Sepia Saturday 157 - Christmas 2012

I've shared pretty much all of my festive, vintage postcards over the years, so was pleased to pick up a couple of new ones last weekend, and just in time for this week's Sepia Saturday.

Christmas Greetings, Shakespeare Memorial, by the artist Elmer Keene, c.1905

A Merry Xmas, c.1907

As usual, 100's of vintage postcards on my web site, and about 200 new ones to be added over the Christmas break. A very Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone who reads and comments on my blog posts ... and if you've not looked at my vintage postcard advent calendar yet, why not take a peek and see what's behind today's window.

Postcard Friendship Friday 146

I really should be going off to be now as I have to catch the early train to London in the morning, so just a short post to participate in this week's Postcard Friendship Friday and share a couple of recently acquired vintage Christmas postcards. I don't usually pick up postcards which are from other countries, but these 2 caught my eye.

Vintage Christmas postcard from Finland, c.1933

Vintage Christmas postcard from Estonia, c.1927

As usual 100's more vintage postcards can be found on my web site

    
... and don't forget to check out my vintage postcards advent calendar which features a different vintage Christmas postcard or card behind each window up to December 25th ... but no peeking !!

Sepia Saturday 105 - Happy Christmas

 A big Happy Christmas to Alan for hosting Sepia Saturday, and also to everyone who has ever participated, and commented on my posts. Fairly sure I've not shared this one before.

Vintage panel postcard, published by C.W.Faulkner

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

Sunday Stamps 49 - Christmas Aerogrammes

My posting for this week's Sunday Stamps are stamps, but perhaps not in the conventional sense. These are in fact aerogrammes, which are basically pre-printed, pre-stamped, airmail weight letters. They almost certainly came as a gift from my mother who always bought me first day covers, but I don't remember them at all, and they were hidden away in the inside flap of my album. Bit what a find, and very appropriate for Christmas.

Christmas aerogramme, designed by Carol Walkin

Christmas aerogramme, designed by Victoria Ambrus

Christmas aerogramme, designed by Harry Titcombe

So another year is almost at its end. I can't believe how quickly this one has gone. My eldest has just finished his GCSE mock exams, my middle one is now a good 2 inches taller than me, and my youngest has just started senior school. So a big Happy Christmas to everyone reading this, and thanks for all the great comments on my blog posts throughout the year. My New Year's resolution is to find time to comment more on other people's postings.

As usual 100's of vintage postcards on my web site and also don't forget to see what's behind the door of my vintage postcard advent calendar

    

Sepia Saturday 105 - Hark! Hark! the Lark

Inspired by Alan's posting in this week's Sepia Saturday of a festive feast which included stuffed larks, I have decided to follow the theme of larks with this vintage postcard called, Hark! Hark! the Lark.

Hark! Hark! the Lark, vintage postcard, c.1920's

And continuing on the food theme, and seemingly in the same postcard series, is this one called, If music be the food of love, play on.

If Music be the Food of Love, Play On, vintage postcard, c.1920's

Both postcards were published by Edward Gross, Curtis Publishing.

As usual 100s more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sepia Saturday 103

I thought I had just the picture for this week's Sepia Saturday when I saw Alan's post of a nurse. It was a picture of the actress Ann Todd, in a nurse's uniform, on the cover of a 1945 Picturegoer magazine. However, to my surprise I found that I had already blogged this back in March this year. Instead I am participating, but not theming, with a vintage Christmas greetings postcard from 1918. The postcard was published by Rotary.

A Merry Xmas, vintage Christmas greetings postcard, c.1918

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Postcard Friendship Friday 92

Having blogged a different vintage Christmas postcard pretty much every day in December 2010, I'm trying to avoid blogging the same ones again this year. Pretty sure the one below is a relatively recent arrival. It's a beautiful, artist drawn, postcard of Oxford Cathedral. The publisher is S.Hildesheimer (one of my favourite publishers) and the card dates back to 1909. Unfortunetaly there's no artist name on either side of the postcard.

