Photo, white border. Dated July 28, 1938.
Price: $4.00 Size: 3 and 9/16 x 2 and 1/2″
We’re still at Lake Michigan from the last post….This time at one of the beaches at South Haven, Michigan on July 28, 1938, where a young girl in an inner tube and an adult, pose for the snapshot. No names on the back but we just like this old reminder of summers at the beach in days past.
Divided back postcard, postmarked August 18, 1911, Chicago, Illinois. Number or series 575.
Price: $6.00
Imagine today, fishing off a pier attired in a suit coat and bowler hat! Pretty cool. It’s t-shirts and baseball caps now, though. But it’s a nice card from an unknown publisher. And it may have been one of the type where the original image was a photo that appeared in a newspaper, that subsequently got tinted and made into postcards. Funny that you can read some letters on the folded newspaper that is sticking out of the jacket pocket of the young gent on the left. Wonder if that was something the postcard producer did, and I’m thinking yes, because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to tell what it was supposed to be. (This is like “…inside the mind of…circa 1911” type of thing. But not necessarily an idle thought since we know from prior research that photo images were often altered for postcard use.)
Addressed to: “Miss Lela Hartman. 141 Hancock St. Newark, Ohio.”
The sender writes: “Hello Lela – How are you getting along? Having a good time playing with Alice and Tom? How would you like to go fishing in Lake Michigan? Wouldn’t that be fun? Love from ‘Annie.’ “
Lela A. Hartman is only about four years old when she receives this postcard from Annie, who is probably one of her playmates. She is the daughter of Herman H. and Maude W. (Powers) Hartman. All are native to Ohio. Herman on the 1910 Federal Census is a mounter at a stove factory.
Sources: Year: 1910; Census Place: Newark Ward 3, Licking, Ohio; Roll: T624_1204; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0088; FHL microfilm: 1375217. (Ancestry.com).
Original data: Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. (Ancestry.com).
Domestic Sewing Machine Company trade card, circa 1880s – 1890s.
Price: $7.00 Size: 3 and 1/8 x 4 and 7/8″
Here’s a nice restful scene to gaze upon – and one of many trade cards to be found for the Domestic Sewing Machine Company. If you search old newspapers online look for them under the shorter version Domestic S. M. Co. Below, an early ad, from 1872. Love the line directed toward any non-Domestic sewing machine sales reps, “It don’t pay you to fight the best Machine.”
For detailed info on Domestic we found a good site for s.m. co.s (Getting into the spirit of the times, lingo-wise 😉 )
Domestic Sewing Machine Company
Sources: “The ‘Light Running’ Domestic.” Nashville Union and American. (Nashville, TN). November 17, 1872. Sunday, p. 2. (Newspapers.com).
“The Domestic Sewing Machine Co.”. Fiddlebase.com. (Accessed August 3, 2019.)
Old photo, white border, circa 1920s – 1930s.
Price: $2.00 Size: 2 and 1/2 x 4 and 1/4″
Well, we were looking for military-related items for Memorial Day but have none at the moment. This will be the closest, a young woman in a sailor dress. Was this just fashion or could she have actually been in the navy? We suspect the former, but maybe someone out there can fill us in. Notice the water pump in the background. There is no writing on the back and no indication of where this might have been taken. Just one of millions of loose photos that were a part of someone’s family collection and ended up in a random box. Sad, but it’s nice to rescue these type, and bring them back to life. I like the woman’s gracefulness and her pose in profile. (And isn’t it funny how we tend to romanticize these moments, frozen in time. In reality, what would the woman say about this snapshot? Oh, that was me when……I was just…..)
Real Photo Postcard, circa 1907 – 1915
Price: $15.00 Size: 3 and 3/16 x 5 and 3/8″
“Mrs. Avildsen at Corona 11660 feet El.”
The location for this one was a mystery, until we (thankfully) received the comment from one of our readers. So, this has to be Rollins Pass which was sometimes called Corona Pass, and is located in the Southern Rocky Mountains.
