Postman

THE POSTCARD ALBUM

POSTCARD PRINTER & PUBLISHER RESEARCH

 

Glass_Tuscher_Leipzig_letterhead_1921

Glass & Tuscher, Leipzig, Saxony, was set up by Reinhard Johannes Glass and Leo August Tuscher in September 1906. Compared with most of the other postcard printers around at Leipzig then, G&T was a smaller sized business. But very specialized in picture postcard printing / export. Found at Perthestr. 2 in rented rooms with 2 collotype presses as well as some other production facilities and 12 workers by mid 1907. By 1910 the business had been moved to Bayersche Str. 77. Now G&T had a total of 7 presses (collotype / litho / letterpress) running and employed about 40 workers. The company stayed here until 1927 when they finally moved into their own factory building found at Breite Str. 7.

Not long after the outbreak of WW1 the business became a limited company and Leo Tuscher left. Reinhard Glass was managing director until December 1915 and parted, too. G&T was run now by Prof. Arthur Toepfer and later by a Dr. Carl Ruehle together with several silent partners. G&T continued printing postcards but also a number of other articles. The building breite Str. 7 survived WW2. The final entry in Klimsch printing trade directory 1950 edition reveals that a Hermann Hamkens had taken over former G&T business under his name plus formerly Glass & Tuscher.

Glass & Tuschers secret of success

The business was set up at a time when market conditions for collotype printed postcards were not too well anymore. Too much competition left only meagre profit margins. But G&T appers to have had a good in-house “workflow”, producing good to very good quality at low prices. They consequently issued new qualities and designs over and over again. This is well documented by the unusual high number of printing sample cards found.

Besides standard / high-quality (coloured) cards for national customers, as well as from Europe and overseas, G&T offered small runs of cards during the years prior to WW1. 200 cards, b/w (Graphit style) for 4 Marks 50 Pfennig plus 30 Pfennig postage. Somehow they must had made some money even by this way.

Saskatoon_Canada_A_3150_10

Sunset, Saskatoon, Canada. Publ. by local McKenzie’s Studio. No. 607. P/u June 1910. G&T code reads A 3150 10.

Glass_Tuscher_200_cards_offer

An article on G&T was published years ago in “The Postcard Album” issue 21. This four-pager can be downloaded free of charge as pdf-file.. Please use link found at bottom of page:  TPA Articles

Glass & Tuscher card codes

Like many other postcard printers, G&T coded each card with an individual job number.

In 1907 they used plain numbers (up to 4-digit) found at the lower right corner on the address side. Something many other printers did, too. Identification of these G&T printed cards requires clearly identified samples to compare.

Between 1908-09 G&T used a modified number code, 2 numbers standing for the year, then space, followed by a 3- to 4-digit car number. For example 08 8758. Now this type of coding was used already by local, big company of Dr. Trenkler & Co. since 1907. This had probably led to some irritation.

From 1910 on G&T added a capital letter prefix to the card number, the year date now at the end. I use to call this the Alphabet Code. Example: A 3150 10. The numbering always runs to 9999. Then the following alphabetical letter was used. During times when business boomed, two different letters for the same year are common. Trusting that reprints received a new, actual then, code. Below you find a list of G&T card codes year by year I have collected myself / were kindly provided by fellow collectors. Listed are the lowest and highest card code imprinted found so far.

Wharf_Yarmouth_Canada_no_D848_12

D. A. R. Wharf, Yarmouth N.S. Canada. Publ. by local ”The Yarmouth Portraits Co.” Not p/u, no card or series info. G&T code D 848 12 = early 1912.

Leipzig_Ratskeller_no_A1008_33

Leipzig, Saxony. View of ‘Ratskeller’. Publ. by local Fritz Mueller. Mailed to Holland in April 1937. G&T code A 1008 33. An almost photo-like print, but actually collotype. Quality named “Opal-Glanz”.

1910

A   475 - 9478

B 1488 - 3325

1911

B  5278 - 9420   C    421 - 8182

1912

C 9691

D   848 - 8276

E 3668 - 3703

1913

E  6208 - 9923   F  1401 - 9075

1914

G  5002 - 9028   H  762 - 4549

1915

H  5971 - 9428   J     581 - 4887

1916

J  5175 - 7741   K   800

1917

K 400 - 6068

1918

K 6074 - 7329

1919

L 2231 - 8260

1920

M  61 - 2854

1921

M 6422 - 9476

1922

N 3406 - 8956

1923

O 4068 - 5562

1924

O  9269 - 9906   P      48 - 9938 Q 644 

1925

Q  1850 - 9828   R  5909

1926

R  9680 - 9828   S  1555 - 8592

1927

T 2261 - 7555 U 4829

1928

V 1432 - 5213

1929

V  9290 - 9325   W 155 - 8228

1930

W 5177

X 303 - 9106

Y 1219

1931

Y 4673 - 7419

Z   482 - 4614

1932

A 6229

Z  9204

1933

A 6513 - 9784

B 1778 - 5899

1934

B  6006 - 8191   C  4840 - 6641

1935

D  3725 - 8611

1936

E  1111 - 5411   F  5031

1937

F  2436 - 7470   G  2436 - 9185

1938

H  6670

I  5673 - 9228

1939

K   340 - 6748

L 2299 - 6196

1940

L  8745 - 9102

M 3673 - 9519

1941

N  9657

O  3454 - 7569

1942

P    707 - 9265

Q  3175 - 3220

1943

Q  9466

R  222 - 4738

Glass_Tuscher_code_inside_stampbox

The list with G&T card codes is based on some 500 card finds Should be understood as a “rough” survey only. The entire G&T production might easily amount to more than 40,000 different cards incl. reprints. during a period of more than 30 years. Few letters are still missing, were probably not used.

I do not collect Glass & Tuscher printed cards myself. Just keep them when they come my way. If you have any samples with code numbers not yet listed, please let me know. Thank you!

Special thanks to: Arne Sandström, Sweden, Ralf Hewig, Germany, Adam Katzeff, Sweden, Jan Spoorenberg, The Netherlands, Jean Ritsema, USA, Gokhun Yilmaz, Turkey, Volker Cremers, Germany and Branislav Kovacevic.

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