He co-invented the first practical photographic flash and made important contributions to the progress of practical color photography. His color process made it possible to expose the same scene to three different negatives through different colored filters. Each negative was then exposed to a different plate in the printing of postcards with the resulting image displaying the actual colors of the scene. The cards below are examples of this method.
Source and additional information: Wikipedia.`],["Alexander Schmoll",`Alexander Schmoll was born in 1880 in Saarbrucken, Germany. He began his training as a photographer in 1894, taking over Karl Wahl's photography studio in Berlin circa 1904-5. In 1905 he operated as Schmoll v. Eisenwerth, with the 'v. Eisenwerth' dropped in future years.
In the 1906 and 1907 address books, Schmoll is listed in business with Sielaff, as Schmoll & Sielaff on both Belle Alliance and Tauenzienstr. In 1908, the address book entry finds Schmoll alone on Belle Alliance and Sielaff alone on Tauenzienstr.
Schmoll is listed on Belle Alliance for many years. The last entry found for him was 1943 which corresponds to dates in a family history. In later years 'Reklame-Industrie' was added to Schmoll's address book's entry.
In the early years of his work, Schmoll produced many stage related photos. In later years, he worked as a set photographer in the German cinema; he also made many studio portraits. These film-related cards may be viewed on the Ross Verlag Movie Star Postcards website.
In addition to his stage and film cards, Schmoll also produced general interest cards that can be found in German publisher releases by firms such as Rotophot. The family history website provides evidence for this in the form of photos of Schmoll's son, Günter, which were reproduced as postcards by Rotophot (see RPH 2355/6 and RPH-Ross 2596/6 below).
Additional evidence of Schmoll's production of general interest cards is in the trademark on several cabinet cards issued during the short period of Schmoll & Sielaff's collaboration. Featured in the trademark is a child who appears on hundreds of postcards circa 1907. It is not known if Schmoll and/or Sielaff produced these photos, but the use of the child's image in their trademark is intriguing.
The child has been given the descriptive name 'Balloon Girl'; samples of her cards are provided in the contact sheet below. Full size scans may be seen on this site `],["Angelika Walter",`An extract from a 1905 German theater publication provides what little information we've found relating to Angelika Walter. It reads:
'The Merry Afternoons - Mrs. Dora Bauer-Sachse and Mrs. Dir. Annie Neumann-Hofer promoters - have found their imitators, but only for charity The cheerful afternoon recently took place for a good cause in the magnificent hall of the Reichshof -- A unique event. Director Richard Zernick, Cabaret Unter den Linden, put his men in the service of charity. An exquisite audience filled the hall. Liane Leischner, Erna Froehlich, Sonja Normann, Susi Sophie Birk, Else Müller, Elsa Ramean, Walter Schneider, Rudolff Johndorff (conductor), Georg Bauer, Arthur Hoffmann, Ludwig Tellheim, Oskar Klein, all of the Cabaret Unter den Linden, gave triumphant performances. Mrs. Pepi Weiss and Mr. Kapellmeister Kunkel-Cabaret Klimperkasten helped to make the whole thing a success, as well as Mr. Paul Weiss, opera singer, and Georg Wolff. The program featured two original stars, namely 4-1/2 year old Angelika and 8 year old little Radford from Sydney (Australia), the former being the smallest German soubrette. The adorable, charming little child performed Gêne Chansons without any trace of effort, as far as one can claim singing such songs, and performed so delightfully that the audience raved with joy. A completely different genre soubrette is the little Radford. She sings English, but how! An Yvette Guilbert in miniature! One should hardly think it possible! The 8-year-old girl, brunette with black fiery eyes, mimes like an old woman. Graceful in every movement, even refined in her facial expressions. I am not usually a fan of the Wunderkinder, but Angelika and Radford, the smallest soubrettes on the world's stages, fascinated me and delighted the audience to the highest degree.'
Translation by DeepL
Source: 'Berlin amüsiert sich', von Oscar Klein. Bühne und Brettl: No. 11, Jahrg V.
Available at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858054422914&seq=319`],["Applique",``],["Art Nouveau",`A number of heavily embossed cards were issued in the first years of the 20th century in the Art Nouveau style. Many were embellished with a gold or silver patina.
A few sample cards are displayed in this selection, documenting their production by several different publishers. `],["Autos",`Some of these are actual vehices, some are just cartoon`],["B.J. Falk",`Growing up in New York City, Benjamin J. Falk (1853-1925) graduated from the College of the City of New York with a B.S. in 1872. He began work as a photographic technician, subsequently maintaining a studio with Jacob Schloss. In 1877 the studio became wholly devoted to photography.
In 1881 Falk relocated to 947-49 Broadway to be closer to the theater district. This studio served for 11 years until high-rises obscured the sunlight needed for natural light photography, forcing Falk to relocate to 13-15 East 24th Street.
In 1900, Falk again relocated, this time to the roof of the Waldorf Astoria. The solarium supplied superb natural light during the day. Falk kept the studio open until 11 pm, shooting his after sundown work with electric lighting with which he had become familiar shortly after the electrification of Manhattan in 1880.
Falk died in 1925. Falk had provided Theatre Magazine's first illustrations when it began publication in 1900. Shortly before his death, the magazine named him as the oldest of Greatest Theatrical Photographers of the 20th century.
In 1897, Falk organized the Photographers’ Copyright League. This association of photographers fought efforts that sought to legislate away the property rights of photographers in their creations. Falk organized the association, served as its original president, and then served for the next twenty years as an ex-officio.
Extracted from a more complete biographical sketch at the Broadway Photographs website.`],["Blandine Ebinger",`Blandine Ebinger (born Blandine Loeser) is the first child to befeatured in the regular RPH series and appears on about 40 Rotophot series.
The daughter of actress Margarete Wezel and pianist Gustav Loeser, Ebinger was born on November 4, 1899 in Berlin and was later adopted by her mother's second husband, Dr. Ernst Ebinger. At age 7, she began an active artistic career, performing in children's roles on the stage. By 1915, she was acting in films.
