Christmas Lamps

This one above was sent to Berkeley, Ca in 1920 from one sister to another.

from Our House to Yours

Christmas is fast approaching and I am running out of time to post all the many Christmas postcards and photos I have. Oh, well, I guess that leaves more for next year. Just today I got a whole new handful at the Webfooters Postcard Club Meeting and Christmas Potluck.

So, I am going to ramp up the posting. Here are three.

This first one is of a quality I never see. It is incredibly beautifully done. Both of the circles are raised and the little circles around them are slightly raised, too. The paper feels more like a photo than a postcard. And, as you can see the pine boughs and berries are painted. These people had some serious money. It was printed in Britain and it says "Rotary Photographic Series". There is no postmark or date. On the back is written:

Wishing you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New year. From Ada to Grand Pa

This next one has a long message on the back and it fills out the whole card, so it was not mailed as a postcard. It is doesn't have a name it is addressed to it. it just says:

Thought you might like a picture of our old family home, tho you can see it anytime....It belongs to Edward and me now. Our Howell grandparents and family came there May 14 1884 so my mother had lived there 70 years lacking 2 days when she died May 12 1954. Mamma and Aunt Frank had a private school in the parlors...Hope you are well. Florence Anne coming for Christmas, then going to Sun Valley for a week.

This one has no writing on the back. The trees are slightly raised.

Warmest Wishes

I got about 6 of these jumbo matchbooks at the Webfooters Postcard Show last April. You may not be able to tell from the photos, but the matchbooks are 4.25" x 3.25". I had never seen anything like them before and all 6 that I got were in perfect condition with no matches missing.





Right now I wanted to share the Christmas ones. I will post the other ones at another time. The Santa one has the name Gil Stuempel letter pressed on the back. A quick search shows me one listing for Gilbert Stuempel. He was born in 1906 and died in 1993. He lived in Southern California.






The other matchbook was given by Edward V Bedney. I love the words on each match. A search on him finds also only one result. But, this is fascinating. The result is another collector site - The Universalist Ship Cancellation site. These people collect the cancellations of maritime letters. So close to what I do, but I know nothing about it and didn't even know a group like that existed.



Wow, this entry took a little turn in the road. Instead of just sharing these really neat jumbo matchbooks, I have to remark on how interesting it is that this man, Edward V Bedney has lived on in history due to things that most people throw away. Although he may have died before the internet was common, he is still searchable and present because of ephemeral things and people who collect and document them. The internet is so amazing. How crazy that something he presumably sent and something her received would both be found by collectors, valued and posted online.

a family christmas card

I wish there were signatures on this card. I have decided that this family is from Southern California, due to their sleeveless outfits. I am also going to guess that this is from around 1970.

My family never did the photo Christmas cards. It is kind of curious that we didn't considering my father was a photographer. It was probably too much money.

from Florence

christmas mood

I am really starting to get into the Christmas mood. I always think I won't and then I do. I am in the mood to watch Holiday Inn. It is one of my favorite Christmas movies. I love watching Fred Astaire dance drunk. Holiday Inn is an inn that only opens on Holidays. As a person who cannot pass up a theme, you can see why I would be so enamored.

Here is another favorite (really, they all are favorites, I guess) card from 1905. Published by Chas Scribner's Sons.

Christmas Wishes

I am so excited that it is Christmas and I can share all my Christmas postcards with you. Vintage Christmas cards are one of the things I gravitate toward and I have more than a few. I think I like Christmas images so much because they are always so cozy. And cozy is one of my favorite things. Also, many Holiday postcards use some of my favorite images in artwork: houses (lit from within with smoke coming from the chimney), snow covered hills, trees, pinecones and lanterns.

Vintage postcards often have the sweetest messages on them, the kind that they don't have anymore. I also have a small collection of found Christmas photos. I look forward to showing you those, too.

I have to get busy to get all this in before Christmas is over!

My first choice is this sweet and "ernest" card from the 20's. The moon is metallic gold. It is hard to see that in the scan. The choice of just the reds and the gold is so nice and that lantern just makes it perfect.