If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 588

 

 

 

 

 

New Year greeting postcard, ca 1920s

 

Happy New Year 2023!

 

The two unused postcards shared this week are reproductions of undated artwork reprinted by a small local company, Laughing Elephant.  The card above has clocks and a calendar as the featured items, things that are typically associated with the changing of the year.  The design look like late 1920s or possibly early 1930s style.

 

Greeting cards, individually handmade first, then later commercially printed, have been a tradition for centuries.  In the 1400s homemade greetings were sold and exchanged in Europe.  Early German cards were made using woodcuts.  The two most likely holidays to exchange cards were wishes for a happy, prosperous New Year and romantic love cards for Valentine’s Day.  Valentines often had lace filigrees applied to the designs. 

 

Advances in printing provided a way for cards to be reproduced at less cost and in 1840 the Black Penny stamp allowed cards to be mailed rather than hand delivered and increased the popularity of the cards.

 

Sir Henry Cole, of England, created the first commercial Christmas card in 1843.  Finding that his Christmas greeting list had grown longer each year, Cole wanted to reduce the time and effort it took to make individual cards.  He chose three scenes to celebrate Christmas:  a family gathering; the charitable acts of clothing the poor; and feeding the hungry.  He had 1,000 copies of the cards printed in black and white, then hand painted.  After Cole had used all the cards he needed, he sold the rest at 6 pence each.  Thus, began commercial Christmas card.  In those days the cost of 6 pence still made the cards a luxury item that would not have been affordable for working class people. 

 

This second card is similar to the first one in that it has a verse and the wish for a Happy New Year.  It shows a girl sitting on a list of resolutions and paddling with a quill pen, the ink pot floating in the water just ahead of her. 

 

 

New Year greeting postcard, ca 1920-1930s

 

The practice of making promises or resolutions at the beginning of the year also comes to us from centuries ago.  It was a religious activity for the Romans to make promises to their god, Janus, for whom the month of January takes its name.  Medieval knights took “peacock vows” at the end of the Christmas season to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.  There are parallels in many different religions.  The concept is to reflect on self-improvement annually. To offer and seek forgiveness, or to pledge a personal sacrifice as a way to improve one's self. 

 

The diary of Anne Halkett in 1671, includes what we think of as a traditional writing down of New Years’ resolutions.  She lists a number of religious pledges and writes, “I will not offend anymore.”  In 1813 a Boston newspaper published the phrase:  “new year resolution,” that took hold and has been used ever since.  Despite all the good intentions, roughly only 10 to 12 percent of people who make New Years’ resolutions actually keep them.  The others either forget or do not keep track of them.  Some people say they make too many resolutions to keep track of and work on all of them.  Fortunately, when the next new year comes around we have another opportunity to make resolutions if we so choose. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://www.penheaven.com/blog/history-greetings-cards

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/when-did-new-years-resolutions-start

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_resolution

 

 

 

Update to Thursday postcard, 587 [Christmas]

 

 

 

 

 

A friend recently sent this sheet with an example of how the chromolithogrphy color prints were created.  Each image shows the color on that particular run.  After 5 runs the card has the full color picture.  The printing and cutting would have to be extremely precise in order to achieve the full perfectly colored picture.  

 

 The stamp on the example is French and features Paul Sérusier 1864-1927. It was  issued in 2007, thus the process would not be exactly the same as it was when the Christmas card was sent in 1914, but similar enough to give the viewer an idea of how it was done.  I thought it was interesting and worth sharing.  As always, thank you to my friend who sent the sheet.