In 1919, Ebinger began performing at the Berlin cabaret, Schall & Rauch. There she metcomposer, Friedrich Holländer, and they were married the same year. Ebinger became a well-known star of Berlin cabarets, playing in the musical shows of her husband. Heavily involved in the Berlin cabaret as a performer, writer, and composer, she intermingled film and cabaretperformances through the 1920's and early 1930's.
Ebinger and Holländer divorced before Holländer fled to the United States in 1933 because of growing hostilities toward Jewish citizens in Germany. Ebinger also faced discrimination as a result of her marriage, much of which was directed at their daughter, Philine. Ebinger subsequently emigrated with her daughter to the United States in 1937 where she appeared in a few minor film roles.
After the war ended, Ebinger returned to Europe in 1946, stopping in Le Havre (France) 1946/47, Paris 1947, Geneve (Switzerland), and Zürich. Via Frankfurt she went to Berlin in 1948. After the death of her mother, Blandine moved back to the United States. There she starred in the 1958 "Fräulein."
Returning to Germany again, circa 1961, Blandine moved to Munich where she met her second husband, the publisher Helwig Hassepflug. They married and eventually settled back in Berlin, where Blandine continued her career in the theater and as an actress in television productions.
Ebinger died on Christmas day in 1993 in Berlin.
This narrative was compiled from translations of a 1985 memoir by Ebinger: Blandine-- : von und mit Blandine Ebinger, der grossen Diseuse der zwanziger Jahre, der kongenialen Muse von Friedrich Hollaender. . ., published in Zürich by Arche Verlag, editors Raabe and Vitali. Identification of the child model was made from a postcard reproduced in the memoir -- RPH Serie 70-7674 -- captioned 'Idyllic childhood in Berlin and elsewhere.' Both the translations and the identification were made by Werner Mohr.`],["Brodee",`(Brodée) This section shows purely embroidered cards with no printed image, the main categories are floral cards and cards produced during WW1 with national flags and emblems. Much more about the these including how they were made is on this site.`],["Canson",`Jean Montgolfier and Etienne de Montgolfier are names in the history of paper-making in France. In the 19th century this firm was the largest paper maker in France - particularly papers for artists, tracing paper and photo paper. This business continued.
One of their products was blank pieces of watercolor paper with postcard backs issued free for troops to use in the field, where postage of course was free. The coloured example has on the address side "Lavis A Canson", ie Wash (watercolour) on Canson paper.
The firm's Paris address was 39 rue de Palestro. Since 1976 it has been part of other firms (Arjomari, Hamelin).`],["Cards-in-Card",`Examples where a the scene includes one ot more postcards. Bergeret produced a lot of these as a form of promotion.`],["Catherine Klein",`Catherine Klein (1861-1929) was a German painter of flowers and still-lifes very widely reproduced in prints and postcards. She was also a botanical illustrator, producing accurate representations of plants and their parts.`],["Cats",`Cards of cats are included only when another VGP or MVP topic is represented.`],["Celluloid",`Some postcards were produced in the early years on celluloid rather than card, with the design either painted on or stuck on. A variety of add-ons, such as glitter, fabric, and mechanical devices were incorporated in the designs.
A few sample cards are displayed in this selection.
A .pdf at the Celluloid Library Memoir House describes celluloid cards in more detail. The .pdf is in French.`],["Ch. Ramel",`Ch Ramel & Cie, Paris. Around the time of WW1 Ramel published a series of colouring books for children, each page being a pair of postcards separated by perforations. One card of each pair is preprinted in colours, the other is all or partly to to be coloured by the purchaser. In the complete books by Ramel offered for sale many purchasers seem to have done a remarkably good job, so it is maybe pot luck which one you get when you buy a single card. The booklets were printed by Ch. Courmont Paris, presumably a successor to Courmont Frères. The illustrator was Gaston Marechaux (1872-1936) who drew and painted largely but not exclusively scenes with children. Later sets include scenes in Paris and the provinces, and illustrations showing regional costumes. Similar booklets of flower illustrations by Lily Giry have the reverse sides blank.
Additional works by Marechaux may be found at Paris Bibliothèques Patrimoniales.`],["Chantecler-Fashion",` Newspapers and magazines from around the world reported the influence of Rostand's play, Chantecler, on the fashion industry. An April 1910 issue of Fabrics, Fancy Goods and Notions [New York] reported that the costumes from the play 'have been applied in every way practicable to hats, costumes, hosiery, gloves and other dress accessories.'
The Dundien, New Zealand, Evening Star reported that milliners incorporated the Chantecler idea into the very shape or form of the hat, describing several hats, including the poule blanche, a 'toque of white straw, trimmed with the tiny head and beak of a white hen in front, and feathers rising in a graceful curve over the top, and drooping down over the back of the shape.' (Imagine wearing a bird on your head!)
Similarly, the Feb. 16, 1910 issue of The Sketch [London] features a full-page photo layout titled 'The Chantecler Hat and the Guitry Toque and some other Chantecler Fashions from the Maison Lewis'.
This fashion craze made its way into a number of artistic sketches and caricatures on postcards, including those of the French painter, engraver and illustrator, Charles Naillod.`],["Chantecler-Stage",`Chantecler is a play by Edmond Rostand, produced in 1910 in Paris, in which all the characters are birds (plus a few animals). ELD produced a set of cards illustrating the action on stage, both in colour and in black and white, as well as a set showing the different characters. ( I don't know the significance of the one cent stamp on the example here.)
Also depicting the different characters is a colourful (non-postcard) illustration by Daniel de Losques that is archived at Gallica BnF.
Rostand had had two huge hits (Cyrano de Bergerac and l'Aiglon), however Chantecler was long delayed and not a great success. Even so, spin-offs of the play are documented in postcards such as the NPG, RKL, and SLJFF series displayed here.
Further, though it must be difficult to produce, the play has been revived several times.`],["Colour Litho",`Chromo-lithography was the principal method of color printing in the second half of the nineteenth cenrury. It was widely used for trade cards, and when postcards became popular in the 1890s it was used there as well. However it was a skillful and time consuming process and in the next ten or so years it progessively faded out in favour of cheaper new methods. Many firms went bankrupt. (The printers, most publishers didn't print their own cards).
