Postcard finds and curio

THE POSTCARD ALBUM

POSTCARD PRINTER & PUBLISHER RESEARCH


	Regular TPA readers are familiar with this column. As this is read also by newcomers, I am presenting some common, general topics under this heading. Let’s start with postcard novelties. With the ongoing postcard boom, publishers were forced to produce more and more new designs to meet customers requirements and to be ahead of competitors. Furthermore from about 1898 on numerous persons/firms registered (D.R.G.M.) postcard novelties of various make/design. Some did it - but the majority not.

	Postcard sizes and shapes

	Some national requirements of early years resulted in smaller postcard sizes (British court size for example) as the later common c. 140 x 90 mm standard.

Clever publishers soon made use of the minimum and maximum sizes allowed to be mailed under postcard postage rate. But this not enough, so-called giant cards were issued. These had to be sent under letter postage rate. The earliest sample I know of is a series of cards published and printed by Knackstedt & Naether, Hamburg, on occasion of the visit of the German emperor to Palestine in 1898. Cards measure 220 x 148 mm.

Another popular postcard novelty were panorama views, usually 2 - 4 regular cards in one piece and fold-out design. They required twice postcard postage or letter rate. But there are city panorama cards not as fold-out but in one piece, like the series by Dr. Trenkler & Co, Leipzig. Measurements: 358 x 128 mm and to be mailed under Printed Matter rate. Did they arrive without damage? Well, I believe that postmen surely hated them.


	More common were smaller designs, sometimes called “micro-cards”. The smallest sizes acceptable for postcard rate was about 75 x 120 mm in Germany according my actual knowledge. Smaller cards had to be mailed as Printed Matter, not only in Germany as some finds show. The rhombus shape card illustrated below is among the most unusual designs I have seen so far

	< This is the smallest sized card (sized 42 x 130 mm) I know of which was also postally used. I call it the “Slim Lady” as it bears no caption or any publisher information at all. A real (bromide) photo card, with hardly any room to write message. Mailed in Germany in May 1904 with a 15 Pf postage due mark. With Printed Matter as well Union Postale Universelle imprint.




	Gott nytt år - winter motif. Card size: 71 x 105 mm. Offset printed in Sweden, not p/u, 1930’s? Later? Signed Curt Nystroem. Published by Axel Eliassons Konstfoerlag A.B., Stockholm.


	Two kids next to a letterbox. Real photo (bromide) card by a (unknown) publisher who used the initials “S.W.B.” inside clover leaf logo. The card / series number reads 1483/84. Illustrated are both sides of this unusual postcard design. Sizes: about 130 mm over all, c. 86 mm width

	Below: Not so extreme sized but still uncommon was the size of 148 x 78 mm of a series published by Egyptian publishers “Lehnert & Landrock”, Cairo. A series of over 100 views. Illustrated is card no. 92: Port Said - Arrival of a Steamer. All cards I know of show views from Port Said. The photographic printing was done by E. Pinkau, Leipzig. (“Dot & Dash” code), which was used from c. 1926 onwards.


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