Mille Baisers: history

Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Monday, March 17, 2014

History: The Late 1930s

When did this kind of postcard cease to exist? The answer, as with most questions of culture and history, isn't clear-cut. French postcards with photographic images of happy couples continued to be made into the 1960s, with hand-tinted examples at least into the 1940s. However, the "look" is quite different, even putting aside fashion (I currently don't own any examples from later than about 1940, but I may post on these descendants sometime in the future). Though for simplicity I generally call my cards "1920s postcards", they were absolutely being made into the 1930s, with some of the most stunning examples dating from early years of that decade. I don't have outside research for dates, and the date a card was written/mailed does not neccessarily mean the card was made that year (I've mailed 100 year old cards myself!), but I have a large enough sample size to see some trends. The number of these cards mailed between 1924 and 1933 is fairly constant; after 1934, it drops off significantly, with only a couple mailed after that year. At the same time, a different "look" of card starts to become common. From the mid to late 1930s, uncoloured cards are common, while they are rare in the preceding period. Tinting still exists but is much more subtle. Dye-toning disappears entirely. The most common models from the 1920s and early 1930s are no longer seen. Matte photographic paper gives way to glossy. Deckle-edges are sometimes used. There are less publishing houses in the market, though leader PC Paris continues in force. Why these changes occurred I don't know; perhaps it may have been affected by economic depression, although the fanciest postcards I own come from the early 1930s. I suppose the ultimate answer is probably a simple "that's the way trends go."

personal collection

Friday, March 14, 2014

History: The Early 1920s

All right, back to the history! So, as we saw, there were precedents to these 1920s cards in the preceding decades-- lovely women and loving couples carefully posed, hand-tinted or dyed with bright colours. However, there is still significant visual difference between this, from 1915:

and this, from 1924:

How did they go from one to the other?

So far my answer, I'll admit, is incomplete. World War One definitely accelerated changes in society, as we can see in some of the poses on postcards, and the differences between 1914 and 1924 certainly go far beyond postcards. I suspect the taste for bright colours we see in the 1920s and early 1930s cards was affected by other cultural factors; indeed I've read that the 20s saw something of a "craze for colour."

I do, however, have some visuals to fill in the gap. These postcards were sent between 1920 and 1923 by a fellow called Victor to his girlfriend Pauline. Though they were sent in Luxembourg, they are made in France. I find them interesting because the images are still very similar to those of the 1900s and 1910s, but the colouring is more in line with what we see in the 1920s-- the brightness and the airbrushed spots of colour. My sample size is small and based on the taste of one couple, but still it is interesting to see the progression.

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This card bears the mark of publishing house PC Paris, the most prominent publisher of these cards through the 1920s and 1930s. The numbers they assign to cards appear to be at least roughly in chronological order; 60 is the lowest I've seen (and the date of this card--1920--is also the earliest I've seen for a PC Paris card).

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By 1922, Victor was sending cards with that familiar 1920s look:

Monday, February 24, 2014

History: World War One

While the colours of hand-tinted postcards experienced little change through the 1910s, the First World War certainly had an impact on the visuals of romance postcards. The pressure of war added an urgency to love. More couples were separated, with less certainty about their future. Postcards were sent back and forth between soldiers and their sweethearts (you can see a great set here, with a happy ending). In this context, the depiction of couples shifted. The chaste gazes began to give way to touching and kissing. While 'dirty' postcards always co-existed with this more romantic, hand-tinted meant-for-sending type, the lines began to blur more and more. It is not uncommon to see postcards of this type depicting women in lingerie (though of course, lingerie at this time was much less revealing than it would become) or indeed, couples lying in bed together (unfortunately this post includes no examples--still on my 'to acquire' list! However, examples can be see here, here, here, and here).

The kind of postcard pose we see in the pre-WWI postcards, with the gentleman changed to a soldier (these did remain common):

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(I'm not sure why the address and message side are reversed on this... quite odd).

Another fairly chaste pose... with the prominent addition of a bed in the background.

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1917.

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The kind of passionate embrace rarely seen before WWI:

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1917.

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A woman flat-out sitting in a man's lap:

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1917.

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The kiss, staple of the 1920s cards but almost never seen pre-WWI:

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August 1918.

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Friday, February 21, 2014

History: Early Colours

As we've seen, the hand-tinted postcards of the 1900s and 1910s were mostly muted colours, a stark contrast from the near-neons that characterize the 1920s cards. However, they were not the only coloured postcards around. In the same time period, postcard creators were also experimenting with bright, vibrant dyes and dye-combinations. These were almost always done on cards depicting women or couples--a definite predecessor to the extreme colours of 1920s dye-toned postcards. Some varieties, in fact, use dye in creative ways that were never quite repeated.

This post is made possible by a dear friend of mine, who also collects vintage postcards. All but one of these postcards come from her collection, and are reproduced with many thanks.