By the way, anyone wanting to see the 25 vintage Christmas postcards and cards I shared last year can look at my vintage postcard advent calendar ... but no peeking (in fact if my somewhat primitive code logic still works this year then it shouldn't allow you to peek past the current day).

Vintage Christmas gretings postcard of Oxford Cathedral, published by Hildesheimer

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Theme Thursday - Inside

Another week has sped past. I just don't know where this year has gone. This week's Theme Thursday of Inside was quite a challenge, but hopefully this offering hits the mark. It's a vintage New Year card, showing both the inside and outside of the card, and now we're actually in December I feel I can now start sharing Christmas and New Year items.

Vintage New Year card

For more vintage Christmas postcards, take a look at my vintage postcard advent calendar which reveals a different vintage postcard every day up to 25th December.

    

Sunday Stamps 43 - Australia and New Zealand

Well I couldn't decide whether to choose Australia or New Zealand for this week's Sunday Stamps so I ended up selecting a stamp from both. The first stamp if from Australia and depicts Christmas 1957. I am normally a firm advocate of keeping Christmas in December, but this seemed like an opportunity not to miss.

Christmas 1957, Australia

The second stamp is from New Zealand, and is an 8d stamp from New Zealand, c.1986, from the Peace series, and shows a Knight holding a banner depicting the Cross of St George - from the stained glass window of the Wellington College Memorial Hall.

 Peace, New Zealand, c.1946

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - Christmas Day - 25th December

Well, I finally come to the last of the 25 vintage Christmas postcards and cards, and I'm signing off, a few hours early unless you're in Australia or New Zealand, with probably my favourite. When I started out with the intention of posting a card a day throughout December, I thought it would be quite easy, but as you'll have noticed there were some days where I had to play catchup and post 2 or 3 on the same day. I hope everyone has enjoyed the advent calendar and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year. In the meantime, now that I've finished work until next year, I'll have to don my thinking cap and come up with some imaginative vintage postcard themes for 2011 ... and one of my New Year's resolutions will to to devote more time and energy to my vintage books and magazines blog whilst of course not neglecting this one.

Vintage Christmas card, published by Wildt and Kray

More vintage postcards can be found on my web site. Categories include Raphael Tuck, Frith, Valentine, English topographical, greetings postcards, and many, many more.

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - 24th December

My Christmas Eve vintage postcard is another one of those slightly odd, minimalist combo cards. Compared to some of the others I have shared this one is quite 'dull' but nevertheless does have a certain charm. I suspect for many of you this will be the last of the 25 postcards and cards you'll see this side of Christmas as you'll no doubt be very busy this evening and tomorrow. So thanks to everyone for all the wonderful comments and I hope you all have a fantasic Christmas and New Year. To see a web page with all 25 postcards and cards, please have a look at my vintage postcard advent calendar ... although you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the last one to reveal itself.

Vintage Christmas greetings postcard, published by Wildt and Kray

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Vintge postcard advent calendar - December 23rd

This is one of the Christmas postcards which I was considering not using as I didn't think it was that good. However, the scanner has definitely brought the colours out better than they look on the actual postcard. The postcard has not been posted so no idea about the date I'm afraid.

Vintage Christmas greetings postcard, published by E.A.Schwerdtfeger

As always, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sepia Saturday 55 - Christmas and the Empire, c.1898

My blog entry for the Christmas Sepia Saturday is causing my normally ordered mind some internal grief ... it's not Saturday, my posting is not sepia, it's not festive and although it's not a postcard I'm putting it on my vintage postcard blog. The reason for breaking all 4 unwritten rules is that I was inspired by the word 'Empire' in Alan's post. I can't have looked through my childhood stamp collection for years, but the vivid memory I had of this stamp was overwhelming. It took a while to find it but I had at least remembered it came from Canada, which narrowed it down a bit.

