Jetsam

"Jetsam": unwanted material or goods purposely jettisoned to lighten the load.

Here I have some jetsam that I am about to cast, maybe not overboard, but to the uncertain fate of the various post offices in the world.

I have far, far, too many postcards waiting to be sent to people, so if anyone would like one of the 10 cards pictured, please leave a comment and send me your postal address via email. You can contact me via the contact tab at the top of this blog.

The black and white cards are from a box of 100 "Postcards from our Past" published by English Heritage.

The second set are from another box of 100, classic covers from Vanity Fair.

You can see them better if you click on the image to enlarge it.

Updated to add, I am very happy to send postcards anywhere in the world, either stamped and written or in an envelope.

Not in my backyard (NIMBY)

The church in whose backyard there are all those cooling towers is St Edward the Confessor's Church, Brotherton in Yorkshire.  In some accounts I've found, it's described as medieval, in others as 19th century.  According to the National Archives, it has records going back to 1562.  Whichever way you look at it, it's far older than the Ferrybridge B power station which was built in the 1950s and closed in the 1990s.

The photo, taken by Eric de Maré sometime between 1960 and 1980, reminds me of the postcard I bought at Richborough Castle in Kent.  It too shows cooling towers in the background, and they too have now been demolished, though there was a very strong campaign to preserve them.

The first picture comes from a postcard set "Postcards of our Past" issued by English Heritage, the second is also published by them and on sale at the Richborough Castle site.  Maybe someone in English Heritage has a special fondness for cooling towers.  Industrial Heritage in your backyard.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the site.

Three men - riding llamas

Three men hiking up a mountain with a telescope proved an impossible task so my offering has to be three men on llamas.

The card itself was sent to me from France three years ago with the only information on the reverse being "Hommes et lamas" from Editions du Désastre, Paris.  I spent quite some time trying to find out where in France these llamas might have been found without any success.

It wasn't until I remembered the clever Google search by image that I found an exact match, and via Getty Images I realised that the image originated in England.  Not at Ampthill House Llama Farm as suggested by Getty Images but at Wingfield Zoo, Ampthill also known as Ampthill Zoo.  There are further images of the same type at Ampthill Images website.

Apparently it was a private zoo maintained by Mr Wingfield from the late 1800s until after World War I.  He had all sorts of animals other than llamas roaming freely: camels, bison, pigs ostriches, all great attractions, especially as rides.  The animals were gradually transferred to Whipsnade Zoo (created 1926) when the estate zoo was gradually run down.

Further information about the town of Ampthill in Bedfordshire, including Ampthill House and the zoo, can be found on the Towns in Britain site.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the site.

Reading in Macau

Once upon a time children would concentrate on books, maybe on magazines too.  Nowadays they spend as much time on phones and tablets and games consoles.  I think many of us would consider that they are losing out, maybe by losing the ability to concentrate for any length of time, the ability to spell and even the ability to imagine.

The children on this postcard were pictured in Macau in 1967 by the photographer Fong Chi Fung, as part of a series, Yesterday Forever.  The title of the phot0 is "Concentration, San Kiu District".

With her nose in a book

Today is International Day of the Girl so I've chosen this Dutch reproduction of an old postcard of a girl in a corner, reading, surrounded by books.  The title on the back is given in Dutch as "Met de neus in de boeken" or "With her nose in a book", photographer unknown.

I think that's a blissful place to be and I could probably be found in a very similar position, lost to the world, many times when I was that age. Sadly many girls in the world today don't have that opportunity.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

The old bookshop

A view of the interior of the old bookshop in Kangasala, Finland.  And I notice they sell postcards too!

Moments of Colour

Moments of Colour is a series of cards, 52 of them, produced by a Swiss company, ABC.  It doesn't tell you on the reverse of the card where this scene is though I'd guess it could part of the Canal du Midi in France.  I'm only going by "Brochettes" over a shop window so it's just a wild guess.  The card was sent from Poland.

The colour is added in an interesting way because it isn't just the effect you can achieve from a photo editing program.  the black and white portion of the card is matt but the colour is high gloss.  According to the ABC  (A Boss and Co) website, it's partly lacquered.  This series of postcards was one of the first to be produced to Forest Stewardship Council standards, in 2007.

