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Irish Postcard Publishers

THE PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS OF IRISH POSTCARDS

by MICHAEL McMULLAN

built upon a document donated to

The POSTCARD CLUB of NORTHERN IRELAND

by the Late F K Dixon

Introduction

The postcard was invented several times, but it is generally accepted that the first successful introduction was by the Austrian Post Office in 1869.  Other countries quickly followed this example with cards of standard size and with an imprinted stamp prepaying the postage at half the minimum letter rate.  In Great Britain and Ireland the Post Office retained the monopoly for selling postcards until 1894, when new regulations permitted the posting of non-official cards with adhesive stamps added.  There were still restrictions of size and one side had to be reserved for the address.  So the first postcards with pictures incorporated had little space for the pictures, half or less of the 4½ by 3½ inches, leaving some room for the sender to write his name and his message.  The restrictions were successively modified and, by 1902 the size could be up to 5½” x 3½” and only half the address-side was reserved for the address.  The division of the address side was introduced in 1902.

The period 1903-1910 was probably the peak for postcard production and collecting postcards became a fashionable hobby, with filling an album as the main objective.  So a typical album (200-300 cards, but occasionally 500) contained Christmas and birthday cards, comic cards, photographs of actresses, mingled with views of Irish, British and continental holiday resorts.  Now such albums are split up, with one collector wanting the views of his home town, another ships, another tramcars, another takes the comics, another seeks reproductions of paintings, another looks for a particular style of “glamour” etc.  Although they specialise in this way, most modern collectors are concerned with the picture side.

This study is devoted to some of the information to be found normally on the other side of the card, particulars of who published the postcard, where, and by whom it was printed.

Unfortunately, a vast range of productions are totally anonymous, including some stunning cards which deserve ownership.  Although the view and style of print, particularly on the back, can sometimes be a useful clue, nothing in this field can be certain.  Each person must judge for themself.

At the other extreme one finds very informative imprints of some person’s claim to immortality:

“Photographed, reproduced and supplied by Coon, Moira, for M McGowan,

General Grocer, Draper and Provision Merchant, Cliffoney, Co Sligo.”

Sometimes a rubber-stamped or overprinted name adds to an already complicated case, eg:

J Rock & Son of Belfast published the Avenue Series, printed by W Ritchie & Son of Edinburgh as purporting to be in their Reliable Series and these were stocked by Ferguson, Photographer, Ballymena, amongst others.

This can be by agreement, by printing or administrative convenience, or by ‘other means’. Dennis of London and Scarborough bought Gordon of Belfast and used their photos.  Post Offices, small shops, businesses and tourist centres regularly ordered from major printers and publishers and both names were acknowledged on the cards.  However, I have found that one view of Portballintrae, processed by Kodak and published after WW2 by Miller & Laing, that was actually a holiday snap taken by my father in 1938!

Dating is difficult!  In most cases this is done by the postmark of the earliest seen, but frequently little care seems to have been taken to frank them clearly.  The postal date can also be misleading as the card could have been photographed and printed many years before sale or posting.  An example of this is a pre-1894 Valentine view (15144) of Portballintrae, first issued in a series of 12 cards in 1927.  In contrast, today, John Hinde still sells quaint 1960s views of the north coast, including the long renovated thatched cottages at Ballintoy!

Another important pointer is the postal rate of the stamp on the card:

½d       1870 to 1918;

1d        1918 to 1921;

1½d     1921 to 1924;

1d        1924 to 1941;

1½d     1941 to 1948;

2d        1948 to 1966;

3d        1966 to 1969;

4d        1969 to 1970;

6d        1970 to 1971;

2½p     1971 to 1973;

3½p     1973 to 1974;

5p        1974, etc.

In the early period this rate was often specified in the stamp space.  However, card publishers ceased to bother to indicate the charge after the 1930s and subsequent increases became so frequent that it would have been impractical.

KEY TO THE LISTINGS BELOW

In the lists on the following pages:

  • the first column has the name of the firm or individual with whatever details of their business and address that were printed on the postcards offered in packets or stitched together in books, sometimes only showed details of the printers/publishers on the outer envelope or wrapping.  A start has also been made on cross-referring Series names to the publisher.
    • the second column shows the date of the earliest card, usually that seen postally used or actually dated, but sometimes researched, or an estimated date to provide context.
    • the third column gives the range of subjects and method of printing, and any other firms concerned in the production.  “Real photographic ” means that the cards appear to be direct photographic prints from the negative.  Colour photos is the modern equivalent. “Photogravure” is a “catch-all” category and simply indicates that the printing was from a printing plate.  I know that there are a variety of similar types of printing, some a trademark of the firm, and these are known.  “½-tone” specifies the printing from plates on which the picture is broken into dots of varying size but regularly arranged.
    • the fourth column states where the cards were printed, using I, N Ireland, Ireland, Great Britain, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Saxony, Bavaria, Germany, France, Foreign, Russia, Italy, or whatever was shown on the back of the card.

Some leeway has to be given to classification as most publishers employed or acquired a variety of printing finishes either by design or accident, and many of these have either yet to be discovered or recognised (by me!).  For example colourtinted means colouring by hand, but may be mistaken for colour printing.

SCOPE.

F K Dixon’s original aim appears to have been to cover all the world’s publishers of postcards of Ireland – but that is a bridge too far (at least for now.)  I have focused upon recording the Irish publishers of postcards and have more than doubled the database,but I recognise that this is an everlasting task.  I hope that all the ‘big boys’ are covered in basic terms, but as they produced an incredible range of products, it is obvious that each of these could warrant a publication of their own to properly express this.  However, a significant step has been taken to record most of the small local guys, who were having their ‘day in the sun’ with their own card.

SECTION 1

This is the main listing of Publishers in alphabetical order.   Mc is treated as Mac and MAC and interspersed in the ‘Ms’ in alphabetical order.  Similarly “O’?” is mixed into the ‘Os’ and initials treated as names.

SECTION 2

This is the Town of originlisting with the local publishers’ names in alphabetical order.

SECTION 3

This contains the residue of F K Dixon’s listings of non-Irish publishers’ details (as in section 1) which must not be lost, and may be added to later.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

MY SINCERE THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING KIND CONTRIBUTORS FOR THE RANGE OF VALUABLE INFORMATION THAT THEY MADE AVAILABLE:

  • LAWRENCE MORRISON – for unlimited access to his extensive range of cards;
  • BILLY SEAWRIGHT – for considerable access to his extensive range of cards;
  • IAN McCULLOUGH;
  • ERROL McCREADY;
  • NORMAN CULLEN;
  • BILLY NELSON;
  • (the Late) ROY CAMPBELL;
  • DESMOND QUAIL;
  • JIM McQUILLAN;
  • ROBERT BONAR;
  • ANDREW PATTERSON.

I apologise if I have inadvertently missed anyone out.  Senility is creeping in!