A real gem!

We went to a auction in Bordeaux last Friday. It was a really good day. We managed to get some good lots and amongst the postcards was this one. There were two postcards made of the artist, Alfred Renaudin, at work on the banks of the river Moselle in the Lorraine region of France.

This is the rarer of the two. Alfred Renaudin (1866 – 1944) was a French landscape painter who was most active between the wars although this postcard was sent in 1905.

I looked on the internet to see if I could find the final painting, nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it’s in a private collection.

The elf and the rose

Yesterday was an auction day for us. We got soaked on the way there, frozen in the auction room and our train was delayed on the way home because of problems with an unruly passenger. The cards we bought were very good though, so it was worth it. I love this one.

In France, baby girls are found at the heart of a rose and boys at the heart of a cabbage

Another auction, another family

I’m sorry that I haven’t found time to post for a while. We attended an Auction last week. It’s the furthest we’ve travelled to an auction so far so we took the opportunity to stay in a romantic hotel and mix business with pleasure. We also bought some beautiful cards. One of the lots came from chateau so I’ve been piecing together bits of information about the family. They owned two chateaux in the middle of France , one of which is up for sale at the moment (that’s why the cards were being auctioned I suppose). Around 1900 a lot of the cards were written to a little girl called Odette. She seems to have passed from chateau to chateau to stay with her grandmother, perhaps while her parents were away. Judging by the wording on the cards she was much loved by everyone. Above is one of the cards she received in 1904.

Note: I was having problems uploading this image, in case it happens to you, you just need to click on the terms of service box.

We acquired a new album from an (real) auction. I’m already piecing together the story of the family that owned it. I’ve concluded that the couple were married not long after the First World War. Madame X could have been a widow with a daughter called Alice as Alice has a different family name. Perhaps Alice’s father was killed during WW1?

The master of the house worked for an insurance company and was later promoted to a post in Paris as head of department. Most of their postcard sending friends had the annoying habit of sending the postcards in envelopes and not marking the year if they dated the cards at all. The family however, carefully collected their postcards and put them into an album so that they are still in very good condition.

The bridge you see on this postcard was built by the Romans and is still there today

The Blue Pavillion

When I choose postcards to display here I prefer to have cards which I really like. This is why I haven’t added a card for a while.

Recently we bought some more postcards in and I’m starting to sort them into some sort of order. This is one that is going up for auction this evening. At first I thought that the two men might be playing chess, but looking at the card through a magnifying glass I’d say that they are having an animated discussion. The card was sent in 1904 and is in excellent condition. I can almost feel the warm sunshine…

Zut! Je rentre

Amongst the cards we bought at the auction last weekend were quite a few funny 'baby'cards, this one really amuses me. Roughly translated it reads “Damn! I’m returning”, it’s from a series “Around the world in an egg”; I wonder if I’ll find some more? The card was used to order ‘funny stories’!

Aother town, another auction

At the weekend we went to another auction in a different town. It was nice to play the tourist and enjoy the weather at the same time. I’m beginning to recognise some of the people now, mainly dealers in coins, I’m glad to say! The auctioneers are beginning to know who we are too...

This is a card from one of the lots we bought. The artist was A Schlomka, I haven’t been able to find out more, except for another postcard online dated around 1911. I was touched by this one because as a mother of three children and having two sisters and a brother myself, I know that co-operation between siblings is rare.

Auction success!

We went and bought a lot of new stock at an auction yesterday afternoon. There were other items, the most unusual being the sale of a binocular collection. There were posters too, this is where you can read about them. I always try to keep very still during an auction, I’m terrified of accidentally bidding for something I don’t want. Rob asked me to keep a running total of our bids so that we didn’t overspend, it went so fast I could hardly keep up!

This is just one card from a set that was in an album. We don’t usually bother much with fantasy cards, but I like these. It was printed in Berlin and sent in 1905 to wish someone a Happy New Year.