Now it's Tinted, Now it's Not

My knowledge about these postcards is very much a work in progress, based purely off of what I've personally seen, both in my own collection and reproduced online. While this sample size increases every day (I'm sure I've seen over a thousand, though sadly I don't yet own that many), I still come across new surprises all the time. I love these surprises, and I love the insights they give. 

These two are a great example. I have multiple examples of postcards from the same photoshoot (so far only this one is a post, but many more to come!), but in all cases, all the postcards were treated the same way. All dye-toned, all hand-tinted, all tinted and toned. Then I found this. 

The two are also from different sources, unlike the other photoshoot groups I have (which are in fact all sent by the same person, even). I bought the pink one first, and initially thought the tinted one only shared the staircase (which would have been interesting in itself!). It was very exciting to see, no, they are the same shoot, same number (ARS 6201), but done differently. So apparently this happened!

The postcards, larger, with backs:

A German Romantic Fantasy Postcard of the 1920s

While almost every single postcard of this type was made in France, even if sent from another country, apparently there was at least one publisher in Germany as well. I had no idea until I was browsing images online and found a couple with German-language verses. While the versos were not available, the publisher marks weren't any of the French ones I've seen (though there were a LOT of different French ones! Future post!). So I headed out to ebay.de to try and find one for my own collection. It was not easy-- there were plenty of this type, but as soon as I looked closely I'd see "PC Paris" or one of the other major French brands. Finally, though, I succeeded! 1920s or early 1930s, dyed and hand-tinted, with a German verse. The publisher, "HB" is one I've not seen before. There is no "made in" mark, as one often sees, so it is impossible to say with 100% certainty that it's made in Germany and not France-- but if not, well, that's even more interesting, eh? 

Hand-Tinted Metallic (or, Stunners)

Hand-tinting is, of course, one of the main characteristics of this kind of card, and we've had a look at the lovely metallic texture introduced in the late 1920s. However, until recently, not even I knew they were ever combined. The results are simply gorgeous. 

(All are unwritten so I won't include the backs, this time)

(This is not a repeat of the one above-- if you look closely you'll see they are slightly different images from the same photoshoot)

Au Plein Air

As well as plain and painted backdrops, models were posed in picturesque outdoor settings. These appear to have been most popular around 1920 and again from the late 1920s onwards, with the backgrounds predominating in between. 

Some very lovely examples:

The Painted Backdrop: Interiors

Backdrops painted with interiors were quite common in the nineteenth century, when indoor photography required long exposure times incompatibility with portraiture, although by the early twentieth century higher speed film and dry plates, as well as the start of flash, left this practice anachronistic. When you see a painted backdrop from after 1920 it's usually from a studio in a small town (example), or, well, in these postcards. I'm not sure why these painted backdrops were used so frequently in these postcards, when they were so out-of-date generally, but I suspect it was a part of the fantasy/unreality nature of the cards. 

The Painted Backdrop: Exteriors

The tradition of using painted backdrops in studio portraiture is a long one. Though by the 1920s it was largely passe, these postcards made common use of it. Today, the backdrops painted with scenes evoking the outdoors. 

(I apologize for the terrible scanning on this one-- it is on the "to re-scan" list!)