Waiting in hope

If you love me openly, send me the green ribbon
If I don’t stir your heart, send me the red ribbon
If you sometimes dare, send me the pink ribbon
If you love me already, send me the blue ribbon
If you want to marry me, send me the white ribbon
If you want to admire me from afar, send me the mauve ribbon
If there is no hope for me, send me the black ribbon
But, if I win your heart, send me the yellow ribbon

I haven’t made any attempt to rhyme like the poem, but that is what the colours mean. The card was never sent, perhaps they didn't dare.

The Appy God Son

After a very interesting auction in Limoges last week, it’s time to start looking at what we bought:

The first American troops arrived in France in June 1917. They were very much appreciated as this postcard illustrated by Xavier sager (1881-1969) shows. “The New Godson” has been well and truly adopted.

If a picture could speak

This one would be able to tell us some stories I am sure. “Le banc des Vieux Loups de Mer” - The Bench of the Old Sea Dogs . Old Breton fishermen meeting up in the sunshine.

Wedding Lace

If you’ve read this blog for a while I think you’ll know that I like lace costume postcards. This is a local traditional wedding outfit. As always with most of the older photographs the details are really in focus and clear.

I imagine that mothers, grandmothers, aunts and big sisters probably started making lace for the future ‘big day’ as soon as a baby girl was born.

Alhambra Theater

We recently sold a postcard which we knew to be quite rare. Imagine our surprise one morning not long afterwards when it turned up in the local newspaper.

Chinon

I seem to be finding really interesting postcards to share everyday now. This one, from Chinon in the centre of France, was posted in September 1900. Perhaps the postcard was published before the 20th century! It’s in very good condition, considering the age of the card. In France, the back of the card was for the address only up until the autumn of 1903, so any correspondence would be on the front of the card, hence the blank space. The card is addressed to Mademoiselle Poisson – Miss Fish!

Chinon is still very much like this today and is very popular with American tourists. Here is a photograph of part of the same street.

When we were in Chinon for an auction a couple of years ago we ate at this restaurant, though we couldn’t afford to stay in the hotel. (Click on ‘photos’ to see views of Chinon and the hotel)

A little bit of history

Five pretty ladies

I know that they were probably quite uncomfortable and involved the wearing of corsets, but aren’t they beautiful? And then there are the hats…

Lucky Black Cat

This unused postcard is in incredibly good condition considering it is almost 100 years old. The cat was meant to bring good luck for the ‘Poilus’ (The *hairy ones), the French soldiers. This is strange because in France a black cat is considered unlucky. I can only think that the card was produced more for the allied troops. Hence the flags in the background.

*‘Hairy’ as in real men have hair on their chests.

Sunday best

The boys are from Brittany and I bet they weren’t so well dressed every day. You might be able to see that some of them are wearing medals. Perhaps the medals their fathers won during the great war?

Village Life

I couldn’t find a modern day picture online of the centre of this village. The photograph would have been taken before WW1. It was posted in 1915. As the postcard was sent from the Champagne Ardennes region at that epoch. More than likely by a soldier sending a postcard home to his family.

The church today.

Here comes the bus !

On the 21st March 1907 the first bus from La Rochelle went on a demonstration tour. Can you imagine the excitement in the villages where cars were rare sights, let alone a bus?

Today, La Rochelle has a splendid fleet of buses, running on environmentally friendly diesel, two ferries across the port, park and drive, bicycles and taxis.

From small acorns do mighty oaks grow…

When is an elephant not an elephant ?

When it’s a chimera.

This one is perched on the top of Notre Dame church in Paris . In architecture a Chimera is a fantastic, mythical or grotesque figure used for decoration. I think that he looks a lot friendlier than a gargoyle.

Joyeuses Pâques

Two little girls pouring out flowers to wish everyone a Happy Easter.

“Amis fleurissez-vous
En souvenir de nous!”

Friends decorate yourselves with flowers
As a souvenir of us !

Edna Aug

I haven’t been able to find out much about Edna Aug. I think that she was probably an American actress who came to Paris. The photograph here was taken by Reutlinger in Paris around 1900, so she must have been well thought of. If anyone has more details please let me know.

