Kind Thoughts

More vintage card loveliness! Last week I included a New Year’s postcard in my Christmas card post. Here’s another sweet card for your enjoyment.

The front is heavily embossed vellum, with gold, blue and green tinting on the flowers, bell, leaves, horseshoe, anchor, book, and hands-entwined in hearts.

Enlarged detail to show how it’s stitched together and has a bow tied with embroidery thread – and the “Good Luck” stamp. Inside: “A loving new Year Greeting” from J. Gosling to his Cousin Lizzie.

And the printed message: “Gladness attend you the Season trough / All that is brightest belong to you! / Thoughts of the sweetest, and memories fair, / These be the gifts that your life may share”

Appetite whetted for more New Year cards?

My 2015 New Year’s vintage postcard post.

Two other wonderful vintage New Year’s postcards in this blog post.

A Merry Happy To All

I scored a great Christmas card at SCRAP-SF earlier this year!

Poor turkey, looking forward to his Christmas banquet, aghast to learn HE’S the main course!

This is an unfolded card rather than a postcard, the message on back in gorgeous Art Deco / Nouveau font.

No postmark or other info to date it; I suspect a reprint because it’s in such good shape. The original presumably pre-dates our modern twist on the meaning of “high time”!

… And for next week! A truly vintage New Year’s postcard, mailed on December 31, 1913 from Times Square Station New York.

The back: “If you were only here I would wish you a very very happy New Year.”

I love the gentle directions, complete with fingers pointing, at left reminding one to write the message: “With pen and ink / the things you think / write here” … and at right: “Your Uncle Sam will do the rest / if this good card is well addressed / right here.”

My Christmas vintage postcard blog post from last year

And Christmas the year before! 

And Christmas 2013!

And Christmas 2012!

My 2015 New Year’s vintage postcard post.

Two other wonderful vintage New Year’s postcards in this blog post.

Happy Holidays to you!

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard

Happy Thanksgiving! As anger swirls and turmoil upsets days and plans, giving thanks and gratitude is one way I focus on what’s important to me. During these hard times I give heartfelt thanks for friends who battle for justice and freedom.

And while I strive with my friends for progress, I value precious pieces of paper that send messages of fellowship from the distant past.

This eternal sentiment in poetic form: “From farm and field come nature’s yield / In the rich autumn weather / From out the scattered walks of life / The household circle meets together.” And at the end: “May you enjoy this Thanksgiving”

The back of the postcard reads: “Dear Little Adah, I received your card and it was very cute. This turkey looks very good, the one on the other side. Love to you all. Arnolda.”

The postmark is from San Jose California, November 25, 1913. The postal cancellation advertises the coming World’s Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, 1915.

Some more vintage Tgiving cards for you! My 2015 post.  My 2014 post. And my 2013 post. 

Votes for Women vintage postcard

Today’s vintage treasure – a postcard for women’s suffrage dated 7/31/14, and that’s 1914 dear reader – six years before women got the right to vote in the United States!  I found this historical gem during my birthday visit to SCRAP, the go-to Bay Area creative reuse warehouse. With a shockingly timely message mailed by two enlightened fellows to their lady friends over a hundred years ago, here’s the front:

The back, addressed in beautiful cursive handwriting to Miss Kate Costa, Marysville, California, reads:

Dear Kate & Mabel,

You “guys”, better beat it down here on that motor tomorrow eve. (Sat.). We have made big preparations for “our our” dance, see. If you wish, this one, we will sure fill the farmhouse full of cans. See you to-morrow on the motor. Fred & Harry. Box 344.

I tracked down an image of the same postcard on The Suffrage Postcard Project website, which links to their source, the Palczewski Suffrage Postcard Archive. From the Archive’s site I learned that Barton & Spooner Co. published the card, and indeed – I now see a very small B&S logo in the lower right corner, under the word “motor”.

As noted by Catherine Helen Palczewski, “[A] fascinating intersection occurred between advocacy for and against woman suffrage, images of women (and men), and postcards. Best estimates are that approximately 4,500 postcards were produced with a suffrage theme.” See Palczewski, Catherine H. Postcard Archive. University of Northern Iowa. Cedar Falls, IA.

Plus ça change,  n’est-ce pas?

Happy New Year from Father Time

To welcome 2016, a New Year’s vintage embossed postcard with a weighty message:

“May Time, who sheds his blight o’er all / And daily dooms some joy to death / O’er thee let years so lightly fall / They shall not crush one flower beneath.”

The excerpt from a poem entitled ‘Peace Be Around Thee’ by Irish poet Thomas Moore, 1779-1852, is perfectly captured by the illustration — bearded, sandal-wearing and scythe-bearing Father Time scatters years sketched as golden-tinted balls. There’s no writing or postmark on the back, but another copy of the card online has a 1908 postmark.

My past posts about vintage New Year postcards:

New Year’s Day 2015.

December 1012 post.

A matched pair of Christmas and New Year postcards.

