On the beach in 1902

So as summer approaches its end what better than another postcard.

Here are those Edwardian beauties, followed by It’s Ripping in Folkestone, the Dainty Fish Maid and preceded by the all together very risque view from a tent wall.*

They are all from that wonderful treasure trove of postcards produced by Tuck & Sons, and available to view at Tuck DB.**

Here can be found pretty much everything spanning the late 19th and 20th centuries ranging from buildings, street scenes, celebrities and of course a tranche of seaside posters some humorous, some bordering on the naughty and some just plain sentimental.

But they are a powerful insight into a lost world, and one that conveys not just the physical appearance of Britain and elsewhere but also some of the values, and prejudices of the time.

All of which brings me back to the two girls on the beach from the series Seaside Glamour.

I am not quite sure whether the two girls are the same, and that we are being presented with the realities of bathing on an Edwardian beech with the wish of what might be, or just two bathing beauties out for a dip on a sunny day.

What makes the card interesting is that it was photographed in Austria and marketed by Tuck in France as well as Britain.

It is one of  six which not only border on the risque but explore the murky world of voyeurism with three of the series focusing on Peeping Toms and the efforts the of the young woman to be free of these unwanted intrusions.

So in one, we have “Man with camera peers over rocks at two girls,” in another “Four girls in the sea splash man with a camera,” and in the third “Six girls in sea as a peeping Tom has fallen after breaking a post.”  Not to be outdone the fourth has “Two girls scared by a barking dog” which may also hint at the problem the two women have given that their clothes are on the bank by the barking dog.

What makes this card all the more intriguing is that it bears a French stamp and the reverse reveals that it was printed in France.

Of course within a few decades these will seem tame and merely an oddity but back in 1903 they were just the ticket for that friend in the factory or the office, although I doubt that mother would have approved.

For her this image of Manchester’s City Art Gallery might just have been more appropriate it dates from the year before and bears the logo of the American YMCA.

The card was made and marketed in Britain so I wonder about the American connection.

No doubt someone will tell me.



Picture; Two Girls, from the series, Seaside Glamour, 1903, and Manchester City Art Gallery, from the series MANCHESTER, BY C.E. FLOWER, 1902,  issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

*Raphael Tuck & Sons, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Raphael%20Tuck%20and%20Sons%20Ltd

**Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/