Written by admin on 26 November, 2009 – 10:46 pm -
It was our Edwardian forebears who first took to decorating postcards with real hair, real feathers, glitter or coloured glass. It was they who first embellished them with silk or satin or gingham. Even then, gimmickry, it seems, was held in high commercial esteem.
As the name may suggest, novelty postcards were not only produced by the 'regular' manufacturers of postcards, but other publishers, such as W. N. Sharpe of Bradford, for example, created a series entitled 'Fab Patchwork', whereby silk patches on the picture sides could be removed in order to make patchwork cushion covers. Callender Paper Mills in Ireland even manufactured card out of real peat.
Max Ettlinger, a relatively short lived publisher (between 1901 and 1916) produced postcards with droll heads with cigars stuck in their mouths. They also released squeaking postcards onto the world, with pictures of animals, birds and children ingeniously concealing a device which would let out a sound when pressed - guaranteed to annoy adults and give hours of fun for the children.
Perhaps the most celebrated of the novelty postcard genre is the hold to light (H.T.L.) group. These take many forms, of which, transparencies with the colour and even subject changes are the most delightful. Ordinary views can be transformed to show pastel coloured scenes or a jolly Santa Claus. Then at the beginning of WWI we started to see novelties such as 'Find the submarine' - when held to the light, the erstwhile calm seas upon which British ships were sailing were revealed to contain an enemy submarine lurking beneath.
Tags:
novelty postcardsPosted in
Thematic Postcards |
No Comments »
You must be logged in to post a comment.