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Thursday 9 September 2010

Sepia vintage postcards of Weymouth

My submission for this week's Sepia Saturday blog post features some sepia, vintage postcards of Weymouth, Dorset, dating back to around 1911. The postcards are all published by J.Welch and Sons of Portsmouth. Despite the 2nd and 3rd cards looking initially as though they were the same, there are actually subtle differences - I almost feel like I should launch a 'spot the difference competition'.

General view of Alexandra Gardens and Weymouth Bay, c.1911

I particularly like the bandstand on this one. Fortunately there are still many of these still standing in the UK, although it's not often you see them in use these days for their original purpose.


The New Pavilion, The Nothe and Weymouth Bay looing W, c.1911

The first of the 2 similar postcards has both sails in white but is missing the 2 pairs of people either side of the car.


The New Pavilion, the Nothe and Weymouth Bay looking West, c.1911

The second of the similar postcards has one of the ship's sails in black, and the mast seems to have disappeared, and has 2 pairs of people either side of the car which are missing from the first previous postcard. Can anyone spot any more differences, or perhaps suggest why this sort of thing might have happened - deliberate, or perhaps an alteration or error in the printing process?


As always, 100's more vintage postcards can be found on my vintage postcards web site

8 comments:

  1. I have often noticed with old postcards I have bought that when I have looked for the same card on the web, I have found almost identical cards but with some slight differences. Most of these differences are ones which could be introduced during the printing process and I often wonder whether it was a copyright related thing. Great cards by the way.

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  2. Could be copyright, but could also be artistic license. It looks to me that the first one is the original image and the second one has some added people (who seem to be missing their shadows.) Fascinating! There's nothing I love more than comparing two versions of the same card.

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  3. I love these. When I was a little girl our fairgrounds had a gazebo like that. It set in the middle of the racetrack in the area of the horse shows and races. The organ was placed there and I was always so excited when the music would get fast and loud and my grandfather's horses would be strutting their stuff.
    QMM

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  4. I don't think I've ever seen 2 postcards the same but different as these last two are. Did you know we can't enlarge the photos when we click on them? Being able to enlarge them would make it much more fun to look at the details. Great cards!

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  5. Great to see these postcards. My family, on my maternal grandfather's side, originate from the Weymouth area, where I've traced them back to the mid 1700s.

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  6. I love the bandstand -- they must have been such a "community builder" when there were musical events and people brought blankets and picnics. And the bottom two cards are very curious. I like Christine's observations about shadows. And I am suspicious about black sails.

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  7. Pretty good retouching for that long ago! I was able to enlarge them.
    Very interesting. I hadn't noticed the similar post card thing before. Now I'll look for it.

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  8. nice post, and i like the "spot the differences". can you explain it though?...
    :)~
    HUGZ

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