Where realistic images were required as opposed to flat tones, the images were composed of dots of different colours, larger and in significantly more shades than the modern mechanical processes. This was all done by hand. We show here just examples of cards from different countries, including a few views which were the most popular type of card.`],["Consuelo Fould",`Les Victorieuses, a patented series of dolls created by Consuelo de Grasse, née Fould, displayed all the movements of the human body. A U.S. patent for the dolls was filed in February 1920, describing them as 'consisting of flexible wire and rigid tube sections, all the latter being threaded on the same wire and having their adjacent ends adapted to make contact with each other.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University. `],["Dismal Desmond",`Dismal Desmond, a velvety stuffed Dalmatian, was designed in the 1920's by Richard Ellott, becoming one of the most successful toys of the 20's. In England, Dismal Desmond served as the mascot for the England Cricket Team and also appeared in the women's changing rooms at Wimbledon. In Germany, he was featured on cover issues of Das Magazin and was an integral part of a multi-issue ad campaign in Auto Magazin.
More information can be found on the V&A website.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University.`],["Dogs",`Cards of dogs are included only when another VGP or MVP topic is represented.`],["Dolls",`
Cards with dolls are included only from the Rotophot collection or when another VGP or MVP topic is represented.`],["Edmond Rostand",`Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac.
Rostand wrote Chantecler in Cambo-les-bains, in the Basque Pyrenees. In the play, Chantecler was a cockerel and all the characters birds and animals. It was produced in 1910.
Rostand was married to the poet and playwright, Rosemonde-Étiennette Gérard.
More information may be found at Encyclopedia Britannica.`],["Edward Stebbing",`Edward Stebbing (1836-1915) was born in the English town of Bury St. Edmunds. While still a young man, Stebbing left England for France and Germany where he conducted his studies and where he became acutely interested in photography.
After completing his university studies, Stebbing served as a Professor of English for 10 years at the French Association Philo-technique, writing an English grammar which went through eight editions.
While teaching, Stebbing continued his interest and research in the field of photographic chemistry, including color photography.
Over a period of 25 years, Stebbing also collaborated in the process of practical photography, owning a dry-plate factory which was destroyed by fire in 1887 and inventing the earliest roll-film ('Stebbing') camera.
In 1890, Stebbing opened a photography studio in Paris. He photographed many theatrical stars, with his photos appearing in magazines and on postcards by such publishers as G. Piprot and Étoile in the earliest years of the 20th century.
The Photographic Times and American Photographer (1883) cited Stebbing as 'one of the bright lights of the French Photographic Society, very much respected and thought of, and very useful to the fraternity there'.
Stebbing died in Paris in 1915.
Details for this narrative were extracted from a 6 Apr 1907 article in the American Register which was accessed via the British Newspaper Archive. `],["Embroidered",`This section shows portrait cards which have been embellished by added embroidery. Embroidered cards depicting national costumes and dress are not included.`],["Ernst Schneider",`Photos from the studios of Ernst Schneider, Berlin, are found with regularity among German published postcards and magazines from the first third of the 20th century.
Within Rotophot's releases alone, evidence of Schneider's work is prevalent. As early as Rotophot Series 622 (circa 1907), the model, the pose, and the accessories all strongly suggest a photo from the 1907 Die Gestalt des Menschen und ihre Schönheit by Otto Schmidt and Ernst Schneider. And at the other end of Rotophot's releases, Series 7237 (circa 1929) is credited to Schneider on the card itself.
Between the two, there are frequent signs of Schneider's work, including: 1) a few series where the attribution appears on the card itself; 2) several series where the name Schneider is scribbled into the photo's background; 3) a number of series where the photographic card's image matches an art card signed by E. Schneider; 4) a number of series where the postcard's photo matches to a credited photo in a period magazine; 5) and the repetitive use of props throughout the series.
Also suggesting Schneider's work is the connection of Wally (who appears on hundreds of series released by German postcard publishers) to Schneider in a Leslie-Judge portrait folio circa 1913; a similar connection of Grete Reinwald (who also appears on hundreds of series) to Schneider as documented in a June 1912 issue of the San Francisco Examiner; and a connection of Hanni Reinwald (another popular child mode) to Schneider as documented in the 1926 Lexikon des Films.
A visual presentation relating to Ernst Schneider may be found on this site at The Ernst Schneider Connection.
No biographical information about Schneider has been found.`],["Feathers",``],["First Day of School",`Includes only VGP and Rotophot cards.`], ["Floral Vase",`Beautiful florals were a popular genre in early 20th century postcards. Presented here is a small selection of hand-tinted photographic floral arrangements in a variety of beautiful vases. French publishing houses are represented, as well as the German Rotophot.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University.`],["For Hand Coloring",`A few illustrator postcards released for hand coloring were found relating to several models in the VGP collection and are included on that website. Presented here are other, unrelated, cards for the genre which was popular in the early 1910's. Where possible, an uncolored card has been paired with a colored card. Messages on a handful of cards refer to the sender having colored the card. Where known, the artist's name has been included in the caption beneath the image.
See also the cards of Ch. Ramel`],["Gargoyle Bohner-Wachs",`Photos by the Berlin photographer, Ernst Schneider`],["Genevieve Felix",`Geneviève Simonne Marie Abraham was born in Clamart, France, in 1899. She began a film career in 1917 under the name Geneviève Félix.
In addition to a career in films, Félix posed for hundreds of photographs on primarily French postcards.
Félix appeared in movies through the late 1920's. She died in 1980.`],["Glitter",``],["Grete Reinwald",`Grete Reinwald (1902-1983) was one of the most popular child models in Germany. She appears on approximately 300 Rotophot postcard series alone. Grete was one of six Reinwald children, all of whom were involved in the entertainment industry. She and four of the other children, Irmgard, Elsbeth, Otto, and Hanni appear within Rotophot's and other postcard publisher series, often paired with one another. The eldest of the children, Julius, was a cinematographer who lost his life while filming in Africa.
In addition to being a tremendously popular child model, Grete also performed on the stage and in silent films from an early age. She accompanied her family to Denmark for the duration of WWI where she appeared in several films. Returning to Germany after the war, Grete reappeared on the scene, graduating from children's roles to adult supporting and then leading roles, performing in more than 70 silent films, and continuing to appear on the stage. Grete made the transition to sound films in the early 1930's, acting in secondary and minor roles in about 20 films through the war years, ending in 1957.
