Sepia Saturday 94 - vintage postcards of Essex

Despite searching through both my vintage postcards and my vintage magazines, I was at a loss to find anything relating to any of the obvious prompts in this week's Sepia Saturday. I have nothing on Australia, Queensland, polo, horses or toys. But then I noticed Jean Harlow. I don't actually have anything relating to Jean Harlow either, but there's a place called Harlow in Essex, and I do have lots of vintage postcards of Essex. So, in convoluted and roundabout way I am theming this week, albeit a bit tenuously.

Essex is one of those places where I can't remember ever going. Ok, so I've probably been to the parts of it which border on to East London, such as Epping Forest, but I'm pretty sure I've never made it as far as the coast. When I used to travel abroad a lot with work, I would always enjoy gazing out of the aircraft window as we descended towards London along the outer reaches of the Thames Estuary, with Essex to the north and Kent to the south, mentally adding both coasts to my list of places to visit.

Clacton-on-Sea, pier approach and bridge, c.1916

Southend-on-Sea, beach and pleasure yachts, c.1926

Westcliff-on-Sea, on the cliffs

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, including a recently added Essex page. I still have a backlog of approx 200 to process but hopefully they'll get added over the next few weeks, although given the fantastic weather we're enjoying in the UK this week, I can't see me spending much time in front of the scanner or computer this weekend.

    

Sepia Saturday 93 - vintage carte de visite (with sideburns)

From Alan's post in this week's Sepia Saturday I've picked out the theme of sideburns. Perhaps this was not the most obvious of themes but it's one that struck me the most. Also, as I've not posted carte de visite for a while I thought I'd shelve the vintage postcards for this week and share a CDV instead. There's no clue as to who this person is, but he does bear a striking resemblance to Colin Firth ... maybe a long lost relative. The annotation on the back of the card simply reads, For Nelly, 1866.

Carte de visite, c.1866, by photographer Davy, 77 Union Street, Stonehouse Devon

Back of the Carte de Visite

    

Sunday Stamps 36 - South America

This week's Sunday Stamps was a bit of a challenge for me. As I've no doubt mentioned before, my stamp collection was handed down from my father and mainly consisted of stamps that were sent on letters and postcards from relatives who were serving in various British Commonwealth countries (mainly Africa). I had to search low and high for any South American stamps at all, but I eventually found these 2 in what was probably a page from my very first stamp album. Unfortunately however I know next to nothing about these stamps. I did tyr and research them on the internet but became not much useful information turned up ... suspect I was being too impatient. So I have no idea of the dates of these stamps.

The first stamp is a 3 Pesos stamp of Tierra del Fuego, and the second is a 50 centavos stamp of Pozo de Petroleo en el Mar (which roughly translates to Oil Well in the Sea). This one has been overstamped with Servicio Oficial.

    

Vintage postcard of Penzance, c.1907

I picked up this vintage postcard a couple of weeks ago in a batch of 200 or so. To be honest I kept moving it lower down in the pile as it's quite tatty, but having taken the time to look at it in more detail this evening, I think it's really quite beautiful. The colours of the sky are incredible and feel very autumnal, which is just about right as the leaves start to turn here in the UK. The postcard is of Penzance, Cornwall, c.1907 and was published by S.Hildesheimer in the Cornish Views series, number 5377. The artist is Robert Gallon.

Vintage postcard of Penzance, Cornwall, c.1907

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

Sepia Saturday 92 - the S.S.Worthing

Inspired by Alan's rail-sea-combo photograph for this week's Sepia Saturday I've found something related to both train travel and sea crossings. The vintage postcard below is of the British Railways ship, the S.S.Worthing. It operated on the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing. Before becoming the property of British Railways it was operated by Southern Railways. Even earlier than that it was used as a troop carrier during the war. In 1955 the ship was sold to Greece and renamed as the Phryni (which apparently refers to an ancient people of eastern Central Asia).

I think the postcard actually makes it look almost like a model ship on a boating lake in a park somewhere, but I guess we should assume this is the Channel.

Vintage postcard of the S.S.Worthing

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

    

Theme Thursday - Memory

For this week's Theme Thursday I was sure that I had an interesting old record that had the word 'memory' in the title, but alas it would seem not to be the case ... guess my memory is failing me on that account. So, it's my vintage postcard collection that once again comes to the rescue. This is a vintage birthday greetings postcard which contains the following verse ...

