There is one item which has fairly dominated the world of collectables for almost 150 years, that of collecting postcards or Deltiology. A postcard is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for sending a brief postal message without an envelope and, in many countries, for a lower fee than a letter. In 1865, a Prussian postal official, Dr. Heinrich Von Stephan, first proposed an "open post-sheet" made of stiff paper. He suggested that one side would be reserved for the recipient's address and the other side for a brief message. This proposal was rejected initially on the grounds of being too radical and officials did not believe that anyone would willingly give up their privacy !

In the United Kingdom, the first postcards issued were plain cards, front and back with a pre-printed stamp (included in the price of purchase) and were published exclusively by the Post Office. These cards came in two sizes; the larger size was found to be slightly too large for ease of handling, and was soon withdrawn in favour of cards ½ inch shorter ! Records indicate that over 75 million of these cards were sent during 1870. A significant change occurred In 1894, when British publishers were given permission by the Royal Mail to manufacture and distribute 'picture postcards', which could be sent through the post.

The first UK picture card was published by E.T.W. Dennis of Scarborough, of which there are only two franked (postmarked) examples of their cards which appear to have survived. From September 1894, early postcards bore pictures of landmarks, scenic views, photographs or drawings of celebrities. With a growing and extensive country-wide railway network, the subject broadened to include coastal holiday destinations, as more people traveled to holiday away from home. In 1902 Great Britain was the first country to issue ‘divided back’ postcards, which allowed people to write their message on one half of the front of the card and an address on the other half - on what was regarded as the reverse side (the back), would be the picture. The earliest cards of this period are easily identified, with the dividing line placed left of centre, allowing about a third of the space to be used for the message, with printed instructions of what could be written, clearly shown.

In Deltiological circles, the golden age of postcards is generally considered to be from about 1890 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, when postcards were used much as we today use email or texts. A reliable postal service, with up to four deliveries a day, meant that you could post a card early in the morning and it would be received, locally, before lunch ! After the war ended, the demand for postcards reduced as telephone usage increased amongst the rich and the middle class; in fact postcards were colloquially known as the ‘poor man’s telephone’, used to send cheerful, thoughtful, birthday, Easter/Christmas greetings, even expressions of Sympathy in bereavement. Many manufacturers began to produce cards with these messages. In addition to using them for greetings and short messages, people collected postcards for their own sake, treasuring fond messages and pictures of places, and people that they may never see, such as foreign lands, Royalty or Celebrities.

Most certainly, the novelty of having high quality photographs of places, scenes and events readily available, made post card collecting very popular and people would send each other postcards ‘for your collection’. As the manufacturing cost of postcards increased during the years 1915 to 1930, they were usually printed with white borders around the picture; this time period being referred to as the 'White Border Era', and was particularly effective during World War I, as the white border reduced the image size and thus saved on ink costs! In the post-war period, there was a general decline in postcard production, with one exception - a demand for “real photo” postcards. Unlike their more colorful lithographic contemporaries, real photo cards were produced in black and white or sepia tones. In 1906, the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, USA, had begun producing various models of 'Kodak “postcard” cameras' that had negatives which were postcard size. The resulting postcards had extremely clear images, which added greatly to their popularity. In addition, some of the cameras had a clever innovative feature, a small thin door on the rear of their camera body which, when lifted, enabled the photographer to write an identifying caption or comment on the negative itself with an attached metal Scribing tool. Real photo cards were true photographs, and considered by many postcard collectors to be more collectible than lithographic card, presenting, as they do, their unaltered presentation of the life and times of the early 20th century. Sadly, the decline in popularity of the postcard began in the 1930's and in spite of manufacturing efforts, introducing humorous, jokey, even risque cards, the interest would never achieve again the success or enthusiasm of earlier times.

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