Actually, since starting this write-up I realised that I have in fact, albeit accidentally, not broken one of the rules. Something I had never noticed before until I scanned the stamp was that it infact is a Christmas stamp, from 1898. The 'empire' link was obviously more memorable to me with the wording 'We Hold A Vaster Empire Than Has Been'. This is not meant to be a jingoistic post, but more a reflection on our history, and the importance placed on 'empire' by many nations at the time. Perhaps I should do a follow-up in the New Year called 'The Empire Strikes Back', to reflect the decline of the Empire and the quest for independence from it.

1898 Christmas stamp from Canada, 'We Hold a Vaster Empire Than Has Been'

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - 22nd December

Just 3 days to go now. It's been a strange build up to Christmas for me this year. As there was a full week leading up to the big day, I've not taken any time off work (thought I'd save it for the summer assuming we have one this year). So whilst these posts are keeping me festive, most other things are continuing as normal, including work which should be winding down but if anything is ramping up.

Vintage Christmas greetings postcard, published by Birn Brothers

As always, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - December 19th, 20th and 21st

Once again I seem to have managed to get hopelessly behind with what I had hoped to be daily postings, so today I'm posting 3-in-1 again. These are all vintage Christmas greetings cards rather than postcards. My favourite is the first one, probably because it's by one of my favourite publishers, Raphael Tuck.

Vintage Christmas card published by Raphael Tuck

Vintage Christmas card, published by Wildt and Kray

Vintage Christmas card, published by Wildt and Kray

As always, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, and the full vintage postcard advent calendar

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - December 18th

For today's advent calendar postcard, here's another of those odd 'multi-theme' postcards. I think either the holly or the snowy scene would have worked well in their own way, but to combine them seems odd to me.

Vintage Christmas Greeting postcard published by Stewart and Woolf, c.1908

As always, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Vintage postcards - Winter scenes

Having posted the majority, if not all of my vintage Christmas postcards and cards as part of my vintage postcard advent calendar, I have decided to break with the Christmas posts for a while but keep firmly in winter. The 3 vintage postcards below are all lovely winter scenes, but other than that I know very little about them. The 2nd and 3rd are both panel cards published by C.W.Faulkner, with the 3rd having the artist initials of J.W.G or possibly J.M.G ... anyone know who that might be?

Olio postcard published by G.A.and Co., Ltd

Vintage panel postcard published by C.W.Faulkner, by the artist J.W.G

Vintage panel postcard published by C.W.Faulkner, c.1917

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - December 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th

I didn't quite plan to post 4 days in one but the weather in Europe this week changed my plans. Following a delayed flight to Cologne which was diverted to Frankfurt because Cologne airport was briefly closed and the plane did not have enough fuel to continue circling, we eventually arrived at Cologne some 4 hours late at 2am. This was followed by 2 days of meetings and a bit of Christmas partying, so needless to say even though I'd prepared myself to upload in my absence there was no time - I must investigate the 'post options' for a future time. Anyway, enough rambling, below are the vintage postcards and cards for December 14th - 17th.

Vintage Christmas Greetings postcard, published by Raphael Tuck, by the artist Ernest Longstaffe, c.1908.

Vintage Christmas card published by Wildt and Kray

Vintage Christmas Greetings postcard, published by Ernest Nister, c.1913

Vintage Christmas card published by Raphael Tuck

Check out my web site for the full vintage postcard advent calendar

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - December 11th, 12th and 13th

Sorry, busy weekend. No time for words, just pictures ... early part of the coming week looks manic too, but hopefully 'normal' service will resume soon.

As always, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site and to see the full advent calendar

    

Vintage postcard advent calendar - December 10th

This may be my last post for a couple of days, all depends whether there's a decent enough GPRS or 3G signal where I'm going. One thing's for sure there's definitely no wi-fi. This is probably the strangest vintage Christmas postcard I've come across. For me the strangeness is that nothing seems to fit together. The three people on horses all look as though they're from different disciplines (jockey, huntsman and cowboy) and then there's the insert of the 3 cats oddly placed across what I assume is the snowy background.

As always 100's more vintage postcards on my web site and also the full advent calendar