The Child

While the majority of these cards depict couples, individual women, and individual men, the same treatment was sometimes given to images of children as well. Usually these show one child (often with flowers, of course), although sometimes you see a child and mother or both parents in a little family group (though the adults (often the same models seen elsewhere) rarely look old enough to actually be the child's parents).

personal collection

personal collection

Romance on the Balustrade

Another of the favourite outdoor settings, this one almost oddly specific--the balustrade! (isn't it where you go on all your dates?)

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personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

Romance on the Stairs

By the later twenties, the popularity of white or painted backdrops seems to have lost ground to the outdoor setting. While there is a lot of variety in the outdoor settings used, some became standards. Today, that (apparently) favourite haunt of young lovers--the staircase!

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(the toning on this one is odd--sort of a greenish purple! I suspect it isn't regular dye-toning but maybe an experiment in a certain kind of metallic toning... not sure though!)

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personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

(this is actually the same shade of pink as that last one, just the scanner and editing software didn't think it should be! I will rescan eventually)

personal collection

personal collection

(see also this postcard's untinted twin)

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personal collection

personal collection

Moonlight Serenade

Following on from the moonlight post earlier this week, an even more specific trend-- men serenading their women with stringed instruments against a (pink) moonlit starry sky.

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I'm not really sure what's with the lamp in this one. 

personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

In the Moonlight

Postcards of lovers and the moon. 

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personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

Of course, with these cards, even moonlight isn't necessarily subdued:

personal collection

personal collection

Colour and Gold

Last month, I shared a lovely sub-genre of postcard where a tinted image was bordered with thick black, embellished with gold decoration. 

Though less common, these were sometimes done with a dye-toned image, again with a wide border and gold decoration: 

Black and Gold

A trend from the early 1930s-- the image is printed vignetted in a black background. The image is tinted and the black background is embellished with gold designs. Aren't they great? Sometimes a similar thing was done with dye-toned cards--but that is a story for another day! 

These were made by a few of the different publishing houses, although all the ones I own happen to be from PC Paris. 

You will notice these have a look of silver tarnish around the edges-- this is what is known as silver mirroring or silvering out, a process of deterioration that occurs in silver gelatin (ie, regular black-and-white) prints. It is most marked in dark areas, and since these have a lot of dark areas, well! I think it actually looks rather pretty in this case, but it is worth noting that it is not the original appearance-- the black would have been purely matte black. 

(The identification number of this postcard, in the bottom right, is exactly consecutive to the one above. So far this is the only instance I have of two exactly consecutive cards, though I have a couple that are very close.)

Thinking of You

Visual representations of loving thoughts. 

(this one is metallic)

The Single Man

Men were also sometimes represented on their own, though less commonly than women. The single man is always presented as "the lover", with flowers, a letter, or both.

(As I noted in the last post, in my early days I wasn't scanning blank versos, and have yet to make up for it. The verso of this one is blank, but will be added in the future.)

(This postcard is an interesting anomaly. The card itself almost certainly comes from the late 1920s or early 1930s, like the other cards in this blog. Both the bright dye-toning and the man's overall 'look' were past by the mid 1930s. However, it was sent as a New Year's card for 1940. Very interesting!)

The Single Woman

Though postcards depicting couples appear to be the most common-- and are my favourite to collect-- postcards depicting individual women were also published in large numbers. As in the couple cards, the women are pretty, coy, and exceptionally well-dressed. 

(The verso of this one is blank. This is one of my earlier cards, and at the time I wasn't scanning blank versos. One day I will get to it and update!)