 

Sérusier was a French Post-Impressionist painter who was also a pioneer of abstract art.  For other examples of his work and biographical information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S%C3

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 587

 

 

 

 

 

 Christmas postcards, 1914

 

 

Merry Christmas!  This used postcard featuring a winter scene was mailed on 22 December 1914.  The card was printed in Germany but no artist is listed.  As was traditional for the time and type of card there is a poem on the front.  It almost looks like there was a printing error as the “T” in Fleeting is not level with the rest of the text.  The card is either embossed or debossed as there is texture, mostly noticeable on the reverse.  The raised areas can be felt by touch on the front of the card but both raised and depressed areas are visible on the reverse.  In either case the card would have been produced by pressing between two metal plates.  Embossing raises the design and debossing lowers it.  The reverse of the card shown below, has had the color contrast adjusted to better see the raised design. 

 

 

 Christmas postcard, reverse, showing embossing/debossing, 1914

 

Even with postage rates increasing, many people still send Christmas cards and letters.  The first known Christmas card was sent to James I of England and his son, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1611.  A commercially produced card was first introduced in 1843.  It was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole and designed by John Callott Horsley.  The cards can feature anything from religious themes, to winter scenes like the one on today’s card, to Santa Claus, elves, snowmen, trees, reindeer, parties, caroling, even shopping and more. 

 

Some cards were hand colored but beginning in the 1880s, when German companies became dominant postcard producers, a process called chromolithography was used for making multi-colored prints.  Several runs would be required to produce multi-colored cards, with one color printed in each run.  Multiple cards were printed on one large sheet and cut or trimmed around the edges.  White borders were added around 1913 to allow some margin of error to the cutting. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_card

https://popthepixel.com/2022/4/29/embossing-debossing-letterpress/

https://worldpostcardday.com/history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolithography

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 586

 

 

 

 

 

San-Malo, France, ca early 1900s

 

Two Lévy Fils et Cie Paris unused postcards are shared this week.  They both feature photographs of the potato market in Saint Malo, located on the west coast of France.  The cards both have divided backs which were authorized for use in France in 1903.  The trade mark of LL was registered by Léon & Lévy in 1901.  The name Lévy et Fils was used beginning in 1895 by the sons, Abraham Lucien and Gaspard Ernest Lévy sons of the original founder of the company Isaac Lévy who began the business in 1864.  Both cards have the same title:  SAINT-MALO – Le Marché aux Patates, -- LL [Saint-Malo, the Potato Market – LL], but different numbers.  The card above is 198.  

 

 

 

 

Saint-Malo, France, ca early 1900s

 

This second card with the number 199 at the lower left corner, shows the potato market from a slightly different angle.  The large building with the white decorative window frames in this card appears to be the same building shown on the upper card at the left edge of the picture.

 

Vintage postcards like these provide a window into history and allow us to see what everyday life and work were like more than 100 years ago.  Although carts and horses are being used instead of trucks to transport the potatoes to market, evidence of modernization can be seen in the telephone poles with their insulators and wires.  Telephones were first introduced in France in 1883; regulations and laws regarding electricity did not come until 1923. 

 

Saint-Malo is a port city in Brittany on the English Channel coast of France.  Originally established in 1 BC by the Gauls, the town was known anciently by the Romans as Reginca or Aletum.  Modern Saint-Malo was formed from a monastic settlement in the sixth century founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan.  The name comes from a man who was a follower of Brendan the Navigator.  In the 1590s the town declared itself an independent republic, “not French, not Breton, but Malouin.”  Today it is a French city.  It became a notorious home of corsairs, French privateers, and pirates.  The long history of piracy netted much wealth from extortion and overseas adventures.  Today it is a popular tourist center with ferry service to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, also to Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Poole, Dorset.  The resident population is about 50,000 which increases during the tourist season to about 130,000. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Malo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_%26_L%C3%A9vy

https://peel.library.ualberta.ca/postcardhistory.html

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/AUTH234269

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 585

 

 

 

 

 

The Shinkyo Bridge (Sacred Red Bridge), Nikko, Japan, ca early 1900s

 

This unused vintage postcard from Japan likely dates to just after 1904.  It has a divided back which did not become legal until around 1907/1908 in the United States and appeared about that same time within a couple of years in other parts of the world.  This is a black & white photograph that has been tinted and produced as a color postcard.