Postcard publisher unknown, so far
The postcard publisher or printer is another mystery. I’m not seeing this particular style of Real Photo Postcard back on any other site or in Walter Corson’s Publisher’s Trademarks Identified. Also, the size is a little smaller that the average RPPC (and the bottom doesn’t seem to have been cropped). If the card was produced in the U.S. the postal regulations didn’t allow for the divided back until December 1907.
Source: Rollins Pass. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollins_Pass#Summer_and_early_autumn (accessed February 15, 2021).
Carte-de-visite. Circa 1890s. Davos, Switzerland
Availability Status: SOLD Size: 4 and 1/16 x 2 and 7/16″
Circa 1890’s, Davos, Switzerland….
Here’s a carte-de-visite found at an antique shop on the Central Coast of California. And, it’s always a thrill to get a photo scanned to the computer (mentally rubbing hands together in anticipation of being hit with the wow factor, or the “hmmmmm factor”, which is just as good, or better, the intrigue, you know….which can then lead us to the wow factor. 😉 ) But, it can’t be stretching the point to say that each item anyone finds (or has, or looks at, or whatever) whether it’s a postcard, a photo, a trade card, a calling card, or some other enchanting piece of ephemera, likewise a piece of furniture, jewelry, etc., is like a key just waiting to open, or re-open, multiple doorways. Come to think about it everything has a history, even a scrap of paper lying on the ground outside….The contemplation of the history of everything is mind-blowing, which leads one to thinking about the inter-connectedness of everything and everyone, no doorways now, just like a billion times a billion, or better, infinity times infinity of criss-crossed links, well….really just oneness. (Is this how enlightenment happens for some, the contemplation of a piece of dust or a scrap of paper?)
Alpine air and wonderful shops
Davos, Switzerland, circa 1890s: A street scene showing the Centralhof, (Central court) which is the tall building, (guessing this might have been an apartment building or hotel) and attached to the Centralhof a line of single-story shops; of these, the two store names that we can discern are, on the left, Albert Mayer Juwelier (Jewelry store) and on the right Tob. Branger. Click the image to enlarge and note at the top of the Branger window, there’s a phrase of some sort, the second word appears to be Voyage. The first word appears to start with an “A” so, maybe it was the poetic, l’Art du Voyage: It turns out that Tobias (pronounced TOE-be-us) Branger and brother Johannes owned a shop specializing in, “…sporting equipment and ‘travelling utensils.’ ”
All who wander…..
A little research explodes into lots of (snow-covered) paths to wander down…..Wow! Tobias Branger, thought to be the first professional ski instructor in the Alps…..he and brother Johannes teaching author Arthur Conan Doyle to ski….the history of Alpine skiing…..Doyle’s contribution to Davos as a winter sports destination….Davos’ history as a health resort for tuberculosis sufferers….the life of Louisa Doyle, Conan’s first wife…..Tobias’ “Norwegian snowshoes” (were they in the shop window at the time of the carte-de-visite photo?)….Alpine skiing with one pole….night skiing to avoid ridicule (I’m picturing the Brangers and other pioneers hanging out with today’s winter X sports pioneers and contributors – kindred spirits, for sure.) Wonderful articles online abound – see the links further below. And a question: Is that Tobias and Johannes Branger posing outside their shop in the photo? A definite maybe. And though Tobias Branger and Conan Doyle are said to have looked remarkably alike, of the two, it would seem to be Tobias (on our left) in the image. See the comparison photos in In the Tracks of Sherlock Holmes, first link below.
Location confirmation
Backtracking a little, not being certain, at first, that the scene on our card was really Davos, we found mention of jeweler Albert Mayer, in the Dutch publication shown below, which is a guide for the treatment center for lung ailments and a travel guide. Description of some of the shops lists Mayer’s as having “the finest gold works, watches and rings,” and just to mention a couple more, a store selling Swiss wood carvings and (one can picture how the author of this booklet was charmed at finding) a flower shop with [Google translation from Dutch] “the most robust little bouquets, even in winter when the trampled snow outside the shops is at least two feet high.”