Sphinx

This is a postcard of one of several sphinx that guard the Château de Bagatelle in Paris. The model for the face of the sphinx was an opera singer Rose Duthé. This particular sphinx is situated at the back of the Château

A chromolithograph

Chromolithography was a process by which multicoloured images were produced in the 19th century.

This is a little card which had been printed to celebrate a first communion in June 1895. Even today in France cards are printed and presented as souvenirs, but the best part is the sugared almonds…

If it's food it's got to be French.

France has always been proud of its culinary heritage. Here are four little collector’s cards illustrating the departments and what edibles they are famous for; wine, pâté,cheese, fish, soup, vegetables and fruit, sugar and beer.

Do you remember this?

I was born 8 years after the Kon Tiki Expedition, but during my school days we were captivated by the story of Thor Hayerdahl and his crew on their voyage across the pacific ocean.

This is what is known as a semi-modern postcard. Often in black and white and sometimes in colour, they are gaining in popularity as people remember how things used to be when they were young through the postcards.

At this very moment there is a modern expedition, An-Tiki,  led by an 84 year old to raise money for Water Aid. They set off on January 30th and are crossing the Atlantic ocean. There is an An-Tiki blog and website.

Victor Hugo

This little house above a pharmacy in Besançon was the birthplace in 1802 of one of the greatest French writers and poets, Victor Hugo. He died in Paris in 1885. The photograph for this postcard was taken around 100 years after his birth

Exquisite!

How else can I describe this beautiful little card? It’s not really a postcard but an advertisement for a shirt maker. The characters are in relief and the dress, coat and roses on the fan are silk.

I’m not sure how old it is, but it is in very good condition. Be sure to click on the image for a better view.

Paris 1900 and a strange coincidence

This postcard was sent in the spring of 1900, 10th April. Look how busy the bridge is.

The correspondence is written in English with difficulty:

”My dear Henry
Oh well! And this operation! You not art death no? You wilt tell at Mama that we are very well to arrive evening Sunday. I am very glad because my teacher have tell at my that he is glad at my and that I make of progress. Of course is relative. ??? carter I shall have two reward of billets. That you ask before Saturday, you wish the good morning of Lady Delabarre. So clasp all the people of my him
Your Brot”

The card is addressed to Henri Arondel who lived in Versailles. There is a painter of the same name who died on that date but in Saint-Malo in the North of France. Coincidence!

Lucky Pig postcards

These were very popular postcards in Europe and America. This one includes a horse shoe and lots of money, Other cards had the pig grazing on four leaf clovers! I hope that this one brings you luck too.

Some more lucky pigs and information on them

The Singer

Here is a singer from Algeria taken at the beginning of the 20th century. She’s holding a Derbouka – a kind of drum. I enlarged part of the image so that you can see how clear the details are, even the transparency of part of her skirt. If you click on the images you can see them better.

Submarine

La Rochelle also had a submarine base. Built during world war II, Part of Raiders of the lost ark was filmed there in 1981. The port of ‘La Pallice’ as it is known was originally built in 1890. As you can see from this postcard, submarines were around the port even during WWI.

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

Baby in a basket

In the 1920s a working mother had to take the baby with her to the fields. It doesn’t look too comfortable, but Ré island is small so there wouldn’t have been far to go.

For newcomers to this blog, the donkey is wearing pyjamas to protect its legs from mosquito bites.

November 11th

This blog especially lends itself to a special post of remembrance. Over the last few years I’ve read a lot of postcards written at the front. Boys writing home – some of them could barely write. Men writing to their wives and children. Some in a hurry some with time on their hands….

Some postcards of World War One

British soldiers resting

Les Chausseurs Alpins, French soldiers with special knowledge of the Alps. Thousands were killed in avalanches as well as battle.

Wounded English soldiers

Masses were held at the front too

And to finish; a few lines from Wilfred Owen. Killed a few days before the Armistice, he was 25 years old. A verse from ‘The dread of falling into nought’

My power of life, though youthful, also sinks;
Before my time I bear a hoary head;
And chill airs strike my brow, that blow, methinks,
Straight from the icy cavern of the dead.
Night darkens round; my day shall know no afternoon.

