By Publisher

 

Paul Finkenrath of Berlin     Raphael Tuck     John Winsch

 

About the Publishers

Raphael Tuck

Raphael Tuck was a well known English firm with high standards for production of greeting cards when they decided to enter postcard publishing.  Their marketing skills surpassed all others.  In 1900 they organized a competition that was advertised on the back of postcard packets.  The packet stated,  "With a view of Fostering the love of Art, and encouraging the collecting of artistic postcards, Prizes to the amount of 1000 pounds will be awarded to the Collectors of the largest number of TUCK'S POSTCARDS that have passed through the post no matter to whom addressed..."  

These contests continued with the prize money increasing through time, and created a fever of collecting that has never returned.

 

Paul Finkenrath of Berlin

Many beautifully embossed and gilded sets were imported from German firms such as Paul Finkenrath of Berlin.  PFB issued a number of very fine comic sets for distribution in the United States; the topics included such standards as mothers-in-law, drinking, new fathers, quarreling spouses, old maids, and childish pranks.  All are highly embossed and of superb quality. There are religious sets illustrating a line or phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, scenes of the Nativity, and a rosary series with embossed children.  Other topics published by PFB included cupids and lovers, patriotic and holiday cards, children in Victorian dress, and storks.  Finkenrath featured storks in such activities as rocking the cradle, pulling the carriage, giving a doll to two toddlers, and carrying a young infant on his back.  They also issued a most unusual and rare novelty set featuring a moon with a human face attached to the cards by a small spring.  Metal objects fastened to cards had a great vogue at the time.

 

John Winsch

John O. Winsch, of Stapleton, New York, was a publisher of superior quality greeting postcards.

He first issued postcards in 1910, shortly after the passage of the Payne-Aldrich Act, which increased tariffs on imported cards.  The Winsch cards were printed in Germany and imported to the United States for distribution.

Winsch postcards sold at two for five cents, when the common price was one cent each.  While some Winsch postcards were issued in sets of six; most of the better designs were issued in sets of four.

The most collected of the Winsch postcards are the Halloween designs by American art nouveau artist, Samule L. Schmucker.

Winsch reached its peak in 1911, but continued in business until 1915.  During this short time Winsch copyrighted over 3,000 designs.

 

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References

Nicholson, Susan Brown, The Encyclopedia of Antique Postcards, Wallace-Homestead Book Company, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 1994

Ryan, Dorothy B., Picture Postcards in the United States 1893-1918, Clarkson N. Potter, 1982

 

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