Photo Post Cards

Question:
I purchased a Boelcke photo post card (posted in "people" section) off of Ebay. It was an original, private photo. I was told by the seller, photographers back in that time had pictures developed onto this kind of paper for the purpose of selling as a post card. Is this correct. I started collecting old WWI photos a year ago, so my knowledge is lacking in some departments.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lynx

[wingstrutdotcom]

Originally Posted by Lynx

Question:
I purchased a Boelcke photo post card (posted in "people" section) off of Ebay. It was an original, private photo. I was told by the seller, photographers back in that time had pictures developed onto this kind of paper for the purpose of selling as a post card. Is this correct. I started collecting old WWI photos a year ago, so my knowledge is lacking in some departments.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lynx

Do you have a link to the image? Is it the one of him with his hand on his right hip in dress uniform? Does it say Kriegs Karte on the back? And, how much did you pay?

I have a number of post cards in my collection. If you are not familiar with them beware of getting ripped off. There are a lot of reprints of many popular figures and aircraft photos fromWW1 that were done in the 50's and 60's.

The picture has Boelcke with his hands crossed infront of him. He is standing on wooden planking. I bought it from ebay Item#6601158102 from a seller from Germany. I will try and attach the picture by it seems to be too big. Just click on the image and you should be able to increase it. I only copied 47Kb, 50 is the max for an attachment.

Thanks for the other info. I do agree with you about lots a false photo material out in the market. Hopefully I was not ripped off.

Thanks again.

It has no writing on the back. And I paid $106 US. If it is a private, original - was this too much?

Thanks.

[Jim]

Old "real photo" postcards were made both by the large companies and by entrepreneuring photographers. Yours may the the latter, but that would not mean that it is a "one-only" photo. An entrepreneuring photographer could make as many prints as the market would bear. In the case of a common soldier who wanted to send some photos of himself to his family and sweetheart at home, it would be likely that there would be just a few cards made - however many the guy was willing to pay for. Additional cards would not be likely in such as case since the public would likely have no interest in buying a photo of a common soldier. In the case of a well known celebrity pilot, there were likely a large number of cards made as there was a strong popular market at the time for photos of the country's war heros, especially ace pilots, and the photographer could simply make as many postcards from his negative as he could sell to the stores and distributors who sold such things to the public.

Thanks Jim. This picture post card collecting is something new (1Year) to me. So every little bit of info helps. Thanks again.

[Westerman]

Would this post card have had a large or small printing?

[Jim]

I might guess somewhere in the middle. People liked to see evidence of their side 'winning the war' with such photos and there was a lot of interest and comfort in seeing these exotic and threatening 'new-fangled aeroplanes' that their side had taken away from the other side. Another relatively popular type of real photo card was the macabre photos of 'victorious' soldiers standing around the wreckage of an enemy aircraft with the 'evil' dead pilot either in the wreckage or laid out on the ground next to it like a group of hunters would pose for a photo with a deer as a hunting trophy. I don't think these were quite as popular as the photo cards of the country's heros or royalty though.

It is almost impossible to know how many of a particular 'private card' were made as there don't seem to be any records. It is also hard to try to take a census from the collections of people who collect these since those represent only a tiny fraction of what is still lying around in the attics and basements of the descendents of the people received these kinds of cards back in the day. The best anyone can do is try to keep some records of what you see selling on Ebay and from the postcard dealers at the shows and the like and see for yourself over the years which ones seem to turn up constantly and which ones seem to be less commonly seen, though an uncommon one can turn into very common overnight when a hoard of them is discovered in an attic or basement and the discoverer puts them into the market place.

Lynx,

I noticed that you purchased off of Thomas Faust (urfaust). This dealer is honest/trustworthy and if he stated that it was original/private non-commercial, you can caount on it. Good hit!

Jarvis

Jarvis,

Thanks.
I had left him a nasty on the feedback, but apologized after. I left him several emails with no response. He was in Spain on vacation. Maybe I will send him a bottle of fine Canadian Whiskey to mend the fence.

Thanks Again.