Petercsák Tivadar: A képes levelezőlap története (Miskolc, 1994)

HISTORY OF PICTURE POSTCARDS

Advertising Publishers and businessmen recognized the advertising opportunities of postcards early. Besides the world exhibitions holiday resorts, shops and restaurants, the products of factories, cultural and health services were reproduced on postcards. The advertising postcards are crammed, there are a lot of texts on them, the pictorial forms of expression are poor. Humour, fantasy A frequent theme of the coloured, drawn postcards is the vanity of women, the horror-stricken and henpecked husband, the talkative mother-in-law and the life of soldiers illustrated using cheap humour. Fantasy pictures show the future of a town by means of photomontage, the abundancy of fashion and anthropomorphized nature. Greeting cards Life would be unimaginuble without those picture postcards which relate to holidays and family events. The illustrations relate to the features of the holiday or the religious character of it. Best wishes were printed onto the card too. The reproduction of the old cards has once again become customary. The motives of New Year cards symbolize the fortune and abundance of the following year. At the beginning of the century the cards were dated and combined with flowers and landscapes. The most general motives of Easter postcards are eggs, chickens, lambs, rabbits, budding willow branches and spring flowers. These motives express the ancient allegories of the renewal of nature beside the religious content of the Easter. Most cards are sent at Christmas. From the turn of the century the green branch and the Christmas tree was the most frequent motive on the Christmas card, but in keeping with the festival, the birth of Jesus is also shown. The winter landscape with children and animals, spreading peace and tranquility is a traditional Christmas subject. Santa Claus, the baby Jesus and angels bringing gifts are also shown. In recent decades the still life photos of the greeting cards have been dominated by Christmas tree branches, candles, pine cones. The reproductions of famous artistic works depicting the religious content of the holiday as well as folk customs, have recently reappeared. On name days, birthdays or other family events, a picture of a flower or a bouquet is sent. There are special cards for children. Besides the great assortment of sentimental and romantic cards at the turn of the century the pictures of landscapes with attached names were also fashionable. The Techiques of picture post card production Illustrations of the picture postcards are made from drawings of photos. In the early decades the drawings were reproduced by the lithographic mothod. Photos were printed until the 1910's using photolithographic, phototype and heliotype methods. From the lithography of metal plates only one or two thousand copies could be made. The shades of colours are shown by the autotype by breaking the picture into small spots was replaced by the photocopy on an industrial basis. These were only black-and-white pictures coloured, often glaringly, manually. The picture postcard production was revolutionized by off-set printing in the 1920-30's. The size of the post-cards was regulated in postal regulations. In Hungary the size was 9x14 cm until 1972. From that time the cards were manufactured an a 10x15 cm format. There were also special sizes, forms and techniques for picture postcards. These are giant, folded, stereo, puzzle, boxed, reticulated, chased, wooden-plate, bark, skin,