby Lonsdale, the Crook O’Lune at Caton and a view of Hornby Castle from Wray.
However you wouldn’t find ‘ordinary’ street scenes on postcards until the advent of photography.
I love looking at old photographs and spotting a building that is still there and identifying it.
Here is an old postcard of the Devil’s Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale, before the more modern Stanley Bridge was built in the 1930s.
Sometimes it is the buildings that aren’t still there that are of great interest. One such is the little known Morecambe Tower, a less fortunate rival to that of Blackpool.
Sunny Morecambe
I am indebted to morecambe.myzen.co.uk for this old postcard photograph.
The 232ft tower was built in 1898 and demolished to provide scrap iron for the first world war. The Tower Theatre, Ice Rink and Casino remained on the corner of the Promenade and Lord Street for many years. However it had gone by the time of my earliest memories in the 1960s. A bowling alley took its place and now, I think, a Bingo Hall. Also, at least for a time, a second-hand car dealership was there, which provided my first car in 1979.
Another aspect of historic postcards that has always disturbed me is the number of beautiful cards, often decorated with local lace, send from the Western Front during the first world war.
It feels so strange that amongst the carnage and mud British Tommies sent home messages to their loved ones on such beautiful cards. Josie has collected these for years and has quite a collection. Here is a photo of some that she has mounted.
You can see the range of postcards in tins available from Abrahams Store, here.
