Vintage Postcards: Postcard Blog » fantasy

A Late Victorian Store in Stony Ridge, Ohio

VintagePostcards — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:17:16 +0000

This simple, yet charming c. 1901-1907 unused advertising postcard shows merchandise which was available in the store of Albert Swartz in Stony Ridge, OH. Baby buggies and “Express” wagons were available, and Swartz carried a variety of bicycles as well.

His shop also offered bicycle repairs and bicycle tires. He specialized in Gendron wheels, which were well-known wire wheels made in nearby Toledo, OH. The Gendron Co. pioneered pedal cars and made wheels for bicycles, tricycles, invalid chairs, go-cars, baby carriages, doll carriages, coaster wagons and toy wheelbarrows. Presumably, all of the wheels shown here in the Swartz advertisement were Gendron wheels. A deceptively simple Wood County post card, and a hard-to-find cycling collectible which was snapped up by an eager collector within days of its listing.

Whatever happened to the Swartz store? Is it still there, restored and operating as a trendy boutique? We wonder what became of it.

Read about a Victorian advertising trade card, or see more advertising post cards and trade cards at our website. Unwind in the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Fanciful Fourth of July Postcards with Uncle Sam and Children

VintagePostcards — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:14:25 +0000

Happy Fourth of July to our readers! July Fourth, with its patriotic images of Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty, and the holiday’s association with fireworks, led to fanciful, festive postcards with splendid graphics at the turn of the 20th century. Above, we see a finely detailed and embossed 1911 Fourth of July post card showing a young girl surrounded by fireworks and firecrackers, as a cannon detonates next to her. The American flag waves patriotically in the background. Now, of course, we’d be horrified to see a child standing next to a detonating cannon.

Everyone would gasp in horror now at the thought of a young boy running with wild abandon while firing a pistol in the air, but Uncle Sam looks on approvingly as he holds firecrackers aloft while fireworks explode in the background. This unused vintage postcard dates to about 1907. Postcards depicting Uncle Sam are themselves highly collectible.

Read about little-known April Fool’s Day postcards, or see more Fourth of July post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Happy April Fool’s Day from France

VintagePostcards — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:25:25 +0000

Happy April Fool’s Day! During the “golden era” of postcard collecting, from about 1901 to 1915, the French loved to send one another postcards celebrating this improbable holiday. April Fool’s Day postcards were quite fanciful and often featured fish, traditionally associated in France with memory improvement. This scarce c. 1915 to 1920s real-photo fantasy post card depicts a flying fish with airplane wings, who transports a young girl while holding a peppermint candy in his mouth.

(Thinking: Drugs? Who needs drugs, with an imagination like this?)

Read about a great Easter postcard, or see dozens of holiday post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Easter Bunny Mother and Child, a Fantasy Holiday Postcard

VintagePostcards — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:25:39 +0000

With the Easter holiday fast approaching on April 12, we just had to share this charming new arrival with you. This c. 1907 fanciful Easter holiday postcard, embossed and gilded, depicts a mother rabbit in a red dress and her child rabbit holding up a sign that reads: “Be Sure and Have a Good Time.” Or, perhaps it’s a schoolmarm rabbit and her student. At any rate, it’s fun.

The antique postcard was published by an unknown postcard publisher in Germany, and is of the high quality — with careful attention to detail — often seen in early post cards published in that country. Happy Easter!

Read more about Easter postcards, or see more Easter post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Tall Tale or Exaggeration Postcards

VintagePostcards — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:19:07 +0000

Tall tale, or exaggeration, postcards were popular in the early 1900s. Their fanciful subject matter was limited only by the imagination of the photographer, and often included an element of local pride/bragging regarding the size of crops grown. This seldom-seen grasshopper exaggeration is a real-photo postcard (RPPC) by F. D. Conard of Garden City, Kansas. The larger-than-life grasshopper pushs mightily against a steam engine, in a scene entitled “The Train Hold-Up.”

A finely detailed and scarce 1907 exaggeration postcard, published by George B. Cornish of Arkansas City, Kansas, has a more typical agricultural “bragging rights” theme, with one railroad car from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad required just to hold one ear of locally grown corn. Both postcards are also of interest to collectors of railroad postcards.

You can see more examples of tall-tale postcards on our North Bay, Ontario and Sturgeon Falls “vintage postcards in history” pages.

Read a post about black American social history as portrayed in antique trade cards, or see more fantasy postcards.