Post Cards of the White City

Post Cards of the White City.

Part 21.

by

Bill Tonkin

This continues with illustrations of the many different backs used by Valentine for the Franco-British Exhibition. All together there were 20 different backs not counting the different colours.

FB 5. smaller size with the logo reduced in size by 3 mm and there is no imprint down the side.
It is printed in a wide range of colours, black, brown, dark grey, deep green, green,
greenish grey, grey and red brown.

FB 6. small size logo as FB 5. but with an imprint ‘Valentine Dublin’ down the left side and
‘Printed in Scotland’ alongside the stamp box. This back was used on only two postcards.

FB 7. Souvenir Post Card with a single line divider this back was used for some of the
Australian Pavilion postcards.

FB 8. Souvenir Post Card without a divider this back was used for the
Canadian Pavilion postcards.

FB 9. Artotype Souvenir Post Card with a single line divider this back was used
for the Artist painted ‘Entente Cordiale’ postcards.

FB 10. Artotype Souvenir Post Card similar to FB 9. but without a divider this back was used
for the Artist painted ‘Entente Cordiale’ postcards.

FB 11. X L Series, this back was used for most of the real photographic cards.
The black printing of the back is often very blurred.

FB 12. X L Series, this back was also used for some of the real photographic cards.
The quality of the printing is much better than FB 11.

FB 13. this back was used for many of the Ballymaclinton postcards,
not only in 1908 but also in 1909.

FB 14. the ‘High Harp’ back. there are three types of this back, in the high type the imprint
‘Valentine Dublin’ at the side is high up on the card, coming above the ‘T’ divider.

FB 15. in the ‘Low Harp’ type the top of the imprint ‘Valentine Dublin’ at
the side comes 13 mm below the ‘T’ divider.

FB 16. in the third type of harp back there is no ‘Valentine Dublin’ imprint. This back was
only used for one of the B/W reprints of the ‘Interior of M’Kinley’s Cottage’.

FB 17. Valentine’s used a slightly different back for the coloured and real photographic giant
postcards, this is the back for the coloured cards.

FB 18. Valentine’s used a slightly different back for the real photographic giant postcards,
the difference is in the setting out of the text, and the stamp box is in dotted lines.

FB 19. this is the back used for the Ballymaclinton postcards.

FB 20. this back was used for the double width panoramic cards. Valentine’s also used the standard
‘Red Seal’ FB 1, the ‘Throughout the World’ FB 2, and the ‘Souvenir’ FB 8 backs for the double width cards.
As these are illustrated as standard backs, they are not duplicated as panoramic backs.

Borders.

To make some of their standard views more attractive, Valentine’s added coloured borders. The views feature some of the pre exhibition forerunners and some of the low numbers of the numbered range. From this it can be assumed these cards were published very early during the Franco-British Exhibition. There were four different series published with borders.

Sorry - image not available.

FB Bo 1. Coloured view in ornamental Britannia and Marianne border.

Sorry - image not available.

FB Bo 2. Sepia litho view in coloured Christmas Card border. There were

four different borders and only one is illustrated. They all have either

‘Xmas 1908’ or ‘Christmas 1908’ in the design.

The design of both BO 1 and BO 4 made it easy for them to be converted into ‘pull outs’ by cutting along three sides of the gold border round the view. Some of the views are known used for both standard and pull out postcards.

Sorry - image not available.

FB Bo 3. B/W Photogravure view in a red, white and blue border with the Union Jack

and French flag in diagonal stripes.

Sorry - image not available.

FB Bo 4. Coloured view in ornamental French and British flag border.

Index