Other posts on World War One.

Before the fire

We managed to acquire some very rare, old postcards of the Réunion Islands. The cards are all in very poor condition, but still very collectable.

Here’s one of them. People are leaving church after Mess. The church burnt down in 1905 and the postcard says that the picture was taken before the fire. It’s interesting to see that the card was written on February 16th 1905! There was also a cyclone on the island during the early years of the 20th century.

A link to the Réunion department of our store.

Villemomble

These two postcards are here simply because I love the name of the town where they come from; Villemomble. The cards were sent on 1903. Today the town is in the suburbs of Paris.

New York

This postcard dates between 1913 when the Woolworth Building was built and 1931, the year that the Empire State Building was completed. The Singer building was demolished in 1967

“ The red building is the old Singer Building which used to be the tallest in the world. The white one to the right of course is the Woolworth building which now is the tallest. The street is the lower end of Broadway. The upper end of Bway is where all the theatres are concentrated.”

Flowers

I found this bouquet of flowers to cheer up an October evening

Calvary at Plougastel

A photograph if this Calvary recently appeared on another blog . A few days later I came across the postcard in our collection. I thought I’d post it here as it is an interesting subject. As usual the local children have wriggled themselves into the photograph.

Here is a link to Caroline’s photos where you can see the top of the cross in more detail. She tells me that it is made of granite!

A collector of postcards

We’ve recently acquired some postcards from a collection which are in very poor state. Many of the cards are falling apart, have been nibbled by insects or have foxing (rust stains). The postcards were collected by a young woman from around 1902 onwards. She posted an announcement in “Le Petit Echo de la Mode” (magazine founded in 1880) looking for people willing to exchange postcards with her. This is what makes her cards so special, even though they are in such bad condition. The cards that she received were carefully selected by other collectors. A lot of them are unusual and rare. Not your usual tourist cards at all.



This card from Calais is interesting because it is a photograph of the shop run by the photographer himself. If that his family in the doorway?

Peacock Lady

This card raised the question of copyright. We were contacted by a French author of historic novels who wanted to use the image as an illustration for one of her books. We don’t own the copyright and as long as the publisher is long dead and gone there is no problem. We sent her a scan of the card and she wrote back saying that she might use the image and if she did my name would be mentioned. Fame at last!

Gruss aus Feldkirch

An Austrian card for a change. From the town of Feldkirch. I love the way that this card has been decorated and coloured. It’s also in excellent condition considering it’s over 107 years old. Click on the image to see it in better detail.

A view of La Rochelle

All you have to do is substitute the horses and carts for cars and you would see that nothing has changed over the last 100 years. The shops are very different though, most of them today are bars or (real)estate agents.

Destination Cannes

Even 107 years ago Cannes was a destination to dream of. It became popular in the 19th century thanks to a British Statesman, Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux. Here you see the railway station complete with steam train.

Since 1946 Cannes is especially well known for the Cannes Film Festival.

Sun’s Talisman Card

I was sure that I’d be able to find something out about this card which was produced during the First World war. No information at all. I managed to find out that the flag in the top right hand corner represents the Russian Empire. There is the French flag and the Belgian flag. The flag in the bottom left hand corner is a mystery.

Protect the one I love
You who produce the great miracles of nature
You who all religions bow down before
You who see the dear soldier that I cannot see
You who all believe in when the thunder roars.

The writer talks of the end of the war coming soon... in February 1918 there were 9 more months to wait.

Traditional bonnet

I couldn’t let this little girl go without including her in my collection here. If she were alive today she would be over 100 years old. She’s showing off her bonnet for a series of postcards on local headdresses from Brittany. All through France women and girls from every town and region would have been proud to show off their traditional clothes

Making up

I love this costume card. The colours are just right and I like to see the costumes that people wore in the different regions of France a hundred years ago. This one is entitled “Peace is made”. Well, the husband looks pleased with himself at least…

The rest I can’t translate as it is in ‘patois’ – the ‘dialect’ of the region.