(and others too!) I am changing the name of this website. Why? At the beginning of the year I decided not to renew my subscription to the SSG so I am assuming that I shouldn't be writing this quarterly website in the title of SSG any more although it hasn't been mentioned yet. I plan to have it available within a week of the 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October. I don't know how long I shall continue but it could be according to the number of you who email me to say you would like it to continue. I will also add names of friends of yours who would like to see it even though they do not belong to the SSG so please just send me their email addresses.
This website will continue as it began with short articles about my own collection - Jack Whittaker's catalogue of Watercolour artists and the listing of Fancy cards as far as it has been prepared and, recently added to by Brian Harrison. There won't be a great deal about A.R.Quinton because there have been many articles about his work in the SSG Newsletter - and although I enjoy looking at his postcards I am not a collector of his work. There could be more if sometimes one of you wrote a paragraph about him as an artist for Salmon and other earlier publishers! I received an email from someone who said I didn't have anything about three artists he was researching and, of course, I agreed with him. I can only write about cards in my own collections. So it does rely on those who enjoy the website, perhaps to write a paragraph I can put on the web. That is why I have included the words "others too". My own "others" includes Ships' Cats, LL cards, My Family, HMS Black Prince, etc.
I have another "different" card. I am also asking you please to let me know if you have any unusual cards with their number, artist, etc. So here we go with a Carruthers card entitled Hampton Court Palace, an oil edition. The original card is exactly as you would expect with its number on the reverse centrally at the bottom. But this oil is different. There is no number in the "normal" position making it look like a bespoke card. Look at the left-hand edge of the reverse which reads - Copyright. Printed & Published in England by J. Salmon Ltd., Sevenoaks. (4249) The figures are in a really tiny print. I need a magnifying glass to read it. I haven't seen any other card with its number printed so small in this unusual position. Have you? The reverse of the card has print which may be difficult for you to read so I have enlarged the print so you can read it more easily.
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A piece of news is that Tony Kosarew, a British member living in the USA, has started a Postcard Blog. It will show Salmon postcards by different artists, (perhaps mainly ARQ). If you have never looked at a Blog before (like me) please look now. I am sure you will enjoy it and I know too that Tony K. would be delighted to hear from you. He feels very far away from other postcard collectors.
You can find the blog at http://salmonpostcards.blogspot.comOver the last few months we have had articles in PPM, the SSG Newsletter, and this website wondering whether the artist, Annie Pressland, stayed (DID SHE DIDN'T SHE?) with Lady Lucy Hume-Williams who lived in Ewhurst, Sussex, the village where Annie painted in the early part of the last century. We have had lists of the untitled postcards 2806-2811 and know that at least one was overprinted with a birthday greeting. The other day I happened to be looking through my "unsigned" Salmon postcards and suddenly I thought "I recognise that card". And sure enough, I did. It was no.2809 of Wykehurst Farm. I turned the card over and it was used by Salmon (see below) to advertise their Stand C.70 at the British Industries Fair, 1924.
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MODERN POSTCARDS I was told some time ago that Salmon were no longer employing modern artists to paint postcards. A pity I thought at the time and I still do. I much prefer the artist-drawn cards to the photographic ones. Both types can easily be updated as can be seen from postcards printed in the earlier eras. The card below was painted by a man named Dudley Pout and the reverse reads - BYGONE FARMING - Barley and Beer Time: Farm workers take a break from harvesting to enjoy their pint of beer at "progger" time. Progger mainly consisted of half a pound of cheese, the top of a cottage loaf and an onion. THE SALMON STUDIO. Its number is 14-51-67-31. For a bit more information on Dudley Pout I turned to Google.
Edward Dudley Pout was born at Frog Island Farm, Herne, Kent, on 24 November 1908. He went to the Margate School of Art and was awarded a full-time Art Scholarship, and at the age of 13 became their youngest ever student. He made a career with his artistic talent and later moved back to Kent and resumed farming, specialising in cross-breeding cattle. He retired in 1973 to a small house in Biddenden, Kent, where he painted in oils for pleasure, although he also produced a series of 'Farming in Bygone Days' paintings for a postcard company. Pout lived at Gribble Bridge Lane Farm, Biddenden, Ashford, Kent, where he died on December 12, 1991, aged 83. We know the postcard company was Salmon of Sevenoaks but do you know how many postcards were in the "Farming in byegone days series". Pout wrote a slim book of autobiographical reminiscences entitled The Life and Art of One Man of Kent (1982).
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I have three more artist-drawn modern postcards shown below. The first two are 5-02-10-46 Manor Cottage and 5-02-10-41 RUSTINGTON, WEST SUSSEX, both painted by Lynette M.N. Nicholson. The last, CASTLE COMBE, is no. 5-02-10-32 painted by Jane Harris I am afraid I know nothing about either of these two artists. Do you know something? If you do please email me with a paragraph or two about one or other (or both) of them so I can print it in the July edition of this website. I believe something was written about Lynette in the Newsletter back in 2005.
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Brian Harrison has worked very hard and produced CDs with lists of Watercolour and Fancy artists and their postcards for all members of the SSG. He gave them to all who were present at the ARQ outing last year. BUT Tony Longshaw doesn't seem to have given the CDs any publicity in the quarterly Newsletter. Which means that members other than yourselves know nothing about them and that they are free. So, if you would like a CD please send an email to Brian (it's on members listing) and ask for one. We send best wishes to Brian and wish him well in his fight against the illness and treatment he is suffering.
See you again in July 2010
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If you missed some of the earlier editions of the website I shall be enclosing some of their information here.
October 2009
MONOGRAMS - Not easy to understand is the following monogram. I have only found one card so far with this particular monogram - no. 2894 titled Pavilion and Winter Gardens, Margate. There is no artist's name on front or reverse so who was the artist? To me the initials looked like WA or AW when I first saw the card so I immediately thought of William Affleck. I emailed Mr. Tony Affleck, our member, for his opinion. He was not at all convinced that the initials looked like those on the artists's paintings. There are five postcards with this monogram running consecutively in Jack Whittaker's catalogue - two he has personally seen and three he was not able to see - all five are of the Margate/Cliftonville area. Recently when I was preparing this website I decided I should do a better scan which would make the letters easier to read. Now I am thinking they could be AH or HA. If any of you have been able to find the name of the artist who used this monogram please let us know.
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