The memories sweet of years

Gone by arise

Like stars that brighten

Dark and dreary skies

The postcard is postally unused so I can't be sure of the date but would guess at around the 1920's. I think I've mentioned this before in a previous blog entry about horseshoes on cards, but as a child I was always told that horseshoes should be positioned with the open end facing upwards so that the luck did not fall out. Strange therefore that this postcard, and all the postcards I have with horseshoes have it opening downwards ... given that this is a birthday card, perhaps the idea is to share the luck rather than keeping it to yourself.

Vintage birthday greetings postcard

Lots more vintage birthday postcards on my web site

    

Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'A' ... perhaps

Whenever I get what I think might be a lettercard, I always think that perhaps I'm imagining that I can see a letter in the design. I definitely felt this about the vintage postcard of the letter 'W' that I blogged about a while ago, and this recently acquired vintage postcard is perhaps causing me even more to question my vision. But I'm sure that, what I assume to be some sort of musical instrument, is in fact supposed to represent the letter 'A'. However, I've checked out more cards in the series on the Tuck database, and none of the others seem to suggest a letter at all - what does everyone think? The postcard is a hand-coloured 'carbonette' and was published by Raphael Tuck, in the Fair Women series, number 8801, and dates back to 1918.

Vintage birthday greetings postcard, c.1918

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

Vintage Postcard of London Bridge in Torquay, Devon

Thought I'd share another of my new batch of vintage postcards for this week's Postcard Friendship Friday. This is of London Bridge, but it's not in London, it's actually a limestone arch, in Torquay, Devon. The postcard was published by S.Hildesheimer. It's postally unused so I can't be sure of the date. but these card normally date back to 1905 - 1911. The postcard is artist drawn but I cannot see any indication of the artist's name. If anyone has any more information I'd love to know.

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

    

Sepia Saturday 91 - Yours Sincerely, Frank

I've decided not to theme again for this week's Sepia Saturday, but hopefully what I have to offer will be of interest. I picked up a whole batch of vintage postcards last week, so now have a pile of 200+ to sort through. These will make their way on to my various blogs and websites over the next few weeks, but for now here are the first couple, with perhaps a mystery to be solved.

The postcard itself is of a cottage in Brading on the Isle of Wight, c.1902. It was published by Raphael Tuck in the "Rural England" series and is postcard number 1469. It's a vignette style postcard as, at that time, senders were only allowed to write on the front of the card, so the white space around the picture is used for the greeting. As you can see the sender of the card has squeezed in about as much as is possible.

Cottage at Brading, Sile of Wight, c.1902

I don't normally share the other side of the card, but the back of this postcard is a great example of an undivided back, allowing the sender to write only the address.

Undivided back of cottage postcard, c.1902

And now for the mystery. I picked up the postcard below in the same batch as the one above. Both seem to be signed by Frank. There is some similarity in the signatures, but also some differences. I can imagine that the signature on the picture of Frank was written very deliberately and carefully, whereas the postcard has been written a bit more impulsively. So, the mystery is, is Frank in the picture the same Frank who wrote the postcard. The postcard of Frank was published by Heyworth's Studios, St. Annes-on-Sea, Lancashire. So if it's the same Frank he must have gone to the Isle of Wight, bought the postcard, and posted it on his way home to Lancashire as the postmark on the cottage postcard is Manchester.

Yours sincerely, Frank

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, which should be updated over the next few weeks

    

Sunday Stamps 34 - Fishing

Here's my contribution to this week's Sunday Stamps. This is a First Day Cover from September 1981, commemorating the British fishing industry. The insert of the envelope refers to the abundance of cod, which is now sadly depleted in our waters. I did see a very good documentary featuring a number of chefs, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, etc., talking about eating sustainable fish, as opposed to those in danger. There's a whole wealth of information on The Big Fish Fight web site.

First Day Cover, Fishing, c.1981

    

Vintage postcard of Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol, c.1902

I'm a bit late for Postcard Friendship Friday this week as I've been away with work. I've just got time however to share a recently acquired vintage postcard of the magnificent Clifton Bridge, Bristol, c.1902. I always find it incredible that structures such as these were built over 100 years ago with none of the machinery we have today.

Clifton Bridge, Bristol, c.1902

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

    

Sepia Saturday 90 - traditional dress

I've been working away most of this week so am a little late in all my regular blog postings. Here's my submission for this week's Sepia Saturday. This vintage postcard is, I assume, of some sort of traditional dancers or other music ensemble. There's no information on the picture at all but it looks as though it might be Eastern European. If anyone has any other suggestions I'd be very glad to hear them.

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