 

The red bridge is part of the Futarasan Shrine, a Shinto shrine in the city of Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.  The bridge design dates back to 1636, but there was a bridge here even before then.  In 1902 the bridge was washed away by floods then rebuilt in 1904 using the 1636 design.  A legend related in the Nikko Station, Nikko Transportation Guide about the bridge concerns a priest named “Shodo Shonin who was traveling in the area with his followers in 766 when they came to the edge of the Daiya-gawa River and were unable to cross it.  The priest dropped to his knees and prayed, then was answered by a gigantic god called Jinja-Daisho who appeared on the opposite bank with two big snakes, one blue and one red, wrapped around his arm.  The god threw the snakes across the river and they were transformed into a rainbow-colored bridge with grass growing on its top.  Shodo Shonin and his followers were able to safely cross after which both the bridge and the god disappeared.”  It is said that a bridge has been built and maintained here since that time.  The bridge is a lacquered vermillion color and is known as of the three most beautiful bridges in Japan.  The bridge was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage in 1999.  It measures 28 m or 91 ft long, 7.4 m or 24 ft wide, and is 10.6 m or 34 ft above the river. 

 

The bridge used to be closed to the general public and only opened for important military leaders and imperial messangers.  Now visitors can walk across it after paying an admission fee.  The bridge is the entryway to the main sightseeing area of central Nikko.  Many people stop and take pictures of the bridge even if they do not walk across it.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://www.nikkostation.com/shinkyo-bridge/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futarasan_jinja

 

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 584

 

 

 

 

 

Tea pluckers, Ceylon, ca early 1900s

 

This vintage postcard has a black & white photograph of a tea field with harvesters at work.  The picture and the card were produced by Plate & Company Photographers of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.  It has a divided back and the number 248 along the left margin on the reverse.  Plate & Co. was founded in 1890 in Colombo, Ceylon by A.W. Plate and still exists today.  The height of postcard popularity was during the years between 1890 and the early 1900s when Plate & Co. was printing postcards.  Arnold Wright edited and published a book in 1907 titled Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon.  In the book he mentions that in 1907 the output of picture postcards by Messrs. Plate & Co.’s had reached half a million cards a year.

 

Ceylon, which became an independent republic and renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, is one of the largest tea-producing countries in the world.  The process of tea cultivation requires meticulous care, and is very hard manual labor.  There has been a movement to protect the rights of tea plantation workers, some of whom include children.  The workers often are barefoot and pick tea for hours.  The daily wage is based on the number of leaves they pluck with the worker needing to pick approximately 40 pounds of leaves to earn 700 Sri Lankan rupees or about $4.15.  The workers are primarily Tamils or Tamilar, a group of people who can trace their ancestry to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.  Efforts to improve the conditions and reduce the poverty in which the tea pickers find themselves has accomplished much but there is still more that can be done. 

 

The tea grown in Sri Lanka is known as Ceylon Tea and is considered some of the best in the world.  It is made from the plant Camellia sinensis.  Tea or chá is native to East Asia with plants in Sri Lanka likely originating from the area where southwestern China, Indo-Burma, and Tibet meet.  It is thought that all the current plants in Sri Lanka were derived from the same parent plant.  If left undisturbed, tea plants can grow to about 50 ft or 16 m tall.  As can be seen on the card, the plants are pruned to about waist height to accommodate the picking or plucking process.  Herbal tea refers to drinks not made from Camellia sinensis.  Instead, herbal teas are the infusions of fruits, leaves, or other plant parts like rosehip, chamomile or rooibos.  They are called tisanes or herbal infusions to differentiate from teas from the tea plant.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://borgenproject.org/tea-plantation-workers-in-sr-lanka/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamils

https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Plate_%26_Co,_Photographers_(Ceylon)