TECHNIQUES FOR DATING REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS
We will describe five (5) different techniques for dating real photo postcards:
(1) If used, the cancellation will frequently provide the best clue to the date that the image was photographed.
(2.) If unused, if there is a Stamp Box printed on the back of the postcard, this offers the best clue to the period that the photographic paper was in use. To see a comprehensive list of Stamp Boxes and their periods of use, click here to visit Playle's site.
(3.) If unused, if there is no Stamp Box printed on the back of the postcard, the printing style of the back offers the best clue to the period that the photographic paper was in use. To see a comprehensive list of Real Photo Printed Style Backs and their periods of use, click here to visit Playle's site.
(4.) Carefully examine the image for telltale age markers such as automobile models, the clothing worn by people,
(i.e. shoes or hats) or the presence of early electrical lights strung across the roads, or dirt streets that existed before paving became the standard.
(5.) Look for the photographer's name, city, studio location, or logo. Some commercial photographers made hundreds or even thousands of different real photo postcards. Their work and time periods may be documented.
TO IDENTIFY A REAL PHOTO POSTCARD
The best way to authenticate a Real Photo Postcard is to look at the card under magnification. Real Photo Postcards have areas of solid black and gray that have NO DOTS in contrast to the pattern of dots seen on all printed postcards. Real photo postcards are actual photographs that have been printed in a darkroom on postcard paper.
Also, RPs are printed on photographic paper. The manufacturer of the photographic paper is frequently found on the back of the Postcard. They usually provide markings that can be used to date the card. A few of the more common are EKC, DOPS, Velox, AZO, Kodak, and ANSCO. Many of the mass produced postcards will simply have "Real Photo Postcard" printed on the back.A caption was often hand-written or scratched on the negative, as in this case. Then the photograph was printed onto postcard sized photographic paper stock. This paper was made especially for postcards, again, as in this case, with the word "postcard" and a stamp location already printed on the paper. Many real photos are one of a kind. Some were produced in slightly larger quantities, usually by the photographer. Some clues are that if the caption is not neat, it probably was one of a kind. Mass produced cards usually were neater. Some of them carry the name of the photographer. Real photos date from early in the century to present day.
Real Photo postcards sometimes have a white border, a divided back, or another feature of postcards, depending on the paper used by the photographer. Early real photo cards will sometimes have a shiny "patina" which is due to the oxidation of silver deposits.
Caution: Many current Real Photo postcards are reproductions of earlier historic photos. To determine if it is authentic or a reproduction, examine the card with a magnifying glass. Only the authentic historic real photo will show smooth transitions from one tone to another.
Caution: Printed Photo Postcards sometimes look like real photos but are printed by lithography or other methods and are not considered real photo postcards.
An Overview of Real Photo Postcards
The birth date for Photography is considered to be 1839 when Louis-Jacques Mande Daguerre invented the world's first practical photographic process, called the daguerreotype. This produced an image on a silver-coated copper plate and was used extensively until 1854 when ambrotypes (negative image on a glass plate viewed as a positive by the addition of a black backing), tintypes (negative image on a thin iron plate viewed as a positive by the addition of an undercoating of black Japan varnish), and Wood Framed Image Cases came into use until the middle of 1865.
The quest for photographs on paper started with Calotypes (a positive photographic image on salted paper from a negative produced in the same manner) in 1841. Albumens (a positive print on paper coated with egg whites produced from a glass negative ) followed in 1850 and then cartes de visite, cabinet cards, stereographs, dry plates, silver prints, and platinum prints in rapid succession.Finally, it was George Eastman who was most responsible for the development of the Real-photo postcard. Eastman developed a complete and easy to use camera system he named Kodak.
Photographs were occasionally sent through the mail as handmade cards in the 19th century. In 1898, George Hollister, a postcard publisher in New York City produced a series of 26 postcards of Greater New York with a pasted photograph on each postcard. This process is referred to as "tipping in." It was a printed postcard with a printed frame in which the photograph was carefully placed and pasted down.
The first known Real Photo Postcard finally made its appearance in 1899, but these cards did not begin to be made in large numbers until Eastman bought the rights to Velox photo paper. This easy to use developing paper, which he began to seriously market in 1902 was then produced on heavy stock to prevent curling and would come with a pre printed postcard back. A year later he put an inexpensive folding camera on the market that produced negatives the same size as postcards allowing for simple sharp contact printing. No other company put nearly as much money into advertising. Great efforts were made to distinguish the artistic quality inherent in real photos from that of printed halftone reproductions. Between 1906 and 1910, Kodak offered a fee based service where they would process and print real photo postcards adding greatly to their convenience and popularity.IN 1898 A PHOTOGRAPHER PRODUCED A SET OF postcards of New York City with real photographs pasted on the fronts of the cards . In 1903 Kodak introduced the No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak. The camera, designed for postcard-size film, allowed the general public to take photographs and have them printed on postcard backs. They are usually the same size as standard vintage postcards (3-1/2" x 5-1/2"). Also known by the acronym "RPPC".
Kodak's 3A camera pioneered in its use of postcard-size film but was not the only one to make Real Photo postcards. Many other cameras were used, some of which used old-fashioned glass plates that required cropping the image to fit the postcard format. The Kodak company created a service called “Real Photo postcards,” enabling people to make a postcard from any picture they took" in 1907.
While Kodak was certainly the major promoter of photo postcard production, they didn't seem to originate the term "Real Photo," and used it less frequently than photographers and others in the marketplace from 1903 to ca. 1930. But today it has become the popular term to distinguish photographic postcards from commercially printed, mass-produced postcards of the same era.
The abbreviations on the back of Real Photo cards
AGFA ANSCO 1930s-1940s
ANSCO 2 stars at top and bottom 1940s-1960
ARGO 1905-1920
ARTURA 1910-1924
AZO SQUARES IN CORNER 1927-1940s
AZO 4 triangle pointed up 1904-1918
AZO 2 triangles up, 2 down 1918-1930
CYKO 1904-1920s
DEFENDER diamond above and below 1910-1920
DEFENDER diamond inside 1920-1940
DOPS 1937-1942
EKC 1945-1950
EKKP 1904-1950
KODAK 1950 to present
NOKO 1907-1920s
PMO 1907-1915
SOLIO 1903-1920s
VELOX 1901-1920
VITAVA 1925-1934
Note that Real Photo cards are still being produced today. Some of them are professionally produced with titles, descriptions, and postcard backs, but they bear the tell-tale "Printed on Kodak Paper."
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