Category Archives: Advent Calendar

With Best Wishes for Christmas!

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Twenty-five days until Christmas! 

 No postmark exists to date this lovely card, but it was found among my grandfather’s postcards, collected between the years 1906-1910, when Donald C. Minor was just a small boy in Greene County, Pennsylvania. This beautiful specimen from the International Publishing Company was printed in Germany in that time-frame.  I love the way artists of this era gave dimension to a small, penny card. The holly leaves and berries are embossed; the pealing church bells are embossed and painted a shimmering gold; the frame is heavily embossed and painted with the same shimmer. Inside that circle of gold are more symbols of comfort and joy – a windmill with its soothing rhythm and a drifting white feather with its promise of an angel’s care.

With Best Wishes for a great Christmas season!

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Skating to Greet You With Christmas Wishes!

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With magnifying glass in hand I peered intently at the pond’s surface and made out the neat cursive script: Ellen H. Clapsaddle.  This is a CLAPSADDLE CARD!

Copyrighted, painting only, by S. Garre, 1909

Born in 1866 New York, Ellen Clapsaddle was trained as an artist and was one of the few women who actually found a commercial outlet for her talent. Hired by the Wolf Brothers, a subsidiary of International Art Publishing Company, Ms. Clapsaddle was a prolific postcard artist, with over 3000 designs patented in her name.  And my seven year old grandfather, Donald C. Minor, was a lucky little boy to receive this gorgeous Christmas greeting on December 24, 1909.

 

A Merry Christmas – a Paul Finkenrath Postcard

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A Merry Christmas - a Paul Finkenrath Postcard

This beautiful German postcard was published by Paul Finkenrath of Berlin around 1909. The card was sent to my grandfather, Donald C. Minor, in Garard’s Fort, Pennsylvania by a Jesse Blaker with the message: I see by the paper that you haven’t missed any school, that is doing fine.

Postcard Advent Calendar, December 24: Sing A Song for Christmas!

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Copyright 1906, P Sander N.Y.

A Merry Christmas on this eleventh day of my Minor Postcard Advent Calendar!  I am so pleased to find among my collection a fine example of a glittered embossed postcard by P. Sander Company.  Oh, how I wish I knew the ins and outs of scanning to capture three dimensions, for the publishers of this era worked hard to enhance their cards, simply and cheaply, with embossing–raised areas of the painting that create depth! In this 1906 card the red-breasted songsters are heavily embossed atop a snow-covered fence that is less heavily embossed, quickly drawing your eye to the artist’s main subject.  The holly and snow are not only embossed but glittered, giving the impression that the sun may be peaking out between snow bearing clouds.  In the silver embossed background, a riverside town sits in the muffled, snowy silence.  Such a beautiful card! A hand delivered Merry Christmas to four year old Donald Minor from May M.