In 1933, with the rise of the Nazi party, Grete appeared in the film, Hans Westmar. Initially banned by Goebbels, the film was released only after substantial cuts. After the war, the film was added by the Allies to the Catalogue of Forbidden German Feature and Short Film Productions, prohibiting exhibition in Germany as 'purely party propaganda.
Grete married her first husband, Gustel Sensburg, in 1921. Their son, Wilhelm August was born in 1924. Following the death of her first husband in 1932, Grete remarried Fred Louis Lerch, a fellow actor. They remained married until Grete's death in 1983.
Grete's sister, Elsbeth (Eddy) was married to the Russian-born composer, Mischa Spoliansky. Describing his family's flight from Germany to escape the Nazi's, Mischa wrote: 'Soon after Eddy’s sister, the beautiful film star Grete Reinwald, brought us a message from a well-meaning high-ranking Nazi. He’d said to her 'Tell your brother in law to leave the country as quickly as he can.' Taking this warning from Grete seriously, Mischa escaped to Austria the very next day. The following day Eddy and their daughters followed. From Austria, the Spoliansky's emigrated to London where Mischa continued his work as a world renowned composer.
The Spoliansky grandchildren maintain The Mischa Spoliansky Trust at www.mischaspoliansky.com and generously shared the source of this information.'`],["Hand tinted",`Issued before the prevalence of color photography, photographic postcards from the first quarter of the 20th century were produced in monotone, most often in a black, sepia, or blue (Delft) tone. Less frequently produced were tonal cards in rust (rotton), green, yellow, purple, and even red. Variations in the tonal color were most likely achieved by the manipulation of chemicals during the printing process. (More tonal cards can be found in the Tonal collection on this site.)
After the cards were printed, the addition of color tinting to the monotone cards was done by hand. Little is known about the methods used, but judging from the consistently high quality of coloring on many postcards, their producers most likely employed a studio of artists who were responsible for the hand tinting.
In their 1989 book, 'Handtinting Photographs: materials, techniques, and special effects', Martin and Colbeck describe card production in Britain, and the methods they describe may be representative of the process. Coloring was aided by the use of a stencil process where master stencils were made for each of the different colors on a postcard. A team was issued stencils and ink rollers for a particular color. When that color had been handtinted on all the cards, they went to the next team for an application of a different color until the postcard was completely colored.
Whatever method used, the colors applied did not necessarily represent reality. Series GLCo 3717 is a particularly vivid illustration of the artistic license taken in the application of colors, with the dress and iris changing color from card to card.
In other instances, such as the Leo 1048 series, the colors applied within a series show more consistency. However, even when colors were consistently applied within a series, it is unknown if they were a representation of reality.
How and by whom color selections were determined is unknown.`],["Hanni Reinwald",`Hanni Reinwald (1903-1978) was one of six Reinwald children, all of whom were involved in the entertainment industry. She and four of the other children (Irmgard, Elsbeth, Otto, and Grete) appear within Rotophot and other postcard publisher series, often paired with one another. The eldest of the children, Julius, was a cinematographer who lost his life while filming in Africa.
In addition to being a popular child model, Hanni performed on the stage and in silent films from an early age, with more than 20 films between 1913 and 1929. She accompanied her family from Germany to Denmark for the duration of WWI where she appeared in several films.In a 1914 review in the Danish Filmen, the critic wrote: 'Also contributing was a second person,whom one might feel compelled to call an even greater artist, and it is small Hanni Reinwald.This child performs with a sweet childishness and an endearing naturalness. Her uniqueperformance ... is quite astonishing. We have seen many children on film - too many - and theyhave been more or less good, but it's rare that we have seen the naturalness of a child. There'sthis little girl, who even plays comedy, and whom you think is a little angel that has comedirectly from a pink cloud...'
Acting in a 1920 historical film with Ellen Richter, Eduard von Winterstein, and Adalbert von Schlettow, Hanni was accompanied to the filming at Tangermünde by her sister, Elsbeth (Eddy). It was there that Eddy met her future husband, the Russian-born composer, Mischa Spoliansky. Describing the first time he saw his beloved Eddy, Mischa wrote: We 'headed off in the direction of the actors. It was the most wonderful sight. Two beautiful young sisters immediately caught my eye, one was dressed in costume, the other was her chaperone. I wascompletely blinded by their beauty and began to show off in the hope of making animpression... The two beautiful sisters that I was unable to ignore were, I discovered, Hanni and Eddy Reinwald.' The Spoliansky family later fled Nazi Germany and emigrated to London.
Their grandchildren maintain The Mischa Spoliansky Trust at www.mischaspoliansky.com and generously shared the source of this information.`],["Hats",`High fashion and sometimes exaggerated hats are frequently depicted on postcards circa 1910. A number of the photos on these cards also appeared in the fashion section of magazines, along with brief descriptions of the hat. Click on an image to view citations to these magazines profiles.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University.
Translation assistance provided by Catherine Jansen, Amsterdam - The Netherlands.`],["Heinrich Traut",`In its July 1940 issue, the Allgemeine photographische Zeitung reported the death of Heinrich Traut (1857-1940), a German photographer from Munich:
'In Munich, on May 31, a few days after his 83rd birthday, the grand master of photography, Heinrich Traut, died. He enjoyed widespread renown in professional circles for his numerous inventions and practical innovations. Originally destined for a teaching career, he turned to photography at a young age, working as a journeyman in many workshops, including those of the well-known photographers Risse (Dortmund) and Albrecht (Munich), and was manager of the famous Reutlinger studio (Paris). In 1891, Traut established his own business in Munich.
'[Traut] was a member of the Chamber of Experts for Photographic Works and the Munich Master Examination Commission. In 1877, he designed the first studio shutter; in 1885 a viewfinder camera; and in 1889 his universal lens ring followed. In 1901, the first usable photographic lamp, the Simplizissima, appeared, followed around 1918 by the pocket arc lamp Minima and the very popular enlarging and reducing device Traut-Simplex.
'[Traut] authored numerous valuable treatises on the practicalities of professional photography, several of which have also appeared in earlier issues of our journal. He remained professionally active until the last years of his life.'
