It was always on the cards W

ITH no internet and precious few telephones, the picture postcard was both a novel and efficient way of showing what the folks back home were missing and what a good time you are having (unless, of course, you were up to your neck in muck and bullets in the trenches of the Great War – more of which later).

It’s all different today. Like everything it touches, the world wide web is disrupting tradition and killing off the art form that’s as much a part of holidays as sunburn, fish and chips and lousy exchange rates.

The latest victim is postcard publisher J Salmon Ltd, founded in 1880 and recognised as the oldest in the UK. Thanks to the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, Charles Salmon, 61, and his brother Henry, 56, the firm’s joint managing directors, have announced they will close in December.

Sales have fallen from a peak of 20 million 25 years ago to five million today, prompting the Kent firm to withdraw from publishing.

Does this mean that old and collectable postcards will rocket in value?

Unlikely, since so many exist, but as pictorial reminders of our past, they are priceless pieces of social history.

Interestingly enough, picture postcards were somewhat late in arriving on the scene. The first Christmas card was printed in 1843 and Valentine cards became popular during the 1850s-60s.

America started sending postcards following their introduction at the Chicago World Fair of 1893 and Britain followed a year later.

However, the home industry blossomed once the Post Office relaxed rules governing the size of postcards.

By the 1890s, more and more people were travelling abroad where tourists invariably found the most attractive postcards, which were printed in Germany and Austria.

In Britain, MP John Henniker Heaton led a campaign to have the postal restrictions scrapped, the weight of public opinion finally winning the day on September 1, 1894.

Publishing companies acted swiftly, producing decorative cards that could be sent with a halfpenny stamp. Even then, certain restrictions were ordered including one requiring private cards to be the same size as official cards, which were considerably smaller than their European counterparts.

The so-called “court cards” remained in use for several years and being a good inch shorter than those used abroad, they did much to hold back the development of the home postcard manufacturing industry.

Slightly larger cards were introduced a few years later as restrictions were relaxed further, and it was only then that messages and addresses were permitted to appear on the same side of the card. Captain Scott’s supply ship Terra Nova on the ill-fated 1910-13 Antarctic expedition from an album of winter scenes. Guide price: £80-£120