King Insurance Company British Royalty Postcard Series

These advertising postcards were published for King Insurance of London in the early 1900’s. They are beautifully designed and are from a large series which, aptly for the company, depict the Kings of the English and British Monarchy.

I think there were 48 postcards in the series. The first in the set features Egbert who, as King of Wessex from 802, was overlord of much of England and is generally thought of as the first English King. The most recent King I’ve seen depicted is William IV who ruled until 1837 and preceded Queen Victoria. I’m guessing that the series was published around the time of the 1902 coronation of Edward VII, though Edward seems not to have been depicted (do let me know if you know otherwise).

For another British Royalty postcard series see Raphael Tuck Kings and Queens of England Postcard Series

From About Postcards
A family business trading on eBay as Allotment

W H Grant Edwardian Woven Silk Postcard

Click the image to see a larger version

A love letter postcard woven in silk; actually it's two love letters, read alternate lines for a romantic version and then a comic one.  This woven silk postcard was manufactured in the Edwardian era by William Henry Grant of Coventry England, it’s a very nice example of its type.

It's said that Grant learnt his trade while working for Thomas Stevens (after whom woven silk picture panels are named Stevengraphs) but went on to establish his own silk weaving company.  By the late Victorian era both companies were well established and producing a wide range of woven silk products including bookmarks, decorative ribbons, woven pictures (Stevengraphs), and so on.

With the arrival of the early 1900's postcard boom both companies started producing woven silk postcards. The range of subjects was broad with each company producing designs that are now much sought after by many the deltiologist.

The woven silks produced by Stevens command slightly higher prices than those of Grant though there seems little rational justification for this as their respective quality and availability levels seem otherwise comparable.

There are several categories of William H Grant silk postcards; Greetings, Verse, images of Royalty and Military leaders, Exhibition Souvenir Postcards, Steam Ships, topographic views, and more.  Most carry the company name and the text "Woven in Pure Silk" to the base of the postcard border (there are several border styles)   All are highly collectable and the company output is well documented.

It should be mentioned that Thomas Stevens and W H Grant were not alone in this marketplace.  There were many other less prominent British manufacturers and some very notable competition from the French silk weavers such as Neyret Freres and others.

For another kind of silk postcard you might want to take a look at the entry for WW1 Embroidered Silk Postcards.

From About Postcards
A family business trading on eBay as Allotment

Chromo Litho or Chromolithography Postcards

In the mid 1800's an intoxicating world of colour printing arrived. Previously printers had relied on hand colouring of monchrome images. Chromolithography was the first method capable of repeat printing of multi-color images and it prevailed on postcards published in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

If you use a magnifier to look at an early colour postcard you will see solid blocks of colour in a variety of sizes and shapes, postcards using later (more efficient but less pleasing) technologies display the colour as a series of evenly sized dots.

Chromolithography was an expensive and labour intensive process requiring considerable skill. Based on lithography (where paper is pressed to a flat inked surface) it used stone blocks or zinc plates onto which parts of an image had been drawn using an oil based medium. There was one stone for each colour of the image. Postcards were printed in multiple impressions, each block adding another very carefully positioned colour layer.

The postcard artist produced the original watercolour or oil painting. The print company employed highly skilled lithographic artists who would transfer the designs by hand onto limestone printing slabs. The litho artists worked in reverse and produced outline image frames with one outline for each color

The technology was perfected in Bavaria and resulted in many early Eurpoean postcard publishers printing their product in that country.

Attached are two rather nice Art Nouveau examples published by Raphael Tuck.

From About Postcards

A family business trading on eBay as Allotment