Who does not know the ‘comics’ of the cheap stationers’ windows, the penny or two penny coloured post cards with their endless succession of fat women in tight bathing-dresses and their crude drawing and unbearable colours, chiefly hedge-sparrow’s-egg tint and Post Office red?
George Orwell, 1941
Dr Emanuel Hermann created the postcard in Austria on 1 October 1869. This caused a revolution in the communication of the ordinary message of no special importance where no real ’security’ was required.
Most of the main developments in the artistic designs of postcard art originated on the continent, in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. One exception which developed in Britain is the saucy postcard.
In the early 1930s, cartoon-style postcards became widespread and at the peak of their popularity reached 16 million a year. They were often bawdy and made use of innuendo, double entendres and featured a lot of vicars and Scotsmen. The limited space was a blessing to those with poor spelling or with little to say.
In the early 1950s the newly elected Conservative government were concerned about the apparent deterioration of the nation’s morals. Sexually explicit postcards were seen to be a part of the problem. Watch Committees were set up in seaside resorts and there were a number of prosecutions under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. This largely ended the saucy postcard business for a number of years.
In the more liberal 1960s the postcard came back, though during the 1970s onward the humour and quality of the artwork declined. With changing attitudes and the march of technology, the postcard went into decline, but here’s a couple more examples:
Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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