Unused, Real Photo Postcard. Circa late 1910s – mid 1920s. AZO stamp box.

Price:  $10.00

A great photo of a smiling young man, about fourteen maybe, posing for the camera. He wears a belted suit jacket, knickers, shirt, necktie, and leather “cat paw” boots. The name on the back says  “Geo. Terrel.”  At first glance you might think (I did) that he is standing in a house or church. A church vestibule came to mind for some reason. But not so, upon closer inspection we can see that he’s posed in front of a painted photographer’s backdrop. Whoever the artist was did a good job!

As far as i.d. – one might have a sneaking suspicion that there would be lots of possibilities under this name showing up in records in the early 1900s, and this turns out to be the case. The writing above the name doesn’t seem like a city, maybe “P.C.” stands for postcard, so that doesn’t seem to be of any help to date the photo. The AZO stamp box with two triangles up and two down is estimated at 1910 – 1930 per Playles.com. And that’s a pretty broad range. So, probably his suit style is the most helpful for dating the photo, as similarly styled Knickerbocker suits were found on Pinterest in a Sears & Roebuck catalog for 1917. But maybe someone will be able to identify this particular George Terrel; a handsome young guy with a great smile.

Sources:  Knickerbockers (clothing). n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knickerbockers_%28clothing%29. (Accessed January 24, 2015).

“bloomers”  Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/LauraRicketts1/bloomers/ (Accessed January 25, 2015).