Easter greeting card. Circa 1930s – 1940s.
Price: $5.00 Size: Folded into four sections, 5 and 1/4 x 3 and 7/8″
This card is prettier “in person” (huh? lol) with the shimmering gold tone when you hold it at an angle. No publisher name or any writing on it at all, other than the inside printed verse:
“Thinking of you?
Well I guess!
Always wish you happiness!
Like to see you?
Would I? Say –
That would be a real joy today!”
Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked April 12, 1911, San Francisco, California. Publisher: International Art Publishing Co. Series 1262. Printed in Germany.
Price: $7.00
Fond Easter Greetings
“Hope and gladness, peace and rest
Make your Easter truly blest.”
Wow, where did the time fly? Easter already! Here’s the first offering for this year, and we’ll try to get a few more up today. This one hearkens back to 1911, a beautiful card of a bunny in an Easter egg, framed by lilies of the valley and a few violets, from the International Art Publishing Co. It was sent by Edna Steacy to Miss Ilma Rogers of 3651 20th St., San Francisco, CA.
Ilma, an unusual name (I kept trying to type Alma) was found on the 1900 Federal Census, born in California, January 1893, the daughter of Charles S. and May C. Rogers. In the household are the parents Charles and May, Charles’ mother Jenny M. Rogers and children Oris R., Ilma F. and Charles S. Rogers, address 227 Chattanooga, San Francisco. So, Ilma was eighteen when she received this card.
Source: Year: 1900; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0108. (Ancestry.com).
Divided back, embossed, unused postcard. Publisher: S. Berman, copyright 1917. Series or number 7025. Printed in the U.S.A.
Price: $5.00
Valentine Wishes….
“Dear Valentine,
What fun ‘twould be
If you would just
Do this with me.”
A charming postcard for Valentine’s day of a bouquet-offering flower fairy – atop a heart decorated with forget me nots. Her wings are gorgeous in maroon and blue (etc.) and she wears a hat of pink flower petals fastened by a garland. Note how the artist has the wings just overlapping the card’s red border. (A common design trick to add some flow and dimension.) This is another from our Alice Ellison Collection.
“To Grandma from Maebelle. Papa & mamma & I have been to Los Angeles a couple of days & mamma & I got a new hat. & I got two new dresses. Yours with love.”
Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 30, 1910, Visalia California. Copyright John Winsch. Printed in Germany.
Price: $6.00
With best New Year Wishes
One more for the New Year…..backtracking 107 years…a profusion of pansies to welcome 1911.
The name or initials of this sincere sender is open to interpretation, but the card was sent to: “Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Blake, 1426 J. St., Fresno, Cal.
John H. Blake appears on the 1911 city directory at the above address, working as a clerk for the S J L & P Corp (San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation). The 1910 Federal Census for Fresno shows he is single, boarding, and living next door at 1424 J. Street, working as a self-employed electrician, and born in California, about 1885. From an Ancestry tree, John Howard Blake married Lydia Mae Clewett in June 1910 (after the census was taken). They didn’t stay at the J Street address long, as the 1912 Fresno directory shows 1019 R Street, with John working as an electrician for Valley Electrical Supply Company. By the 1920, the couple had moved to San Jose.
See Metro Postcard’s entry on John O. Winsch for more on the publisher.
Sources: Polk – Husted Directory Co.’s Fresno and Coalinga City and Fresno County Directory, 1911. p. 48. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.
Polk – Husted Directory Co.’s Fresno and Coalinga City and Fresno County Directory, 1912. p. 53. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.
Year: 1910; Census Place: Fresno Ward 2, Fresno, California; Roll: T624_76; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0037; FHL microfilm: 1374089. (Ancestry.com).
“John Howard Blake.” Clewett/Larson Family Tree. (Ancestry.com). accessed January 14, 2018.
Year: 1920; Census Place: San Jose, Santa Clara, California; Roll: T625_148; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 177. (Ancestry.com).
“John O. Winsch. 1910 – 1915.” W – Publishers. Metropostcard.com. (accessed January 14, 2018).
Divided back, unused postcard. Made in France. Series Nivôse. Publisher: SR. Série Nivôse. Reproduction Interdite. Fabrication Française.
Price: $10.00
Bonne Année
Happy New Year….by the light of the moon: A rustic but romantic artist’s rendition of a home in winter, that you could travel under by boat, almost like a toll gate building, but then not. It’s rather unusual.
Nivôse, from the Latin word nivosus, meaning snowy, was the fourth month in the French Republican Calendar, and the first month of the winter quarter.