In the Tracks of Sherlock Holmes
Davos – the pioneer: Winter tourism in the Alps
The Davos sledge: A classic among sports equipment
Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle
More musings on the carte details….
Was there some occasion for this photograph, or was it just the occasion of a photographer taking a photo circa 1890s? Note the three people on the second story outdoor courtyard area of the Centralhof building, two ladies on the left and a man on the right. (This from inspection under a magnifying glass – feeling a little Sherlock Holmes-y, for sure….) Other details to note are the duffel-looking bags (maybe mail bags) in front of both Albert Mayer’s and the Brangers’ shop; the poster advertisement – a mustachioed man with epaulets pointing in the distance and young woman just below him, it’s maybe a company name advertised there (almost readable) ; the iron balconies of the Centralhof building; the beautiful horizontal stripe effect of the mason work on the shop fronts….
Sources: Stashower, Daniel. Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. Henry Holt & Co., 1999. Google Books accessed March 31, 2013.
Davos – the pioneer: Winter tourism in the Alps. (www.davos.ch.) Accessed March 31, 2019.
The Davos sledge: A classic among sports equipment. (www.davos.ch.) Accessed March 31, 2019.
Louisa Hawkins. The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. (www.arthur-conan-doyle.com) Accessed March 31, 2019.
Huntford, Roland. Two Planks and a Passion: The Dramatic History of Skiing. Continuum UK, 2008. Google Books accessed March 31, 2013.
Rosenblatt, Albert and Julia. “In the Tracks of Sherlock Holmes.” Skiing. February 1982. pp. 74-78. Google Books accessed March 31, 2013.
Andriessen, Willem Frederik. Davos: eene beschrijving van het leven in dit herstellingsoord voor borstlijders. Van Raven, 1888. p. 56. Google Books accessed March 31, 2013.
Divided back, artist-signed postcard. Postmarked August 8, 1910, England. Artist: Wilmot Lunt. City of postmark unknown.
Price: $30.00
The postcard artist
The beautiful artwork for this postcard is that of the frontispiece (the page adjacent to the title page of a book) and is signed Wilmot Lunt. He was Samuel Wilmot Lunt (1856 – 1939) painter and cartoonist, and was also the illustrator for R. D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone. For more on Lunt see James Malone Farrell’s article, “Keeping the Home Folks Laughing” published in Cartoons Magazine, July 1918.
The reverse of the card shows:
“This book is by a cousin of mine and it would be so kind if you would ask for it in your Library. It is really quite readable and he is anxious[?] to [?] know[?] as it is his first book. Love, D. D.”
Addressed to: “Rvd. Arthur Dolphin. The College, Durham”
A great find
This postcard turns out to have been a pretty neat find: It’s not in the best of shape but is seemingly rare, the only one found so far, plus the note to the addressee contains a little insight regarding the author’s feelings, according to his cousin, about the release of his first book. Some of the sender’s handwriting is difficult to read, but I think the word there is “anxious” rather than “curious” and who would not be anxious regarding the reception of their first major work?
Armchair research
It’s a little surprising (same for the postcard artist) that there is no Wikipedia or similar type entry yet on the author; we found mention of over twenty titles to his credit. Our web post here will not be in-depth, as that would require much more research, so we’ll just offer instead bits and pieces gleaned from the usual sources, including an article we found in which the author is quoted. But it’s fascinating how a little fact-finding can get the imagination going….while pulling up bits of information one pictures pieces of a puzzle starting to take shape. For instance, for me, I’m surmising Guy Lawrence liked dogs (therefor I like him) as he did at least four books about dogs, Doings In Dogland (1905), Biffin & Buffin (1934), Tob and His Dog (1938) and Bob et Bobby (1963) the latter being in french, and written with Julianna Ewing. But then after coming across an ad for sheepdog-training that stressed the necessity of correct instruction (the working dog would be vital to the livestock holder) next to a mention of James Rawlence, Esq., Guy’s grandfather, agriculturist and livestock breeder, it hit me that Guy probably grew up around dogs. Not that this is any great revelation, or not that one wouldn’t have assumed this anyway, but at this point this “dog” puzzle piece became something specific to the whole picture; it shimmered into view, and that seemed charming. But, I guess the bottom line is that our imagination about someone else’s life tells us, for sure, something about ourselves, and possibly, if we’ve intuited correctly, something about the person in question.