Group portrait

Although I have many photos around the house, and many of people I just don't know, this postcard is only two-thirds unknown.  The man on the far left is my father.

Another real photo postcard is a portrait of him alone.

I thought this might possibly have been taken at the same time in spite of the deckle edge on the second because I noticed a pen in my father's top right pocket in both pictures.  He may have done that habitually of course.

An inspection of the reverse showed the names of the card used.  Two different sorts so most likely developed, if not taken, at different times.

Both Ferrania and Tensi are the names of Italian firms and both these logos on photographic paper were in use before 1945.  My father was posted to Italy towards the end of the war and stayed until the end of 1946, so that ties in well.

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find links to all the other people taking part.

The High Street, then and now

The first of two postcards I picked up showing the High Street, Deal, has an easily recognisable building, helpfully labelled "Bank" over the door.  This card dated from the early 1900s.  It has room for a message on the back but warns that it should be used only within the United Kingdom.

Out of interest, I went to see if I could take a photo of the same place today.  The building marked "Bank" is still a bank but the doorway is obscured by road signs and traffic lights.  The lovely William Darracott's building on the left appears to have been demolished or possibly it was damaged by the bombing that the town suffered during WWII.  The "To Let" sign on the present building is a sad reflection of many High Streets today.

A more recent card but I was able to find out that the car registration nearest the camera, EMJ 717, was issued in 1946.

At first I was struggling to identify this part of the High Street but then I spotted Marks & Spencer.  What would we do without Marks & Spencer?  They are still in the same place but again the building on the left has been demolished and replaced by a modern, dare I say, monstrosity.  This time it wasn't bombing that caused the demolition.  The Ricemans shop was burnt down in 1964 but rather than rebuilding, the proprietor, Fred Riceman, decided to move to the nearby but much larger city of Canterbury.

The white building on the right (behind the scaffolding) was once a hotel but is now an amusement arcade.  And it's not as though Deal has a super-abundance of decent hotels.

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find links to all the other people taking part.

London 1908

This is an old image from Getty Images but reproduced in a pack of postcards published by The Olympic Museum in the London 2012 Collection.

It shows Dorando Pietri, and Italian runner taking part in the marathon.  He was the first to enter the stadium for the final laps but went in the wrong direction.  He collapsed more than once but was eventually helped over the line by the two officials as you can see in the picture.

Sadly, for this reason he had to be disqualified although the next day Queen Alexandra presented him with a special consolation prize.

For me, this image conjures the spirit of the Olympics as much as, if not more than, any image from the modern technical and money driven Games.

A post for Sepia Saturday. A click on the button will take you to the blog.

Another girl, reading

A girl, sitting alone in a theatre and lost in a book, unaware of anything else, a picture which I think will strike a chord for any avid reader.  Is she there waiting for a performance?  Is she a member of staff for the theatre who has found a quiet place and a comfortable seat for her break?

The photographer who took the picture in 1995 was Marco Borggreve.  He is a Netherlands based photographer who specialises in classical music subjects.  Maybe the girl is a musician?

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

April showers bring forth May flowers

We have had more than our fair share of April showers recently, in fact I'd go so far as to call them downpours so we are clearly going to have magnificent flowers this merry month of May.  Nevertheless we remain officially in a state of drought.  We will not be allowed use hoses to water the garden even if we want to, though at this moment I can't think that anyone would.

The little boy shown on the 1937 postcard from the Netherlands would be fine, at least at this stage, because he is using a watering can for the flowerpots.  He's a very neat little boy considering he's out in the garden.  My sons never did look like that, ever.

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the blog.

Novi Beograd

I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this postcard from 1964 just because I like the look of it.  I found my chance when I saw a car on Sepia Saturday's image for this week.  I offer you a whole row of cars.

From the back of the postcard I find that the picture was taken in Novi Beograd and shows "Fontana noću",  "Fountain at night".

Novi Beograd or New Belgrade was new in 1947 when it was built as a planned town on the opposite bank of the Sava river to Belgrade itself.  At that time the country was Yugoslavia, now Belgrade is the capital of Serbia.

