Postcards

Postcards

A very early postcard, posted in 1902. See below for another version of the same card posted four years earlier

One of the best sources of information about Jersey life in the early 20th century is the postcard.

Several decades before local newspapers began to include photographs, postcards were being printed in their thousands for holidaymakers to send messages home to friends and family. They were also widely used within the island for exchanging messages before the telephone became widely available. When postal services were faster and more reliable than today it was common to send a postcard to arrange a meeting the following day.

On-line purchases

Many of the photographs from the late Victorian era and the early part of the 20th century which survive today were printed as postcards. They are very collectible items and many suppliers have catalogue listings on line.

Among the most useful sites for those seeking to buy postcards of the island are the following:

An 1899 postcard - anything from the 19th century is very rare

Dates

Details are rarely available of when cards were published. Dating of cards is usually done using the date stamps on cards that have been through the post. The earliest recorded cards of the islands, according to the Picture Postcard Annual, are Jersey: 15 July 1895; Guernsey: 25 April 1898; and Sark: 21 July 1899. So far no cards, dated before 1900, have been found for Alderney.

At a time when the postal service was the main means of communication, postcards proved instantly popular, and from their introduction until the outbreak of the First World War thousands of cards with Channel Island views were produced by a large number of businesses, most of which disappeared after a few years, but a few continue to produce cards today.

It is apparent that some of these publishers did not have pictures taken for their postcards but bought the images from local photographers. Numerous identical images can be found in the sets produced by English publishers. French publishers, however, tended to commission their own photographs.

In Jersey in the early 1900s a number of local photographers published their own cards. Most prolific of these was Albert Smith. Over 1000 real photo and printed cards, many of which were numbered, were produced. The firm that bore his name continued to produce cards into the 1930s. There is some doubt, however, that Smith actually took all the original photographs, because he bought out a collection of negatives taken by Ernest Baudoux. Of a total of 3298 images attributed to the Albert Smith studio in the photographic archive of La Société Jersiaise, it is estimated that as many as 500 are in fact by Ernest Baudoux, and a project is under way to try to correctly identify the photographer who took each image.

Francis Foot also published and printed real photo cards and is best known for his Pitt series of nearly 100. A set of over 100 real photo cards with the initials WED is also to be found. As yet no one has definitely identified this publisher, but the cards, most of which have images not replicated by other publishers, were produced between 1905 and 1911. Two tobacconists also produced a number of cards. Some time after 1905 H G Allix published a series of nearly 200 printed monochrome numbered cards, almost certainly from prints produced by Frenchman J Bienaimé. Some of the same numbers have two different images and coloured cards were produced later.

Other local photographers who produced Jersey cards include George Barré, C H Cristin, E Dale, W de Guerin, A G le Moer and P Godfray.

Subjects

Inevitably the most popular subjects for Jersey postcards were (and still are) the regular haunts and activities of visitors. Mont Orgueil Castle and Corbiere are inevitably the most frequently found locations, followed by Havre des Pas, Plemont, St Brelade's Bay, Devil's Hole, Greve de Lecq and other places around the coastline.

Traditional 'saucy' seaside postcards were also produced for Jersey, but these were part of nationwide issues, overprinted for sale in Jersey and many other seaside resorts around Britain.

Some more unusual subjects to be found on Jersey postcards include early traffic accidents, military manoeuvres and displays, and a wide variety of photographs of important events from the early years of the 20th century which were printed as postcards for sale to local people in the days before they could see pictures in their newspapers.

A 1902 postcard, printed in Paris and posted from Jersey

Henry Wimbush

An important contributor to the postcards of Jersey was Henry Bowser Wimbush (1858-1943) who was one of publisher Raphael Tuck's most prolific artists, but despite his very high postcard output, he remains a shadowy figure, only briefly chronicled in art dictionaries and reference works.

Although he first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1888, he was not famous as a painter, and his work was not very well known. Among his Royal Academy exhibits were:

1889 - Petit Bot Bay, Guernsey
1904 - Grosse Tete, Jersey

Edith Carey's The Channel Islands was published in 1904 and contained 76 colour plates by Wimbush, which exhibited his work to a much wider audience.

His watercolours were published by Tuck between 1904 and 1908, the majority in the "Oilette" series, although a few do appear as "Aquarettes". The Wimbush postcards are distinctive, characterised by soft colours and lines. He had a liking for water, and some of his finest work appeared as seascapes and river scenes. See gallery below.