Guy Rawlence (1888 – 1971)
Edward Guy Rawlence was born March 10, 1888, baptized May 10, 1888 in Wilton, Wiltshire County, England, son of James Edward Rawlence, whose occupation at the time was given as auctioneer, and Constance (maiden name Vivian) Rawlence. That’s livestock auctioneer for J. E. Rawlence, as J. E.’s father (Guy’s grandfather) was James Rawlence, a very prominent land agent, agriculturist and livestock breeder in the area. Judging from a number of newspaper articles, Guy Rawlence’s stories received mostly positive reviews. The Romantic Road, published in 1910, was found mentioned in the following “snippet” view in the publication, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Vol. 34, and informs us that this book about a “girl highwayman” was well-reviewed and the story setting was largely in the author’s backyard. Rawlence would have been about twenty-two when it was published.
Prior to 1910, we found mention of a short story, The White Cavalier, circa 1905, and as previously stated, the children’s book Doings in Dogland (1905). The Highwayman, published in 1911, may have been, judging by the date, Rawlence’s second novel. Click the link to see the eBook.
Below, we were happy to come across this article, in which the author is quoted, from The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, IL) July 1, 1927.
Gushing reviews for Three Score & Ten, appeared in London’s The Observer, October 16, 1924.
Another book we’d like to read, in addition to the above, per the review that appeared in The Observer, November 17, 1935.
Update – from Lynne B. (a relative of Guy) who very kindly gives us the following:
“Guy Rawlence was my late husband’s great uncle but unfortunately I do not know much about him personally or as an author except that, as well as a number of novels Guy also wrote one-act plays, and short stories which were published in newspapers and journals.
This postcard was written by Dorothy Dolphin to her husband’s nephew, Reverend Arthur Rollinson Dolphin, who was a Clerk in Holy Orders (Church of England), Minor Canon and Schoolmaster at the Diocesan Mission House in Durham. I think the first word on the address is possibly Revd (the standard abbreviation for Reverend).
Mrs Dorothy Dolphin was the daughter of Robert Parker and his wife Emma Catherine Rawlence, younger sister of James Edward Rawlence, making Guy and Dorothy first cousins.
Guy’s paternal grandfather James Rawlence was a farmer of 1000 acres, a prominent breeder of sheep (he developed the new Hampshire Down breed), land agent to the Earl of Pembroke and known for his philanthropy. James and his wife Mary Jane Rooke were both descended from the Rooke/Curtis/Rawlence families which can be traced back to 1598. These three prominent families intermarried frequently; James and Mary Jane were first cousins once removed, and also second, third and fourth cousins. The family tree diagram looks like a tangled web! Fortunately the five of their children who married chose to bring new blood into the family.
Guy’s father, James Edward Rawlence (born 1845) married Constance Vivian in 1877. They had three sons, Claud Vivian (born 1879, a barrister), Leonard Curtis (born 1881, an engineer and dealer of American automobiles) and Edward Guy (born 1888). The family moved into The Chantry at Wilton before Guy was born (The Chantry is now a listed building).
