The Postcard
A postcard that was published by J. Salmon of Sevenoaks, Kent. The card was posted in Exeter using a ½d. stamp on Thursday the 10th. June 1915 to:
Miss W. Sydenham,
King Street,
Honiton.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
Dear Win,
Thanks for your P.C.
I am leaving Exeter today
for Devonport at 2 p.m.
I will send my address
later on.
Well goodbye and my
best love to your Ma &
Dad.
Your sincere friend,
Joe xx"
Winifred Sydenham
Records reveal that Winifred Grace Sydenham was born in Honiton in 1897, the daughter of William Henry James Sydenham.
The Battle of Hébuterne
So what else happened on the day that Joe posted the card?
Well, on the 10th. June 1915, the French secured more trenches from the Germans on the southern flank.
HMS Ben-my-Chree
Also on that day, the British seaplane carrier HMS Ben-my-Chree arrived at Lesbos to provide a full squadron of fighter planes and bombers for the Allied landing forces at Gallipoli.
The Sinking of Two British Torpedo Boats
Also on the 10th. June 1915, Royal Navy torpedo boats HMS TB 10 and HMS TB 12 both struck mines in the North Sea, with a total loss of 45 men.
A New 3D Film
Also on that day, filmmakers Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell tested the first 3D film before an audience at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
Saul Bellow
The day also marked the birth in Lachine, Quebec of the Canadian-American writer Saul Bellow. Saul was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 2005.
William Hayman Cummings
The day also marked the death of the English organist and singer William Hayman Cummings. William, who was born in 1831, was the founder of the Purcell Society, and is credited with creating the melody known today for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."
J. Salmon Ltd.
Alas, J. Salmon no longer produce postcards. Having churned out small coloured rectangles of card from its factory in Kent for more than 100 years, the company stopped publishing postcards in 2017.
The fifth-generation brothers who still ran the company sent a letter to their clients in the autumn of 2017, advising them that the presses would cease printing at the end of 2017, with their remaining stock being sold off throughout the following year.
The firm’s story began in 1880, when the original J. Salmon acquired a printing business on Sevenoaks high street, and produced a collection of twelve black and white scenes of the town.
In 1912, the business broke through into the big time by commissioning the artist Alfred Robert Quinton (1853 - 1934), who produced 2,300 scenes of British life for them up until his death.
From Redruth to King’s Lynn, his softly coloured, highly detailed watercolours of rosy milkmaids, bucolic pumphouses and picturesque harbour towns earned him a place in the hearts of the public, despite references to his 'chocolate-box art' by some art critics.
J. Salmon also produced photographs and cheery oils of seaside imagery captioned with a garrulous enthusiasm: “Eat More Chips!”, “Sun, Sand & Sea”, “We’re Going Camping!”
It commissioned the comic artist Reg Maurice (who often worked under the pseudonym Vera Paterson), to produce pictures of comically bulbous children with cutesy captions, alongside the usual stock images of British towns.
It was this century’s changing habits – and technology – that did for Salmon. Co-managing director Charles Salmon noted:
“People are going for shorter breaks,
not for a fortnight, so you’re back home
before your postcards have arrived."
He barely needed to say that Instagram and Facebook had made their product all but redundant, almost wiping out the entire industry in a decade.
Michelle Abadie, co-director of the John Hinde Collection, said:
“When I heard the news, I was
actually surprised they still existed."
John Hinde was once J Salmon’s biggest rival; it sold 50-60 million postcards a year at its peak in the 1960's, but it, too, shuttered four years previously. The licensing for its rich archive of images was sold off, and repurposed in art books.
However, in one sense, the death of the postcard is overstated. Like vinyl records, our fetish for the physical objects we left behind is already making its presence felt.
Michelle Abadie points out:
“If you go into Waterstones now, they
sell lots of postcards of book covers.
The idea itself isn’t dead – as a
decorative object, people still want
them.”