Wild Postcards

Two cards for the price of one today. Both of these cards were Made in the USA, according to the text in the stampboxes. They were published in Canada by Fach Enterprises and distributed by Temple City Drugs.

This card is described as “a view of the beautiful gardens surrounding the Mormon Temple in Cardston, Alberta.” But wait, there’s more!

This card is described simply as “a scene of the famed Mormon Temple….” — well, you get the idea.

Two cards for the price of one today. Both of these cards were Made in the USA, according to the text in the stampboxes. They were published in Canada by Fach Enterprises and distributed by Temple City Drugs. This card is described as “a view of the beautiful gardens surrounding the Mormon Temple in Cardston, [...]

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.

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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 [...]