Real Photo Postcards

I found this gem of a postcard at a shop in Newport today. Collecting postcards is fun, because for a buck you can add something nice to your collection and feel like you've gotten yourself a treasure.

I quickly flipped through sixty or seventy cards, and nothing was grabbing me when suddenly I saw this one. I felt something like heartache as I looked at it.

This is from the collection Paris...En Flanant, which translated means Paris... Sauntering. Nice, huh? It is by Editions d'Art Yvon, who produced cards between the two World Wars, from 1919 - 1938. This card was not mailed so I don't have a postmark to indicate when it was taken, but I imagine it is the 1930's.

On the back of the photo paper is printed "L'ancetre des Bouquinistes quai de la Tournelle". The best I can do with online translation is the ancestor (old man?) of the dock of booksellers at Pont de la Tournelle -- a bridge over the Siene.

This is an example of what is called a Real Photo postcard. Since you are looking at it on a pixelated screen it will be more difficult to discern, but it looks and feels like a photograph and was actually developed onto a photographic paper with the weight of a postcard.

Real Photo postcards (RPPC, if you are searching them on eBay) were done by large houses, like the Paris one, and also by individual photographers who could print several or even just one photo for a person on a postcard backing. The backing might simply say POST CARD, with a divided back for a message and an address, so you may not find anything identifying who or where or when the card was taken. Here is an example on one of this type that came in my assorted box-o-postcards. I wonder who they are, and what was special about this day. It was not mailed, so I don't have a story to go with it. I'm also not an expert on wardrobe, but this looks like 1920's to me. Feel free to make up your own story for it. Don't forget to include the dog.

RPPC are not to be confused with printed black-and-white postcards, Here is one of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware that is not a real photograph, though it looks very much like one. It is a mass reprint of a photograph, printed using a process called collotype. It was made by The Mayrose Company in New Jersey, who printed cards from 1940 - 1950. If you looked at it magnified, you would be able to see ink dots, which are found on any card that is mechanically printed rather than developed.

Now, when you see old postcards, you can enjoy knowing the difference!