Traut's photographs appear with some frequency on German postcards from the first years of the 20th century. For example, more than 100 credited Traut series appear in the Rotophot catalogs, with the majority found in the 300-800's. His photos are particularly striking, almost organic in appearance.
The Allgemeine photographische Zeitung obituary may be found at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
Translation by Google Translate.`],["Henri Manuel",`Henri Manuel (1874–1947) was a French photographer who served as the official photographer of the French government from 1914 to 1944.
In 1900, Manuel opened a portrait studio in Paris with his brother Gaston. A respected photographer of people from the worlds of politics, art and sports, as well as a photographer of art and architecture, Manuel's photos were used by news agencies.
The studio became the largest photographic studio in Paris and a leading center for aspiring photographers. In 1925, the brothers expanded their business into fashion photography.
By 1941 the studio had produced over a million images, spread between fashion photographs, news agency photographs, personal portraits and other images. The studio was closed during World War II, and most of the photographic plates were destroyed.
Source: Wikipedia.`],["Horse",`These are those cards in the basic collection of German publishers and related cards which include horses, plus a few extras of interest mainly illustrations.`],["Irene Wells",`Irène Wells was a popular vaudeville, stage and screen actor, singer and dancer whose documented career spanned the years of 1919 through 1930.
An interview in the 1925 L'officiel de la mode provides the following description: "Surprisingly short blond hair -- a natural blonde -- rich in various shades of gold – sometimes vibrant, sometimes tempered -- a very sweet smile and innocent blue eyes that love candor -- a voice colored with a British accent -- All appear as Irène Wells."
This selection is from the collection of Ruth Anne Wilson [1949-2023].`],["Italian regimentals",`We are talking here of postcards from the first few years of the ninteen-hundreds. A large number of Italian regimental postcards were printed for collectors. These typically included campaign scenes from the nineteeth century, regimental symbols and activities, and elaborate allegorical references. The best ones were lithographically printed in many colours, often including gold and silver. These expensive cards were aimed at collectors and some may have been commissioned by regimental associations. Later on cheaper cards were produced using half-tone printing. Many of the designs also exist as stamps, some of which are unfortunately forgeries. Here is an article which show examples of stamps and cards, with further explanation. The cards shown are mainly from the pclogos site, where details of the publishers and the address sides of the cards may be seen.`],["Jacob Schloss",`Jacob Schloss was born in Germany in 1856 and brought to America as a child. He was educated at the Cooper Union as an etcher, graduating in 1872.
In the mid-1870's Schloss worked at Benjamin J. Falk's W. 24th Street studio as a photographer. When he went independent, Schloss, like Falk, specialized in theatrical photography.
Schloss joined other photographers in relocating to Fifth Avenue at the turn of the 20th century. His studio spread across 467 & 469 5th Avenue.
As the market shifted from sales of celebrity cabinet cards, Schloss' business became insufficient to support the lease on Fifth Avenue. He moved to a small space on Broadway. He kept his studio open until 1928, serving walk-in customers as a portraitist as his health declined. He died at age 82 in 1938.
Schloss was the staff photographer for the photographic periodical, Broadway Magazine. Like Falk, Schloss was an activist for photographers' copyrights.
Extracted from a more complete biographical sketch at the Broadway Photographs website.`],["Jewel",``],["Jupe Culottes",`The 'jupe-culotte' was introduced in late 1910 by the Paris couturier Paul Poiret and was a sensation. It attracted scandal and ridicule, and it appears in many postcards of the time. Feminists liked it as it provided advantages such as being able to stride over obstacles and mount vehicles more easily, as shown in some of the photographic cards. Illustrations include many cartoon-like cards making fun of it. `],["Kiesel (Berlin)",`Atelier Kiesel was a renowned photo studio in Berlin during the 1920s. Little is known about the history of Kiesel, but many of its portraits of German film stars have been preserved through the postcards of Ross Verlag, Iris Verlag, and other postcard publishers.
These cards may be viewed on the Ross Verlag Movie Star Postcards website.
The connection of Kiesel to H.E. Kiesel, a Berlin photographer whose work appears on a number of postcards (particularly Regel & Krug) from the 1910's, is assumed, but has not yet been confirmed. A logo for H.E. Kiesel is included below, documenting it was a Berlin studio.`],["Lined up",`This isn't a set as such, just a small collection of cards I like with a common theme.`],["Lucien Guitry",`Lucien Germain Guitry was born in Paris in 1860 and died there in 1925. He is considered one of the great contemporary French actors in the drama of modern reality.
He played the role of Le Coq in Rostand's Chantecler in 1910.
More information about Guitry may be found at the Encyclopedia Britannica. .`],["Machine processes",`Here are examples of the two commonest photomechanical processes of the period, half-tone and photogravure.`],["Martin Herzberg",`Martin Herzberg was born in 1911 in Berlin, Germany, of Jewish heritage. He began work as a child model at the age of six.
Shortly before the end of WWI he was discovered for film, appearing in over 30 films during the silent and early sound eras before 'retiring' from film at age nineteen.
After ending his film career, Herzberg left Germany for the Canary Islands. In 1931 he held an acting seminar with the actor, director and dramatist Eugen HerbertKuchenbuch. When the Nazi's took power in Germany, Herzberg remained in Spain.
During his adult life, Herzberg worked as a photographer in Tenerife. He also was a screenwriter for the 1940 Spanish film, Gloria del Moncayo. Herzberg married while in the Canary Islands and had a son who was born in 1955. Herzberg died circa 1972.
The German Wikipedia provides general biographical information under the entry Martin Herzberg (Schauspieler). .
Herzberg's id was made by Berlin collector, Werner Mohr, from several childhood photos.`],["Mechanical",``],["Moreau-Kivatizky",`René Moreau was a French photographer in the Paris region at the turn of the 20th century. Circa 1905-6 he partnered with Mark Fedorovich Kivatizky, with the signature 'Moreau & Kivatizky' appearing on many postcards. The partnership ended shortly thereafter, with Kivatizky continuing with photography until 1924 in Paris and later in Turin. The tracing for Moreau is not clear
On 9 March 1873 Mark Fedorovic (Mordouch Fišelevic) Kivatitzky was born into a Jewish family in Poltava, Russia (now Ukraine). In 1893, he began his career as a photographer, moving to Melitopol and opening his own studio there. In 1897, he joined the Russian Photographic Society in Moscow, which awarded him twice for his work. A few years later, in 1901, he opened a photographic studio in Ekaterinoslav where he produced works of excellent quality which were given awards by the Vitebsk Photographic Circle and the Photographic Society of Saint Petersburg. In 1905, at the second Kiev photographic exhibition he won first prize for his works.
