Antiques
DERBYSHIRE ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES by Maxwell Craven
COLLECTING COUNTRY HOUSE POSTCARDS
The field of modern collectibles is vast and quite different from antiques as such , although there are areas of overlap , especially in ceramics . I began collecting postcards after a largish suitcase full of Edwardian ones that had once belonged to my grandfather was unearthed at his old house and I was , at about 13 , allowed to sort the contents ; I was hooked .
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A few years later I began regularly to accompany an aunt , who was a books , postcards and paper ephemera dealer , to the Abergavenny Antiques Market Hall fair - impenetrably cold , draughty , forbidding and Gothic at 5 am , let me assure you ! Here she stood on four Saturdays in each year . Sensing that the whole process was probably boring me , she suggested I collect something inexpensive , so I could rummage the stalls ( including hers ) to find items I wanted . I remembered grandpapa ’ s trunk of cards and promptly suggested postcards , asking her what the cheapest variety was for which to aim ( as I was perennially penniless ). She said that although seaside views were about the cheapest , she thought that parish churches or country houses would suit me best , and I chose country houses . It was , fatefully , an early step in my architectural passions .
Since then I have collected them assiduously and have over 5,000 . When I started they were 6d to 1 / -, but by the 1970s , 10p to 50p and still cheap as the proverbial fried potato slice .
Postcards were first issued in 1870 , blank both sides but with a printed on halfpenny stamp . All you had to do was write a message on the obverse and address of recipient on the reverse and post it .
The picture postcard was authorised in 1894 , but not generally issued until 1899 , when the size was standardised at 51 / 2 by 31 / 2 inches ( 4 x 9cm ), which remained standard until metrication in the 1970s . ( What will we do without Euro-regs ?) In these early examples , the picture was offset on one side to allow room for a message and the address to go on the reverse as before . These are called undivided back cards and are the earliest pictorial cards that people collect .
In 1902 the divided back was introduced , ushering in the post card as we know it : picture bled out full page on the obverse and the message sharing the reverse with the address .
There are so many types of postcard subject around I thought this time I would confine myself to the country house variety – still by no means the most expensive . People collect them , like me because of the image , others because they specialise in various types of image or indeed in interesting reverse messages or postmarks . The latter can include collectable types like the duplex mark ( round , with another oval , stripey , one beside it containing a serial number ) or thumbnails – small round ones . Also marks with RSO on the legend ( railway sorting office ) command a premium , as more so ones marked on a railway travelling post office ( TPO ).
The country house post card gained traction because it was the prime way that domestic staff could use to inter-communicate with friends and family employed at other houses or at home . The delivery was then unfailingly same day , and the necessity to be terse was of the essence , aiding those whose literacy skills were a trifle shaky .
A lot of country house owners had cards of their houses made specifically for this reason , although others were , even then , published because their subjects were popular attractions for visitors (‘ trippers ’). Houses of famous people ( birth-places , residences , etc ) were also issued by private enterprise , and local post offices and village shops also commissioned cards to sell to visitors . When I lived with my grandmother near Dormansland in Surrey , the village store still had for sale pre-Great War real photographic images of the main street for sale at 3d - worth about £ 6 or £ 8 today !
The most collectable image is the ‘ real photographic ’ type , where the image is printed