Vintage Postcards of Happy Valley

I'm not sure I've ever been to a place called "Happy Valley". It almost sounds as though it belongs inside some sort of theme park. Of course the Monkeys sang about "Pleasant Valley Sunday", but again it always sounded somewhat fictional, even if perhaps an accurate relection of mid-60's suburban pleasantry. However, I have come across vintage postcards of Happy Valley, and what's more, there are several different Happy Valleys.

Happy Valley from Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales, c.1964

Happy Valley, Malvern, c.1957

Happy Valley, Westcliff-on-Sea

Happy Valley, Tunbridge Wells, c.1912

I'm very sure there are tens of other Happy Valleys out there, just waiting for me to find.

Vintage postcards by the artist Charles Flower

Three beautiful, artist drawn, vintage postcards by the artrist Charles E Flower. Postcards were all published by Raphael Tuck.

1. The Baptistery, Canterbury Cathedral, Tuck's oilette, series 7021
2. The Choir, Westminster Abbey, Tuck's oilette, series 7033
3. Entrance to St. James's Palace, Tuck's Aquarette, series 6257

See my web site for loads more Raphael Tuck postcards

Raphael Tuck vintage postcards - Cornish Coast Series

Today's vintage postcard selection comprises of 3 beautiful, artist drawn postcards by the artist H.B.Wimbush. Dating from around 1909, these postcards are all published by Raphael Tuck in the "Cornish Coast" series, number 9723. Two of them have smooth borders whilst the third one has a textured border ... maybe there was more than one priniting of this series?

Falmouth, Pendennis Point

St. Michael's Mount

The Island, Newquay, c.1909

See my vintage postcards by Raphael Tuck page for more.

Vintage postcards with embossed borders

A couple of vintage postcards today with embossed borders. It's always surprised me how much detail went into making some of these cards. The first is of The Bridge of Sighs, St. John's College, Cambridge. The picture on the card is nice enough, but the embossed green and gold border finishes the card off well. On my version the green border has cracked a little, giving it an almost leather-like look.

The next postcard is of a busy scene around the Pavilion, Ramsgate, Kent, c.1910. Again the picture on the postcard is interesting enough to stand on its own, but the finishing touch of the detailed gold border makes it stand out even more.

More vintage postcards like these on my web site. Feel free to have a look around.

Vintage Christmas postcards

A couple more vintage Christmas postcards today. The one of a child is from 1906 but is somewhat odd, in that apart from the Christmas greeting does not seem Christmas-like at all.

The other one was published by Stewart and Woolf, series number 654, and dates back to 1907

Vintage postcards of pools

I'm not talking about swimming pools, or outdoor bathing pools (although I do have some postcards covering those areas as well). What I'm referring to here are probably best described as small lakes, some inland and freshwater, some tidal.

The first one is a Harvey Barton postcard of The Blue Pool, near Wareham in Dorset. Lovely colours but clearly heavily tinted or 'colourised'. It's postally unused so no idea of date.

The second one is a Frith postcard of The Silent Pool, Shere, Surrey. This one is postally used and was posted from Guildford to Basingstoke on 16th April 1906. The greeting in the card reads "Arrived safe - went to Silent Pool Friday, went to Jack's yesterday, and hope to go to Godalming today, so you see have been very busy. All well here."

Linen vintage postcards of the USA

I generally only tend to collect postcards of Great Britain, but over the years have managed to accumulate a reasonable number from other countries. Interestingly a bunch of Curteich, linen postcards were amongst my first acquisitions when I caught the postcard bug about 5 years ago, and it wasn't until I was doing a bit of organising recently that I re-discovered them. This one is of Point Lookout, East Windham, New York state, on the Mohican Trail in the Catskills. It was published by C.W.Hughes and Co., number 9A-H194.

This next postcard is of The Old Man of the Mountains by Moonlight, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This one does not have a publisher's name, but is numbered 132L

I'm very sure that these range and style of postcards cover many more subjects and states than I have found. The ones I've come across seem to be mainly topographic postcards of New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Visit my web site to see more vintage postcards of the USA.