Dating photopostcards is an art, but is somewhat easier than dating studio portraits as the date of studio operatioins is often not known. Most of the photo postcards that we have noted date from 1907. There are some photo postcards that appeared a few years earlier. We note some as eaely as 1903. The companies involved and the printing details can be used to date these postcards, even when they were not postally used. These indentifying marks on the back are normally found stampbox corner. They identify the manufacturer of the photographic paper. You can approximate the age of the Real Photo by knowing when the paper manufacturer was in business. Here the format of the box can help to focus in on the chronology.

20th Century Phenomenon

The mere fact that photographic prints were done with post card backs for mailing hekps to date the images. Basically the postcard formats dates the images to the 1900s-30s, although a few types continue into the late 20th century. The basic dates of the early 20th century result from several factors: 1)the popularity of commercial post cards because of improvements in printing, 2) postal regulations and inexpensive sta,p rates, and 3) advances in amateur photography. All these factors come together at about the turn-of-the 20th century.

Stamp Boxes

A stamp box is the small area in the upper right-hand corner of a post card where individuals could place apostage stamp to mail a post card. Most people never did this. Both portraits and snapshots were printed on photographic paper with post card backs. Theu could be sent trough the mail, but most people didn't do this as the photographs were kept or home or because the photograph could be damaged in the mail. So when mailing them, they were commonly enclosed in a protective envelope. The post cards boxes because they were often very destinctive can be used in dating the image even when there is no postmark. There are other features of the post card, both the front and back which can be used to date the cards. The stamp box, however, is the single most useful feature.

Table 2.--World. Post card print paape of unidentified companies Box Words Symbols Divided Dates Notes Dashed Lines PLACE STAMP HERE DOPS No 1900s POST CARD: CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS

Real Photo

HBC was going to persue this subject in greater detail. It is, however, a very complicated subject and to our delight we found that someone has already done a great deal of work on this topic. Real Photo has a very detailed compilation of postcard stamp boxes. This is an excellent source rhat can be used to help. date old postcards.

HBC Data

H ere HBC has compiled a table with some of the basic stamp box types that we have encountered around the world and the approximate dates when available (table 1). We have used data compiled by other sources, but have confirmed and edited the entries with postcards archived on HBC. We have also added some additional entries not found in some of the sources we checked. This is, however, only a very basic listing. The number of companies is quite large. The companies here, however are among the most important. We have also noticed cards with destinctive stamp boxes, but we do not know the company involved (table 2). We hope over time, however, to be able to sketch out the time frame of the postcards.

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Created: 5:38 PM 8/31/2004
Last updated: 11:01 PM 1/8/2009