The Reverse Side of Postcards
Painted by
Ethel Tucker and Catherine Tucker
I have never studied the backs of postcards. However, when I discovered how many different backs there were for the Tucker postcards I thought you might like to see how many I have seen. I have put them into an order which I think plausible but not necessarily correct. Please let me know if you think differently!
This postcard shows the printing at one end of a plain back with no reference to Salmon although it is obviously in their "type"- with no lines for an address as was done on an undivided back in the Golden Age of postcards at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. These are not of that era as Salmon only started to print cards for Ethel and Kate
after World War I.
The above four could have come in any order with varying lengths of the words and placing of the numbers. I have not found any of the above five to have been postally used although no doubt some were and the sender might have drawn his own central line. I believe all five were mostly bought as very attractive souvenirs to take home.
Which came first of these two? I think the one with the short centre line. Then the one with the longer line - pale in the scan but it is there! Both with the earlier printings on the left.
These two both have similar wording on the left, wiggly lines down the centre and words at the top of the lines. The first one has no box for the stamp and the next one has a stamp box.
A postally used one this time. A heavy centre line with words at the top of it.
Similar to the previous one, but with a "c" in a small circle at the top of the dividing line. The second one shows a computer number with the last figure the same as the earlier cards, but still no lines for the address.
This next couple have words instead of a centre line - the second is longer than the first.
Finally here is a card with a centre dividing line, a stamp box and lines for the address.
Just like any postcard you would buy today!
Assuming that every card was printed with each different back you would need to collect, at a rough guess, several thousand if you wanted every front with every back in your postcard album. We can only guess, but probably some proved to be a lot more popular than others and therefore some were reprinted more often .
Some of the above backs have only C.F. Tucker as the publisher so these were cards that were reprinted after Ethel had died. You will notice too other differences from those I have mentioned - for instance, the words 'correspondence' and 'address'. And I am sure that in your search for Tucker cards you will find other different backs. Happy hunting!
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