Dear Old England

Although this postcard is the WWI era, the caption seems to sum up the British feelings about the London Olympics:

To make dear old England happy and great,
The glad day of victory we hopefully wait.

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Leap Year Postcards

Leap Year usually occurs every four years. An extra day, February 29, is added to the calendar during Leap Years to correct for the fact that a year is not exactly 365 days.Traditionally Leap Year was a time when women were allowed to propose marriage to men instead of waiting for men too propose to them.

Most Leap Year postcards were published during the years of the early twentieth century postcard craze for the leap years of 1904, 1908, and 1912. Most of these postcards were comical in nature. The postcard above, from 1904, is the only Leap Year card in my collection. This postcard was signed by Arthur Gill and published by Tuck.

More information and examples of Leap Year postcards:

Vintage Leap Year Postcards

“Get a Hustle On—It’s Leap Year”

Donald McGill postcards that warned men about women proposing

Valentine & Love Stamp

The Valentine postcard above show a little girl at a post office stamps window. She says she is good at waiting, but she would have had to wait about 50 years to buy a Love stamp from the United States Postal Service. This postcard was made by Whitney and is one of the cards that I included in the Little Sweethearts Vintage Valentine Postcards video I made today.

The United States issued its first Love stamp in 1973. The postcard below shows the second U.S. Love stamp, issued in 1982. This is an oversize postcard from a set issued by USPS for the 25th Anniversary of Love stamps in 1998. This stamp used flowers as the elements of the letters in LOVE. The letter "L" is formed by the miniature red poppy; the "O" by painted daisies and "Johnny-jump-ups" (miniature pansies); the "V" by the cornflower or bachelor's button; and the "E" by coral bells.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Romantic Couples

And when the day's ended you'll wait on our pourch
And the smile on your face will be my life's tourch

To show him, that there's nothing wrong,
She kisses long her lover strong.

Postcards showing romantic couples were popular during the postcard craze of the early twentieth century. These two were produced by the Theodor Eismann company in Germany circa 1910. On the back, they are marked in the bottom left corner with the company logo, a combination of a comet with the intertwoven initials Th.E.L.

Printed on the bottom of the right side is Th.E.L. „Theochrom” Serie N⁰ 1124 (or Serie N⁰ 1091 on the second card). “Theochrom” was their process name for a glossy lacquer finish. Postcards like these typically were published in series. The romantic series usually featured the same models in a sequence of poses acting out the words on the card.

The video below shows "The Romantic Postcard of the early 20th century in the social context of the time and what women had to consider before marrying as marriage was at that time for life."

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Love Lights of Your Eyes and Songs

A couple of weeks ago I showed some postcards from the Lovelights series. This is a card that attracted me because of the reference to love lights. I figured love lights must have been a popular expression to have been used on this card. The expression seems easy enough to understand, but I couldn't find an actual definition of lovelight.

Since many of the expressions on old postcards were inspired by popular songs of the time, I searched for "lovelight 1909." The first thing I found was a cover of some sheet music offered for sale. This song was written by Williams and Van Alstyne, and was published by Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York, 1909. I couldn't find the words for this song, but I did find some other songs from the same time period that mentioned love lights.

The Lovelight Beaming From Your Eyes by Julian Edwards and Chas. J. Campbell was published in 1908 and includes these words:

Love light! love light!
Beaming from your eyes
Your lips! dear lips!
Breathing blissful sighs;

Can't you see I love you? is another song from 1908. This was written by Nat. D. Ayer and A. Seymour Brown. This is the chorus: Can't you see I love you? See the lovelight in my eyes!

Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1910) by Beth Slater Whitson and Leo Friedman includes the following chorus:

Let me call you “Sweetheart”
I’m in love with you
Let me hear you whisper
that you love me too
Keep the lovelight glowing
In your eyes so true
Let me call you “Sweetheart”
I’m in love with you.

Beth Slater Whitson and Leo Friedman also wrote the 1909 hit, Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland that includes these words:

Meet me tonight in Dreamland
Under the silv'ry moon
Meet me tonight in Dreamland
Where love's sweet roses bloom
Come with the love light gleaming
In your dear eyes of blue
Meet me in Dreamland,
Sweet Dreamy Dreamland
There let my dreams come true

There are also newer songs about love lights.

Here is Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland as sung by Judy Garland:

PFF - Lovelights Love Story

I was trying to decide on something to post when I saw PostcardRoundup's post of a Lovelights postcard earlier today. His card has an interesting back with advertising for the "Lovelight" series of 20 subjects "JUST OFF THE PRESS." According to the book Walden's Post Card Enthusiast Revisited, Acmegraph of Chicago released 20 Lovelights designs in May 1909 with a "card-size electric light bulb with a girl and boy kissing in it, etc." and the Lovelights title in the corner.

I decided to look at the two Lovelights cards that I have had and ignored for many years. I discovered that the backs are quite interesting. Conincidentally, they were written in the first week of February--in 1910. On February 1, ? wrote to Mr. Poindexter. On February 4, Poin wrote (actually typed) to Miss Ruby Easum. There are some puzzling things about these cards. Is the sideways question mark some sort of code? What does the upside down stamp mean? Is Poin's message some sort of code? It doesn't make sense to ask about the weather in Amarillo if he is also in Amarillo. And why would he say he would bring a car of coal if very cold?

It is unusual to find both sides of a correspondence together, so I started wondering if these two people had also ended up married and together. Surprisingly, I found that Ruby had married a Poindexter (no first name, but likely the same one). This is what I found in the VITAL RECORDS - POTTER COUNTY, TX - DEATHS 1969 :

Poindexter, Ruby Easum ... 16-Aug-1969 ... F ... Widowed

SS - Riverside Café, Tarpon Springs, Florida

Louis Pappas' Riverside Cafe was founded in 1925 by Louis Pappas and his wife. It was replaced in 1975 by a new Pappas Restaurant (no longer in business). The restaurants were famous for their Greek Salad which included an olive-oil-based potato salad in addition to the usual ingredients of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and feta cheese.

Look at what is behind the woman (Flora Pappas?) in the picture. That sure looks like a postcard rack.

Smorgasbord Sundays (SS)
restaurant and food postcards

VTT - Men's Hosiery

Normally, I am not tempted to make up stories to go with my with my postcards. But when looking through my collection to find a postcard to pair with my box thingie, I found one that suggested a story to me:

She was the girl of his dreams, and she reminded him of the girl on his Eiffel hosiery box. He had made a big mistake when he addressed her as "girlie." Wearing his best suit and carefully arranging his legs to show off his new hosiery, he attempted to persuade her to give him a second chance. But, it was too late now.

This box is the type of burnt wood item that had a design stamped or scorched into the wood in a factory, rather than having a printed design to be hand burned by a hobbyist.

size 7-1/2" X 4-1/4"

This box has the Eiffel Hosiery trademark on the inside of the lid. Eiffel sold hosiery for men, women, and children. This box held men's hosiery, as indicated by the label stamped on the bottom of the box.

I'm participating in Vintage Thingie Thursday

VTT - The Romance of Hats

Romantic postcards like this were popular in the early 1900s. These cards usually were published in series. I have another postcard from this series with the title ""Let's get together." That one shows the same man with his arms around two different girls.

Crocheted potholders in the shape of hats are more common than most shapes, but not nearly as common as dresses and panties. I think it is interesting to see the variations on the same basic idea of a broad-brimmed hat with flowers.

Vintage Thingies Thursdays