Postcard

Picture-postcard collecting became a craze in Edwardian times and in the 21st century many of us are delighted collectors of these ‘windows on the world’.

A postcard carried on the world’s first official airmail flight came up for auction in Staffordshire.

A handful of lots featuring communications between an actress, Miss Alice Bowes (1889-1969), and George Bernard Shaw featured in a Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale.

Director Gropius invited promising student Helm to promote an exhibition

Held at the Bath & West Showground in Somerset for many years, the annual Festival of Cards has moved to a smaller location nearby.

Postcards are going to be on sale for the first time at the Ephemera Society’s fair on Sunday, December 4, at the Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury, London.

An album of 19 carte de visite portrait photographs of Charles Darwin is offered in Reeman Dansie’s Fine Art auction on November 8-9.

Trying to set a water-speed record is one of sport’s most hazardous competitions – with a high fatality rate as a result.

The Postcard Traders Association stages a special loan show of classic and collectable postcards during Art & Antiques For Everyone (July 18-21 at the NEC, Birmingham).

This Valentine’s card, below, by the French artist Xavier Sager was posted from Finland in 1917 to an address in Norway. It is priced at £15 from Val Jackson-Harris, a dealer in printed ephemera from the 18th-19th and early 20th centuries.

The annual two-day York Card Expo International at York Racecourse, which runs this year on Friday and Saturday, August 31-September 1, is now in its 29th year.

Newly formed Australian firm Abacus Auctions holds its second sale on July 22, devoted to coins and banknotes plus a selection of collectables and sporting memorabilia.

A remarkable collection of around 4500 postcards relating to a wide range of aspects of Jewish life in the 19th and 20th centuries was the fascinating, and often sobering, centre of interest when offered by Norfolk auction house Horners (17% buyer’s premium).

This lady’s expression says she might be trying to add some gravitas to her Christmas outfit, but it is difficult when decked out with bits of fir tree, assorted crackers, baubles and tassles plus a mini-tree on her head.

Last month, Britain’s oldest postcard publisher, J Salmon, announced it was closing after almost 140 years of business. Blamed for its demise was the rise of selfies and social media.