Wild Postcards

“This well was being ‘shot’ to increase oil production. Rocks thrown out hit steel. Sparks, explosion, and fire resulted. The photographer, set for a gusher view, snapped this remarkable picture!” — which, in turn, was hand-tinted by the Curt Teich folks. This is card number 4A-H296, manufactured in 1934.

I am reminded of the old joke about Red Adair:

A drunk walks into a Texas oil patch bar during the boom days. There’s a bunch of ‘roughnecks’ at the other end, drinking and laughing it up. “What’s goin’ on?” he asks the bartender.

“It’s Red Adair,” the bartender says, “the great oil field fire fighter. The boys are asking him questions.”

“Is that right? Well I gotta question.”

“Go ahead,” says the bartender, “he’s in a good mood.”

“Hey, Red, Red Adair!” the drunk yells.

“Yes?” says the big man.

“Were you sleeping with Ginger Rogers?”

“This well was being ‘shot’ to increase oil production. Rocks thrown out hit steel. Sparks, explosion, and fire resulted. The photographer, set for a gusher view, snapped this remarkable picture!” — which, in turn, was hand-tinted by the Curt Teich folks. This is card number 4A-H296, manufactured in 1934. I am reminded of the old [...]

I continue to be amazed at the vivid colors from Kay Anthony’s postcard collection. This is a “Genuine Curteich C.T. Art-Colortone”, number 2B-H1375, indicating manufacture in 1932. The resolution is also remarkable; you can make out a Coca-Cola sign on the building inside the letter E.

Kay’s home in Spartanburg was only 20 miles down what used to be the Georgia Highway (for my fellow Yankees, that means if you follow the highway long enough, you would reach Georgia) from Gaffney; it’s now the “Old Georgia Highway” and part of US Route 29. My friend James says she probably picked it up at the corner drug store, where it probably sat on a rack for years. It looks like she didn’t start collecting until the mid- to late-1940s.

I continue to be amazed at the vivid colors from Kay Anthony’s postcard collection. This is a “Genuine Curteich C.T. Art-Colortone”, number 2B-H1375, indicating manufacture in 1932. The resolution is also remarkable; you can make out a Coca-Cola sign on the building inside the letter E. Kay’s home in Spartanburg was only 20 miles down [...]

I have finally gone through most of the 1,000+ postcards I acquired on September 17, and by far the most striking collection is that apparently belonging to Kay Anthony of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She collected (as far as I know, and judging from what I purchased) just under 200 postcards during the late 40′s and early 50′s.

She apparently corresponded with several people specifically for the purpose of trading postcards. How did one get in touch back then with others who wanted to trade postcards? Classified ads? Was there some sort of club for people with short attention spans who liked the pretty pictures on the cards? Sign me up!

One of her regular correspondents was a man named Lloyd Stoltz of Reading, Pennsylvania, who was a fastidious individual. His handwriting is incredibly tiny, perhaps intentionally so that he could get a lot of information onto a postcard. Also, he signed his cards with his own little ideogram, combining the letters “L” and “S”, and many of his cards have a small rubber stamp impression of his full initials, “L.P.M.S.”

There is a slight musty smell to the cards (which has been clearing now that they’ve been removed from their album), which leads me to believe that they have been stored away for decades. Not having seen the light of day, the colors on the cards are brilliant.

I plan to start posting some of her cards in a week or so; I hope you enjoy.

I have finally gone through most of the 1,000+ postcards I acquired on September 17, and by far the most striking collection is that apparently belonging to Kay Anthony of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She collected (as far as I know, and judging from what I purchased) just under 200 postcards during the late 40′s and [...]

Over the years, I have been adding to this collection piecemeal, usually while on vacation. This applies to both vintage and modern cards. Modern cards get picked up at grocery stores and souvenir shops. Vintage cards, of course, usually get picked up at antique shops, and the wife and I almost never go to antique shops except on vacation or the occasional day trip.

Today on a whim, I stopped by an antique shop on my lunch break, one that I’ve driven by dozens of times in the course of my work. I scored what appears to be four separate collections of cards. Although the cards were being sold individually for $2 or $3, I was able to make a deal and walked off with every postcard the man had for about 12 cents each.

The first collection was a small group of humorous linen postcards from the 1930s, inside of a brown album with the legend “Post-Cards” on the front. The album appears to be contemporary with the cards and was sold to the original owner (according to a sticker inside the front cover) by E.H. Ketchum Co., Stationers, 24 Main Street, Jamestown, NY. There were several duplicates, which will wind up on eBay; I’ll be posting each card to the site around the same time that I post the duplicates on eBay.

The second collection was in a 1950s-era white photo album, containing mostly linen postcards from the late 40s, with some early chrome postcards from the 50s and 60s. About 15-20% of them were addressed to Miss Kay Anthony of Spartanburg, SC; it appears that she had a few regular correspondents, and that their goal was to exchange postcards for their collections. Kay had almost 200 postcards in her album.

The third collection was in a 1970s-era brown photo album, and contained mostly vintage chromes, but with several early white-border cards and linens, along with a lot of deckled Continental-sized cards from the 70s. The album was designed to hold 304 photos and was full of that number of cards. In addition, in pockets on the inside front and back covers, was a lot of ephemera: souvenir shop pictures of local sights, ridiculously oversized souvenir postcards, and the like.

(more…)

Over the years, I have been adding to this collection piecemeal, usually while on vacation. This applies to both vintage and modern cards. Modern cards get picked up at grocery stores and souvenir shops. Vintage cards, of course, usually get picked up at antique shops, and the wife and I almost never go to antique [...]