While many of the postcards are photographic, numerous examples are hand-coloured, embossed or made from silk. Some use real feathers to depict birds and others include shiny novelty cards with wobbly eyes that date back almost a century. There are also greetings cards for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Remembrance, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year plus others wishing congratulations, good luck and get well soon.
Publishers include Bamforth, Raphael Tuck, J Beagles & Co, H Vertigen & Co, J Welch & Sons, Wildt & Kray, J Salmon, and Rotary Photographic.
The collection even stretches to a couple of 1s vintage postcard dispensers, by Falcon (Postcards) Ltd, Manchester, one of which will feature in the first auction at The Tamworth Auction Rooms on April 26.
After 57 years of self-confessed "obsessive" collecting, Jane has decided it’s time for the cards to find a new home. “It started when I was six years old – my sister moved to Australia and send me postcards,” she said. “I kept them and put them into a book and as I got older it became serious interest.”
After Jane and Graham married, they would scour shops for postcards while on holiday and frequent car boot sales looking for additions to the burgeoning collection. “I would even buy a trunk load of them and then sit here in the lounge and go through the whole case one by one,” Jane added. “It's the fun of never knowing what we're going to find in the bottom of a box. I only bought cards I liked and it did develop into an obsession – wherever I went, I didn't look for anything other than postcards.”
A team from Richard Winterton Auctioneers continues to carefully sift through each and every card and plans to offer elements of the collection every month.
The April auction includes an impressive album of London postcards ranging from Edwardian times to the 1960s and featuring all the major historical sites in the capitol including Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column, Buckingham palace, Marble Arch, the Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park Corner and Horse Guards Parade.
Another interesting lot features an album of romantic French courtship postcards from the early 20th century. The 59 cards are all addressed to a Mademoiselle Amelia Vaurat of Baignes-Sainte-Radegonde, Charente in southwest France, and all are covered in a mysterious numerical code – probably a private lovers’ cypher.
There is also a unique postcard album journal with 180 cards and hand-drawn maps by a man who travelled to Denmark, North Wales, the north of England and Norfolk between 1909 and 1927, with introductory notes on places visited. Other highlights are postcards of birds created with real feathers and 24 early to mid-20th century Japanese postcards, some hand-coloured, featuring people and topography including Mount Fuji in a lacquered, concertina fold-out album.
“It is the most wonderful, eclectic collection of postcards I have ever come across,” said Robert French, ephemera specialist at Richard Winterton Auctioneers. “Not only has it got everything in terms of subjects from topographical to transport, it’s the sheer quality of the cards themselves and the comprehensive cataloguing and organising accomplished by Jane. It is very, very impressive.”