Kivatitzky emigrated to Paris and opened the photographic studio 'Moreau & Kivatitzky', which produced postcards, photographs from the First World War, and photos of female figures. Kivatitzky's studios in Melitopol and Ekaterinoslav continued to operate after he settled in Paris on the Boulevard d'Italien in 1905, and were managed by his brothers, Joseph and Moses.
Moving to Turin with his wife in 1924, Kivatitzky collaborated with the company Fotocelere A. Campassi which had been founded in 1908 by Angelo Campassi and was a company famous for the manufacture of silver bromide postcards.
Kivatitzky remained there to work for fifteen years until he was deported to Auschwitz during World War II where he died on 2 November 1943.
Sources: ebay seller record - AmidesLivres-Boutique (Date retrieved: 5 Oct 2025)
'Russian presence in Italy in the first half of the 20th century' Publisher: ROSSPEN, Moscow, 2019. P. 331.
Research and Russian translation provided by Marina Dambrava (Portugal).`],["Moving Eyes",``],["Nicknames",`These pictures show the models who have been given nicknames to identify them where they occur on this site. The same nicknames are used on the Ross site listed in the reference collections.`],["Other topics",`Cards I would like more of? One can't collect everything! However among the cards I happen to have these are ones which fall into topics I could easily add. They may be of interest to collectors or potential collectors of these subjects. Each topic has relatively few cards, added as I find them; they are fairly random apart from a pre-war date.`],["Otto Reinwald",`Otto Reinwald (1899-1968) was one of six Reinwald children, all ofwhom were involved in the entertainment industry. He and four of the other children (Irmgard, Elsbeth, Grete, and Hanni) appear within Rotophot and other German publisher series, often paired with one another. The eldest, Julius, was a cinematographer who lost his life while filming inAfrica.
Otto appeared in about 35 films between 1913 and 1932. Severalof the films were Danish, issued at the time the family relocated from Germany to Denmark during WWI. In his 1949 book on child stars, Alverdens Barnestjerne, Arnold Hending includes a quotefrom the Danish film director, Benjamin Christensen, describing his 1913 work with Otto: 'There was a good portion of courage in him. One thing he feared: Water... In the scene, he was climbing along a horizontal beam over half meter of water. I could see his face turn green in terror, and he clung to me like a drowning man, his heart beating like a sparrow when you hold it in the palm of your hand ... Now I started wondering whether I shouldn't abandon these scenes, rather than torment the boy, but when I said this to him, his protests were characteristic. He would not give up, and a few minutes later, the images were in the box.'
Kay Winger's Zwischen Bühne und Baracke notes that Otto was blacklisted by the Nazi's. While that information has not been confirmed by another source, no film entries have been found for Otto from 1932-1944. After WWII, film entries for him resume in movie production, with almost 25 films released through 1965. Otto died in 1968.
Otto's sister, Elsbeth, was married to the Russian-born composer, Mischa Spoliansky. When fleeing Germany from the Nazi's in 1933, Mischa was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Otto. They travelled third-class and the journey was long. 'At the last station before our destination, a few brownshirts entered our compartment and removed a Jewish couple and their adolescent son, their protests did not help. I was pretending to be asleep, my head leaning against the window, a cap pulled down over my face. Just as they were about to interrogate me, their superior called them out as the train was about to leave. It was a terrifying moment.'
The next day, when Eddy followed with the children, brownshirts once again got on the train.Confronting Eddy with "Didn't a Spoliansky come through here yesterday?" officials tried toremove her from the train. A group of tourists came to her defense, and Eddy was allowed toremain, but ordered to relinquish her passport. After Eddy's arrival in Erhwald, acquaintancesrecovered her passport from the border post. Mischa later learned the acquaintances belongedto the Austrian Nazi party, but they were a great fan of his music.
The Spoliansky grandchildren maintain The Mischa Spoliansky Trust at www.mischaspoliansky.com and generously shared the source of this information.`],["Paint Marker",``],["Paul Boyer",`Paul Boyer (1861–1952) was a decorated French photographer and inventor. His studios were at 35 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris.
Boyer made numerous portraits of actors, actresses, and other personalities of his time. These portraits were often published on postcards.
Source: Wikipedia.`],["Paul Sielaff",`Biographical information for Paul Sielaff has not been found. His photos appear on German postcards and in German magazines circa 1910-1920.
Sielaff is listed in Berlin address books from 1906 and 1907 with Alexander Schmoll, doing business as Schmoll & Sielaff, with studios listed on both Belle Alliance and Tauenzienstr. In 1908, the address book entry finds Schmoll alone on Belle Alliance and Sielaff alone on Tauenzienstr.
Sielaff's entries on Tauenzienstr run through 1921 when the address book lists Albrecht as the successorto the business which is listed as Zigarren. It is unknown whether Sielaff moved on to something else, retired, or died.
The BNK and SLJFF cards below bear Sielaff's name on the face of the card. The NPG 2185 photo was reproduced in an issue of Das Theater, with credit given to Sielaff. The NPG 2214 photo features the same backdrop and model as Sielaff credited photos in the same publication.
Of particular interest is the trademark that is reproduced on several cabinet cards issued during the short period of Schmoll & Sielaff's collaboration. Featured in the trademark is a child who appears on hundreds of postcards circa 1907. It is not known if Schmoll and/or Sielaff produced these photos, but the use of the child's image in their trademark is intriguing.
The child has been given the descriptive name 'Balloon Girl'; samples of her cards are provided in the contact sheet below. Full size scans may be seen on this site `],["Photographers",`The great majority of postcards do not credit the photographer who took the photo. Occasionally, however, they do. On other occasions the same photograph has been found in a magazine or on a cabinet card, or in some other medium where the photographer's name is provided.
