A rather stunning costume. Miss Julia Neilson as
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So
how did it all begin?
It was a rainy day
sometime in the 1990s when my wife and I went to a postcard fair.
She was looking for interesting costumes for inspiration for her business
(see her site : Rossetti Costumes
& Bridal Gowns) and I went along just out of interest. After
browsing for a bit I found some rather beautiful postcards of actresses
from the Edwardian era. These were purchased and ended up being framed
for display. I particularly liked the similarity to the pre-Raphaelite
romantic style that can be seen in many of the images. It wasn't
too long before we went to another postcard fair, and another and soon
started to look out for certain subjects. Shakespearean cards offered
good costumes and many nice images, especially scenes from Romeo &
Juliet. Sets of "Faith, Hope & Charity" cards often featured stunning
angels. |
One of my first purchases. Miss Amy Webster.
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Miss Gabrielle Ray
Rotary Photographic Series 11731c |
An unidentified lady as Ophelia S. Hildesheimer & Co. Ltd.
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Harcourt Williams as "Romeo"
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A "Large Letter" postcard
Rotary Photographic Series |
Several actresses became very worthy of attention : Gabrielle Ray, Mabel
Love, Nora Kerin, Margaret Halstan and of course Maude Fealy. After
a while Maude became my major quest, with the photographs taken by Lizzie
Caswall Smith being a firm favourite.
It wasn't long before I was in need of a checklist to keep track of the postcards I already had. Although many postcard publishers put a handy unique reference code on each different postcard, many had nothing to uniquely define them. The only way to have a complete checklist was to print out small pictures of each card that I had. It was a small step to convert the checklist into a web page and start the site you see here today.
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Miss Mabel Love Rotary Photographic Series
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