Happy New Year! May you send and receive many postcards this year.

A Merry Vintage Christmas to Ethel

Herewith two early 1910s Merry Christmas postcards. When I chose them I didn’t notice I must have gotten them from the same collection. Neither has a message nor postmark on the back. The first, from Raphael Tuck’s “The Poinsettia” series:

See the delicately inked “Mamma to Ethel” at bottom corner? And Mamma’s message to Ethel via the inspiring poem by M.B. Whitman: “Keep your face / always / towards the / sunshine, and / the shadows / will fall / behind / you.”

The second, from A.S. Meeker’s Christmas series, copyright 1910 has no poem, but a peaceful winter scene with strongly embossed green holly leaves and red berries, snowfall and icicles, and welcoming stately mansion. And the penciled inscription at bottom: “Papa to Ethel.”

Lucky Ethel!

This is my Christmas vintage postcard blog post from last year.

And from the year before.

And my 2012 post.

Happy Holidays to you!!

Thanksgiving Good Cheer

Herewith some 1910s Thanksgiving wishes! Most of my vintage T’giving postcards have turkeys on them, so this one is unusual.

I thought our fair lass was preparing a vegetarian dinner, but closer inspection shows that her cornucopia and basket overflow only with grapes. Perhaps she was tasked with providing the wine; hence the message on the front: “Thanksgiving Day Good Cheer.”

The message on the back: “Grandpa & Grandma.” Postmarked 1915, it’s addressed to Master Wilbur W. Daily, #28 S. 8th St., City.

Next, alas, more doomed turkeys. On this heavily embossed card Tom Turkey displays his fancy tail feathers for his lady. The borders around “Thanksgiving Greetings” and the picture are painted with metallic silver and have an art nouveau feel.

Minnie sent this card, addressed to Mrs. J. Vanderplou, in 1910. The message: “Dear Aunt Annie, I got the paints and they are nice ones. When I got them I was so glad. I painted with them already. Mamma said ‘that she would like to go to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. Mamma is going to write soon.’ That piece of goods that you sent is very pretty. xxxxxx.” A model Thank You note indeed!

To all of my friends who celebrate, with or with out turkeys (not in our house anymore), have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Joyful Easter

Happy Passover and Easter! I don’t have any vintage postcards showing a seder, but am happy to share two wonderful vintage embossed Easter cards from my collection.

A newly hatched chick posing on a gleaming dark gold egg-shaped background wishes us A Joyful Easter. I adore the Art Nouveau typeface and flourishes gorgeously frame the little hen. The postcard was never mailed, and there’s no message on the back.

In this card dated April 17, 1911, a dapper Easter bunny clad in a fancy morning suitjacket and equipped with his umbrella (for April showers) doffs his top hat at the wide-eyed little chick. The gleaming gold egg (we have a theme!) is adorned with a deeply-embossed and finely detailed pansy and lily flower.

The card reads: “Dearest Mother, Hope the bunny brings you many joys on this day. Yours lovingly, Edith.” There’s no stamp or postmark, so Edith probably delivered the card by hand to her mother.

Check out more of my vintage Easter postcards at:

Mad Hens, 2012

Happy Peeps-Day, 2013

Vintage Easter Greetings, 2014

Happy Vintage Cupid’s Day

Next Saturday’s Valentine’s Day, meaning it’s time for me to share more of my vintage V-Day postcards.

“When Tulips a heart entwine / It speaks of Love, my Valentine.” Mailed to Miss Matilda Blessing of Pitts Pa on February 9, 1910, there’s no message or signature on the back … a secret admirer perhaps? All of the text and illustrations are embossed, even the small field of tulips inside the heart-shaped center.

A very self-effacing lover mailed the next one to Miss Marie Cornell of Dickinson Center, New York in 1930.

“My Valentine / I’m slow, sweetheart. / And shy, tis true. / Yet Cupid loves me – Why can’t you?” This entreaty also was not signed. It’s not embossed, but the colors are still bright, and the scalloped edges shine with glittery gold paint.

Finally, sweet Cupid offers a bouquet of roses.

Only two inches tall, he was separated from a larger Valentine’s card. The pink ribbon at top is real fabric, and Cupid is swaddled in a soft, folded paper diaper.

Want to see more? Check out my 2014 post Vintage Valentine’s Day Greetings, my 2013 post A Token of Love, and my 2012 post Happy Valentine’s Day.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

A Vintage New Year

To start off 2015 right, I bring you a gorgeous Happy New Year postcard.

Three brilliantly-colored birds perch on a snow-sprinkled branch. All of the details: the birds and their meticulously drawn feathers, the gold banner, the festive holly branch with red berries, and the lettering: “A Happy New Year” are embossed. There’s no message or postmark on the back. A copyright on the front has a date of 1911.

Want to see more? I showed you two other wonderful vintage New Year’s postcards in this blog post. And in this post I showed you a matched pair of Christmas and New Year cards.

Happy New Year! May you send and receive many postcards this year.