Constance Vivian was born in Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia in 1858. At the age of 9 months her family moved to India where she was brought up. She was sent to boarding school in Hampshire, England, at the age of 12 and never returned to India as far as I know. Her father George William Vivian, of Cornish descent, had been born in Plymouth where he trained as a civil engineer. Immediately after marriage in 1850 he, and his wife Janet Pinn, emigrated to Australia where he worked as a civil engineer, firstly at the Kapunda Mine in South Australia, later in Melbourne where he worked on the port facilities and also designed the Kew Asylum. In 1859 the family moved to the Bengal Presidency area of India where George spent most of his career, working mainly on making the rivers navigable. Constance’s brother and sister were also educated in England but returned to India before finally settling in England. One of her cousins who had emigrated to Canada was a survivor of the Lusitania disaster in 1915 (although she lost her husband and baby daughter).
I suspect Guy and his brothers got their desire for travel from their mother. Both Claud and Leonard, while young men, were keen mountaineers, particularly in European destinations. Guy, who never married, was sometimes accompanied by his mother on his travels in Europe and beyond. Guy died in 1971 at Wishford House, also a listed building.”
Also, from Lynne, “this link will take you to the village on google maps where, if you go on streetview on West Street next to the church then travel west a short distance you will come to the house on the right, set back with a gravel driveway.” Wishford
Sources: Lunt, Wilmot 1856 – 1939. https://www.artbiogs.co.uk/1/artists/lunt-wilmot (accessed November 5, 2018).
Farrell, James Malone. “Keeping the Home Folks Laughing.” Cartoons Magazine, Vol. 14. July 1918.
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre; Chippenham, Wiltshire, England; Reference Number: 1873/1. (Ancestry.com).
Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
“Rawlence, Guy 1888 – ” http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-54036/ (accessed November 5, 2018).
James Rawlence obituary. Goddard, Edward. H. (ed.) The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Vol. 27. June 1894. p. 70.
“The Romantic Road.” The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 1910, Vol. 34. p. 641. Snippet view, Google.com.
Rawlence, Guy. “The White Cavalier.” The Idler: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. 28. October 1905 – March 1906. (Google ebook.)
Rawlence, Guy. The Highwayman. New York: W. J. Watt & Co., 1911. (Google ebook.)
“Guy Rawlence.” The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, IL) July 1, 1927. Friday, p. 16. (Newspapers.com).
“Three Score & Ten.” The Observer (London, England). October 16, 1924. Thursday, p. 4. (Newspapers.com).
“Mother Christmas.” The Observer (London, England). November 17, 1935. Sunday, p. 9. (Newspapers.com).
Wishford. Google maps. ttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/
Photo, London, England. April 25, 1953.
Price: $2.00 Size: 2 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/4″
Posing next to a bed of tulips is a beautiful young woman, St. James Park, London, England, April 25, 1953. What was crossed off on the back? I’ve looked with a magnifying glass and enlarged the scanned image but am unable to tell.
Photo, white border. Liverpool, England, 1945. Velox (Kodak) photographic paper.
Price: $4.00 Size: About 3 and 1/8 x 2 and 1/8″
Beauty in the wheat fields….
Aileen Johnston, a stunner with a beautiful smile, posing somewhere outside of Liverpool, England.This photo was taken in 1945, right at the end of WWII, maybe in August or September, according to the wheat harvest. It’s always so nice (unusual!) to have a name, date and a location on the back of an old snapshot.
Divided back, Real Photo Postcard, unused. Circa 1907 – 1910s.
Price: $4.00
Rural America….a glimpse back
This postcard’s pretty beat up but still, or probably partly because of that, I love it. I love the pattern in the wooden shingles on the face of the, what would one call this, big shed? (Guess that’s why outbuilding works so well 😉 ) Maybe it was used for storage, or was once a chicken coop, though no evidence of chickens at this time. If you click to enlarge, and look inside, you can see what looks like a patchwork quilt covering up something. I love the window that looks like it was thrown together (sorry to whoever built it) and the short boards underneath the one end to make it all somewhat level. (Was it built that way or shored up later after heavy rains?) And last but not least, the young woman, laughing, the little girl with her toy wheeled cart, and their dog (caught in the middle of a bark or a yawn.) It’s a happy photo, and a glimpse back a hundred years or so, of life on the farm.