Wednesday, August 25, 2010

WW1-era Postcard Details: Illustrated Fleurs

A selection of postcards collected in France by my grandfather during WW1. As my loyal reader Artichoke Annie has mentioned in the WW1 "fields of flowers" post below, between not wanting to worry the folks back home, and having the government censors reading each and every written note home, communications during this war were kept pretty lighthearted in general. These cards were never mailed, he brought home hundreds of cards like this for his sister, Edith, who had fallen sick in 1919 and apparently liked flowers as much as I do today. I have a few old tin tobacco boxes and a couple of small wooden boxes she papered over with flowered magazine ads and wallpaper bits, making them prettier for her bureaus and shelves I believe. I love the way these illustrations were drawn and used with the typography of the day.

3 comments:

  1. Those are so sweet. From a Souvenir to a Thought to a Kiss to Greetings from Rennes. Nice.

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  2. I have somewhere in my place a box of old postcards - I'm not sure of the dates, I will have to dig them up. They come from another non-military side of the family. Also I have those photo postcards from my dad during the war, lot's of Navy ships etc. I should send them to you.

    I love how you remind me of things Casey. I also have my mother's old doll, which I will photograph and put on my blog, maybe you can tell me more about it than I know. I did take it to the Antique Roadshow once, mostly unimpressed, but did say I could invest $100 in restoration/repair - that was about what is was worth. My mom was born in 1896 and I would guess she probably got the doll when she was around six years old. It had a china head and hands and the body (jointed) is all kid. More on this later.

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  3. Casey, check my We're on the Wabash blog post, the question there is posed to you.

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