Presented below are several photographers whose work is known to exist on postcards in the Vintage Thematic Postcard (VTP) website. Clicking on the image will retrieve a small sample of their photographs, along with a brief narrative about the photographer.
Other photographs for the photographers displayed below may exist (and be tagged) in the VTP catalogs. They may be retrieved by entering a keyword, such as Reutlinger in a search on the VGP search page.
The first image in the display is a photo of German photographers from the 1898 Das Atelier des Photographen. Both Adolf Miethe and Heinrich Traut are pictured. The source for the photo is Wikimedia Commons. `],["Pochoir",`Pochoir is French for Stencil. Pochoir postcards are most associated with the artist Giovanni Meschini (1888-1977). Meschini was born in Rome and moved to Terni with his family as a child. He illustrated cards from Terni and for publishers in Milan. Post-WW1, with the idea of involving craftsmanship in postcard production, he set up the Ars Nova Studio which produced cards by applying series of stencils by hand.`],["Political",`Political cartoons occur frequently on postcards and are a good area to form a collection if you are interested in the underlying history.Topics vary from major figures and events to affais of the moment. The examples here are from a collection made for a different purpose, of cards by different European publishers, and so give a fairly sketchy view of the possibilities. `],["Purses",`An interesting concept for collecting is selecting an element that may not be the main focus of a photograph and locating cards that contain that element. An example is the Purse collection featured here that provides just a few examples of the different card types (performers, fantasy, fashion, art, private mailings) on which purses can be found.`],["Real Hair",`v `],["Real Hair Art",`w `],["Reutlinger Studios",`Léopold-Émile Reutlinger (1863–1937) was a Peruvian-born French photographer. His uncle, Charles Reutlinger, founded the family's photographic business in Paris, and his father was the photographer Émile Reutlinger. Léopold's son, Jean, was also a prominent photographer.
Léopold worked as a photographer in Peru until 1883 when he entered the family's studio in Paris to assist his father who had been running it alone since 1880. Léopold took over the studio from his father after 1890.
Reutlinger studios specialized popular performer photos, fashion shoots, and advertising photos. The studio photographed stars of Paris' entertainment venues, including Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergère. The photographs were regularly sold to magazines and newspapers and reproduced as postcards.
In 1891, Léopold's son, Jean, was born. In 1910, Léopold and Jean began to work together in the studio. Jean died in 1914 in World War I.
In 1930, Reutlinger suffered an accident which cost him an eye and seriously affected his profession; however, he continued to run the studio until his death in Paris in 1937.
Extracted from Wikipedia.`],["Roby Robert",`The three Robert Schmutzler postcards displayed below identify Robert as the 'Youngest Dancer and Actor in the World.' Secondary internet resources list a handful of films Robert acted in, with the first in 1919 and the last in 1929/30.
The film program for one of the films (Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland) assigns the female lead to the former child performer, Grete Reinwald, with Robert playing a young girl. They are pictured in their roles below in a clip from the program.
Robert shares similar facial and hair characteristics with the child model assigned the nickname, 'Crying Child', on the Vintage Thematic Postcards site.
No biographical information has been found for Robert.`],["Ross Performers",`Hundreds of young performer postcards may be viewed on the Ross Verlag Movie Star Postcards website.
The URL for direct access into the catalog on that site is European Postcard Publishers Image Archive.
Names may be searched by expanding the Name option in the selection tree at the left of the Archive's catalog page.`],["Sculpt",`Clay sculptures (rather, models) and bas-reliefs. These are items illustrating contemporary topics rather than art or museum objects`],["Sheet Music",`Postcards comprised of sheet music was a popular genre on early 20th century postcards. Presented here is a small selection of cards from publishers from several different countries.`],["Simone Le Bargy",`Simone Le Bargy (or simply Madame Simone after her divorce from actor Charles Le Bargy), made her theater debut in 1902.
As an author in addition to a stage actor, her life spanned 108 years, from 1877-1985. She played Faisane in Rostand's Chantecler in 1910.
More information may be found at the Académie d'Angoumois.`],["Soirees",`Originally isssued in undivided form, unmarked; later issued in divided form as advert for Maison Henry Esders`],["Sophie Sperlich",`The April-May 1910 Blätter für Gemaldekunde reported the death of Vienna-born painter, Sophie Sperlich, on 25 October (1909) in Munich. Sperlich is known for her charming paintings of cats and dogs, many of which appeared on postcards. Her signature on many of the paintings reads 'S. Sperlich, München'. No other information has been found, although some websites list her birth as 1863. That date has not been confirmed.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University.`],["Stamp Collage",`By the 1890s Chinese artists were saving cancelled postage stamps and creating postage collages on postcards, which they sold to tourists. Over the next thirty-plus years Chinese postage collage postcards were mailed all over the globe. (Russell Hahn, Postage Stamp Collage Art).
The genre expanded in popularity throughout the world. This selection presents a small sampling of the cards available, representing a number of countries, publishers, and topics. The selection documents the genre from each of the first five decades of the 1900's. It is comprised of cards made by individuals, including wounded soldiers; cards produced for charities; as well as cards produced professionally.`],["Susanne Lafrenz",`Susanne Lafrenz was identified from an advertisement for 'Lottes erste Liebe', a Bubi film, in the November 1916 issue of Lichtbild bühne (see RPH 5615/1). The German Early Cinema Database and FilmPortal.de document Susanne's appearance in several other Bubi films in the role of Lotte.
In addition to performing in the Bubi films, Susanne was active as a postcard and magazine model. Several of her magazine photos were attributed to Ernst Schneider, the Berlin photographer. It is likely that many of her postcard series were photographed by him as well.
No additional biographical information about Lafrenz has been found.`],["Swift's Pride",`Illustrator Grace (Wiederseim) Drayton created a series of Wednesday's Child advertising cards for Swift's Pride Soap and Washing Powder. An advertisement in the Sept. 1907 Ladies' Home Journal announced: 'A set of seven of these handsome post cards . . . will be sent to any address on receipt of two 2 cent stamps. The drawings are by Grace Wiederseim, the well known artist, who created the famous Sun-Bonnet Babes.' Drayton also designed the Campbell Soup Kids.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University.`],["Tonal",``],["Torn Paper",``], ["Toy Town Tavern",`The Toy Town Tavern resort opened in 1912 in Winchendon, Massachusetts USA. Large gay, colorful murals featuring nursery rhyme characters were displayed on the dining-room walls. The 1958 Treadway Inns Cookbook [Anne Roe Robbins] noted the paintings were executed by Mrs. Hershey, who at one time decorated nurseries for Jordan Marsh. The property was sold to The Winchendon School in 1961.