The artist's work is highly collectable as his postcard output is clearly numbered in sets of six cards, with many town scenes as well as coastal views in the 162 Tuck sets.

LL postcards

One of the most popular series of postcards with collectors is that produced by Levy Fils of Paris, known as the LL postcards. Some of the foremost authorities on postcard collecting, both in Jersey and wider afield, still refer to these postcards as the work of Louis Levy. As recently as 2006 Jersey postcard collector Charles Larbalestier, writing in the Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise about collecting Jersey postcards referred to his collection of Louis Levy images, but researchers had proved some years before that there was no such photographer.

The Louis Levy myth, and the LL postcards of Jersey

A postcard sent to France in 1898. It was postmarked in Jersey on 26 August, travelled by boat to Granville, Normandy, where it was again stamped the following day
It then travelled to its destination, St Lunaire, to the west of St Malo on the north Brittany coast, where it was stamped again on the 28th
And this card left Jersey on 18 August 1900, passed through Carteret the following day, and arrived in Brussels a day later - just two days to reach the Belgian capital
The front of the card, a typical design at the turn of the century, with space for a message alongside the picture of Corbiere lighthouse

1902 coded postcard

Although quite early, having been posted in 1902, this postcard was otherwise believed to be unexceptional, until we attempted to read the message. It appeared to have some elements of French, but had us completely stumped until a member of a Facebook group devoted to Jersey history spotted that it was, indeed, written in French, but every word was written backwards. It appears to have been a card sent between friends who were exchanging postcards and photographs at the beginning of the 20th century. The message, for 'am erehc etitep esiuoL' *ma chere petite Louise* was send by 'enieledam' - *Madeleine*

Collecting postcards

Collecting Jersey postcards, an article from the 2006 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise

Special sets

Beechams island views were part of the promotional activities of the pharmaceutical company in the early 20th century
Drawings of Jersey scenes Added 2016

Galleries of postcard series

John Hinde postcards
A C Gallie postcards
ET postcards
EL Postcards
Beresford Library Series Added 2017
Jarrold postcards
ND Postcards
JWS Postcards NEW
A set of embossed frame postcards
Postcards of Henry George Allix
Dennis postcards
Early shield postcards
Early circle postcards Added 2016
1901 postcards sent to a collector in Luxembourg
Thomas Nelson and Son postcards Added 2018
Some early panoramic views of the island

Gallery

Postcards were in their infancy when these two were written in 1903. All that was allowed on the back by the Post Office was the recipient's address, so any available space on the picture side was used to write the message. These two cards are based on photographs taken of St Helier Harbour in 1903 by prolific local photographer Albert Smith. The messages are written in French and are clearly in two different hands, although the photographs are from the same set. The upper picture shows horse-drawn carriages awaiting the arrival of the mailboat, which is about to dock and discharge its passengers who will be taken direct to their hotels. Horse-drawn transport is the feature of the photograph below, but these are farm carts laden with potatoes and ready to pass through the Weighbridge before being loaded on to ships on the New North Quay

Postcards sent to nearby France in 1906 NEW

1899 card sent by a young holidaymaker to a friend
1899 card sent by a young holidaymaker to a friend
1899 card sent by a young holidaymaker to a friend
1899 card sent to France
1899 card sent to Germany
Artist Wimbush's view of Belcroute
Corbiere by Wimbush
Fiquet by Wimbush
Mont Orgueil by Wimbush
Petit Portelet by Wimbush
Plemont by Wimbush
St Aubin by Wimbush
An 1897 postcard
The first postcard known to have been sent from Jersey, in 1895
A 1900 postcard
1959
1906
Plemont
1910
A 1902 postcard
1898 postcard
1899 postcard sent from Jersey to Montmorency in France, via Granville
Postcard posted during the German Occupation
A 1901 postcard of St Aubin
A 1900 postcard

Rene Jouan, who would eventually command a French Navy submarine, spent some time in Jersey in the closing years of the 19th century, perhaps attending the French Navy school at Highlands, which would later become Notre Dame du Bon Secours. He sent postcards to his family in Rouen, and as far afield as Madagascar, a number of which have survived. They include a rare postcard posted on 31 December 1899, the last day of the century.

This postcard is something of a mystery. It was sent with New Year wishes, and also for the new century, so was presumably posted just before the end of 31 December 1899. But the postmark shows 11.45 pm on 31 December 1900. Did the post office in Jersey turn it's date stamp to the new year a little to early?
1899
1899