Knowing this, I thought I might be able to find out what the cards were and I'm fairly confident that the two on the left of the row are Zastava 600 (fića) based on the Fiat 600.  Fića were the Yugoslav equivalent of the Mini or the Citroen 2CV, affordable cars for the people, that became an icon and almost a way of life.

Having managed to find that out, I had high hopes that one or other of the next along the row might be either a 1300 or 1500 by the same manufacturer, Zastava.  Unfortunately I don't think either of them is, but it would have been a very satisfying discovery because they took inspiration from the Chevrolet Corvair.

Going off on a short tangent, it wasn't until I had scanned the postcard that I noticed there is a substantial crowd of people standing around the fountains.  It must have been a special show.

A young couple

I imagine this must be a picture to mark a First Communion.  It is one of the many pictures taken by Belgian photographer, Norbert Ghisoland.  He was a miner's son, born in Frameries in 1878, who went on to become an "accidental anthropologist" by recording the social history of the time.

At one time studio photography was expensive enough to restrict it to the wealthy but techniques improved to reduce the costs and opened up opportunities to those of more modest means.  Ghisoland's aim was only to provide his clients with the pictures they wanted but the 45,000 (about half the number he originally took) of his negatives have left a great record of the times.

These pictures, found accidentally in the family attic by Ghisoland's grandson, have been the subject of several exhibitions in Belgium and around the world.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Football fans (soccer)

According to the details on the reverse of the card, this photo shows "Italia - Olanda" and was taken in 2000.  A little detective work was needed to discover that in that year Italy and the Netherlands played against each other in a UEFA European Football Championship semi final.  The shop, a macelleria, is a butcher.

The spectators will have been happy because Italy beat the Netherlands.  They will have been less happy four days later when France beat Italy in the finals.

I would never have thought I could take an interest in these things but I seem to have absorbed something after years of indoctrination by my personal adviser who is the Scottish equivalent of these spectators.

La belle époque

On the reverse of the card it says

LA BELLE EPOQUE
Cherchez la tête nue?
Look for the head without a hat

The card was published in France but was mailed in England in 1986.

Before you rush off to examine the card in detail, let me tell you what I found out about La Belle Epoque.  It was a time of great optimism in Europe, a golden age that lasted from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the First World War in 1914.  It was a time of luxury living for a select few.

At the time it was very much frowned upon to go out bare-headed.  This wasn't confined only to wealthy women; it was the normal way.  So I'd be surprised if you find a bare head amongst this crowd.  I would say it was fairly early on in the era because after about 1910, women's hats became more and more extravagant.  In this picture there are plenty of feathers but that's about all.

The only question remains, where can they be?

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

For the love of libraries

Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence, Italy

The student has his Rome, his Florence, his whole glowing Italy, within the four walls of hos library.  He has in his books the ruins of an antique world, and the glories of a modern one. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The library was first opened to the public in 1752, purpose built to accommodate the collection of Abbott Francesco.  The shelving in the Reading Room was built at the same time as the building and so dates from the mid 18th century.  It is one of five historical libraries in Florence.  Since 1910, it has been the recipient of all printed works from Florence and the surrounding area.


I can't decide whether I'd enjoy working and studying in such an atmospheric place or whether the close proximity of other people shuffling paper would be a hindrance.  I'd love to have the opportunity to try.

Royal generations

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, pictured in the gardens of Walmer Castle 2001.  At the time she will have been 100 years old.

Queen Elizabeth

Stamp card issued to celebrate the wedding of Charles and Diana.

Diana, Princess of Wales, with her two sons.

Queen Elizabeth with her two grandsons.

The engagement of William and Kate commemorated on a card showing the engagement ring as worn by Diana.

Well, I think the whole world knows what's happening today in London.  Not the place to go if you don't like crowds.

I've just heard that Prince William is to be made the Duke of Cambridge which means he is no longer a commoner.  The only people who are not commoners in the UK are the sovereign and members of the peerage (duke, marquis, viscount, baron).  Up until now, Prince William did not have such a title, but after the wedding the couple are to be known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  Something tells me though, that they will still be called William and Kate.

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.