Cards in this collection are displayed courtesy of Historical Picture Postcards - Osnabrück University.`],["Trains",`We don't have the kind of pictures train ethusiasts might be looking for, rather illustrations and cartoons. There are many cigarette cards of specific locos on this related site.`],["Undivided",` For the early history of postcards see here or Wikipedia, but postcards as we know them really got going in the 1880s and particularly the 1890s. At that time one side of the card was reserved for the address (nowadays often referred to as the verso, though postal authorities regard this as the front of the card). Everything else - the picture, message and sender's signature - had to be on the other side. Images had to leave space for a written message.
In 1902, the British Post Office allowed messages to be written on one half of the address side. These cards are "divided back" cards. Images expanded to fill the whole of the other side. As other countries agreed to this, cards with messages on the address side could be sent there; this was eventually agreed at the Sixth Postal Union Congress in Rome, in 1906. USA and Japan were among the last to agree. The earlier cards became known as "undivided back" cards. French sites call them "precurseurs". French users would write all over the card anyway so often there is little white space on early French cards.
From early days French regulations allowed the stamp to be on either side of the card - some are folded over the edge. Only the French seem to have stuck stamps over the images, sometimes in the worst places.
Many countries had cheaper postage rates for "printed matter" or material without a message, so you find many postcards with the printed "Postcard" line crossed out and cheaper stamps used. This happens for both divided and undivided cards.
All the early cards on this site, relative to the dates above, will be undividied cards. Most are photograpic cards. This section shows illustrated cards with some account of their evolution.
A web site that shows examples of many publishers of undivided cards is undividedbackpostcard.com.`],["Walery (Stanislaw Ostrorog)",`Stanisław Julian Ignacy Ostroróg (1863-1929) also known as Walery (after his mother's given name) was a Polish photographer active in London and Paris between 1890 and 1929. After inheriting his father's photographic studio in London, he continued with portraiture for about a decade until the turn of the century when he moved to Paris. There he achieved celebrity as an innovator and accomplished photographer of cabaret stars and of the female form.
Stanisław junior was inspired to learn photographic techniques by his father, briefly working alongside his father who had studios in both London and Paris, and also travelling to Mexico and Africa. After his father's death, Stanisław junior went into partnership with the English theatrical photographer, Alfred Ellis. They began trading as Ellis & Walery from new premises in Baker Street.
Around 1900, Stanisław junior opened a Paris studio in his father's former premises where he initially specialized in theatre and cabaret artists including Mata Hari. As his French business prospered he gave up his London interest in 1908. His Parisian clients included the Folies Bergères, the Société de Géographie, and the Salons de Peintures. He was the official photographer for the 1912 Russian Season in Paris.
In the 1920s Stanisław junior focused on art photography and experimented with the figure of the model. During this period he used the pseudonym 'Laryew' and under that name produced a book entitled Nus – Cent Photographies Originales. He achieved the greatest acclaim with his series of photographs of Josephine Baker, published in 1926. He also produced studies of the female nude destined for anatomy and art students.
Stanisław junior married Joyce Fowke (1877–1930) in 1897 in Chelsea. They had four children. He died in Paris in 1929.
After his death, the studio was taken over by Charles Auguste Varsavaux (1866-1935).
Narrative extracted from a more complete biography at: European Film Star Postcards. The Josephine Baker postcard below is displayed courtesy Marlène Pilaete.`],["Wally",`Wally was an exceedingly popular German postcard model, appearing on thousands of postcards, including those in nearly 300 Rotophot series. The limited information known about her was reported in a Leslie-Judge folio portrait circa ____ which read:
Miss Wally, who carefully conceals her family name, is known as the prettiest and most sought-after model in Germany. She was originally on the stage, playing children's roles in the Deutschea Theatres, under Prof. Max Reinhart, the 'Belasco of Germany' . . . Prof. Reinhart took special interest in Miss Wally and gave her dramatic instructions, but soon she left the stage when she found that posing for photographers was her real vocation, paid her better and gave her a more agreeable life. She is now engaged by Ernst Schneider, the foremost German photographer, and poses every day for twenty or thirty photographs. Her portrait has become known all over the world, and it can safely be said that no other model has ever reached similar popularity. Miss Wally is said to receive a yearly salary of $9,000. She was born and brought up in Berlin.
The 1908 Neuer Theater Almanach entry for the Deutsches Theater in Berlin identifies Max Reinhardt as the owner and director. The Kinderollen section for the theater includes Wally Pietschel. Neither the 1907 nor 1909 Almanach show the same listing. Additionally Wally Pitschel is listed in Heinrich Huesmann's Welttheater Reinhardt (1983) in Midsummer Night's Dream, playing the Fairies roles of Spinnweb (April 15, 1907) and Bohnenblüte (October 2, 1907). No further information has been found to confirm the connection of Wally Pitschel to Wally the postcard model.
Wally frequently is posed in solo portraits, but also regularly appears paired with others -- Grete and Hanni Reinwald, Ally Kolberg, Kläry Lotto and several as yet unidentified men, women and children.
Wally's name identification was made by California collector, Crystal Glantz.`],["Wanda Radford",`
Wanda Radford (1896-1982) was a child elocutionist, reciter, singer and dancer from Australia who performed on the stage in Australia, Germany, and Britain in the first decade of the 20th century. She also appeared in a few British silent films circa 1915, returning later to Australia where she became an artist and costume designer.
Included in the cards below is one sample of her artwork.
Nick Murphy, the webmaster of the Forgotten Australian Actors website has documented her life at Wanda Radford - The Australian 'Wunderkind' .`],["Watches",`This interesting series of watches is signed H. Manuel.
There is a brief outline of Manuel's life and work on wikipedia.`],["Young Performers",`Many of the children appearing on vintage postcards were performers as well as postcard models. A few are displayed below.`],)