The date of the card is unknown, as is any information on the publisher, though we presume the publishing company used the initials “SR.”
Source: Nivôse. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niv%C3%B4se (accessed January 6, 2018).
Divided back, embossed, used postcard. Postmarked December 29, 1909 from Symerton, Illinois. printed in Germany.
Price: $7.00
With New Year Greetings
“How are you, are you catching any rabbits these days. from Uncle Fred.” Addressed to:
“Willard Osburn, Wilmington, Ill.”
A century or so ago, it seems that postcard artists were unconcerned with providing images of drooping roses like the one we have here. I don’t think you’ll see this much today, if at all. But while looking closely at the front of the card we noticed it has a beautiful almost leaf-like pattern with very fine, close vertical lines, maybe to help give the card a little bit of shimmer.
As for Willard, the addressee, he was found on the 1910 Federal Census for Wilmington, Will County, Illinois, born about 1899. So, he’s about ten when he receives this postcard from his Uncle Fred. On the 1910, the household members, all native to Illinois, are: parents, Charles A. and Della B. Osburn; children ages eighteen to five: Blanche A., Leonard L., Hazel H., Edith S., Willard W. and Mildred M.; and domestic servant Howard J. Broderick. Their home was located on Braidwood Road near First Street.
Source: Year: 1910; Census Place: Wilmington, Will, Illinois; Roll: T624_335; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 0203; FHL microfilm: 1374348. (Ancestry.com).
Divided back, unused postcard. Circa 1920s. Publisher unknown. Series 1258 A.
Price: $5.00
A pretty card of a home in the country for 2018:
A New Year Wish
“I wish you luck, indeed I do,
The best of luck for the year that’s new,
And may it last ’till the year is old
And never leave you out in the cold.”
Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 29, 1913, Almena, Kansas.
Price: $3.00
A Happy New Year
A pink rose and some forget-me-nots are framed in blue. (The embossing from the reverse is maybe even nicer – very elegant in white.) And this card was sent to our old friend Lena Davis who we haven’t visited in a while – her cousin Gladys writes:
“Almena Kans. Dec. 30 1913. Dear Cousin, Rec’d your card glad to hear. How is Grandma & all the rest. John’s mother and Sophie are sick took down Wed. We went Sat. and just got home they are better now. Don’t know when we will be up but don’t wait on us. How is Laura, Write soon, Glad.”
Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 22, 1909, Dayton, Indiana. Printed in Germany.
Price: $12.00
“Dear Verna – I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Lizzie Goldsberry.”
Addressed to: “Miss Verna Watkins, Lafayette Ind. R.F.D. No 4.”
Here’s our second angel-tree-deer postcard (see prior post). Our angel in this one is again barefoot in the snow, but this time with wings very visible, and it’s a beautiful scene with wonderful color variation for the snow…dolls in the deer’s “saddle” baskets…church and sunset in background.
There’s an Elizabeth A. Goldsberry showing up in 1909 in Lafayette, Indiana at R.F.D. 3 and she is probably the sender of this card, and a Peter with wife Lizzie at R.F.D. 24 in Dayton, Indiana from the same city directory record.
Verna Watkins, is probably the daughter of Ray and Sadie Watkins, who appears with her parents and older brother Ernest on the 1910 Federal Census for Perry Township, Tippecanoe County. According to this record Verna was born in Indiana, about 1899. Perry is located just north of Dayton, both being located in the Lafayette vicinity.
Sources: R. L. Polk & Co.’s Lafayette Directory with Tippecanoe County, 1907. p. 538. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.
Year: 1910; Census Place: Perry, Tippecanoe, Indiana; Roll: T624_381; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0177; FHL microfilm: 1374394. (Ancestry.com).
Divided back, unused, embossed postcard, 1906. Publisher unknown. Series 108.
Price: $7.00
A merry Christmas
This card, probably printed in Germany, shows an angel in a flowing pink gown carrying a small evergreen through the forest. Accompanying her is a deer bringing Christmas presents. True, we don’t see wings for the angel but then she is barefoot in the snow ( 🙂 this line strikes me funny for some reason) but anyway angel seems to be indicated. And many other cards can be found with this type of angel-tree-deer theme. (We have another one that we’ll put up next.) But underneath this beautiful scene is something that might be easily missed: Two seated gnome-like characters (!) appear in the yellow area, like bookends only looking the wrong way.
As for the names on the back: the card was from J. F. Dodd, Christmas 1906, for Stanley….Tisette/Tintle/Tintte…or ? His surname is pretty hard to read.