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NEWSLETTER #60 - SEPTEMBER 2007 THE CARDS ARE OUT THERE EVENTS
A reminder of new venues for both the Manchester and Heathrow Aviation collectables shows
Oct 6 Luton Vauxhall recreation Club
This section will in future also mention any new issues , as previously highlighted by Colin Cohen.
INTERNET REPORT
It seems that Ebay is starting to suffer from the same problems that afflict postcard shows – i.e all you see is the same people offering the same stock and the volume of stuff is such that the time spent searching through it all is increasingly ill-spent. Things are easier for the narrow-focus collector searching for , say, Constellation, where the search engine will do the work of narrowing things down but “airport” is likely to produces hundreds if not more……..and of course the real finds were always the rare items mis-described by the innocent seller .
That is distinct from the common items mis-described by the innocent seller – like Rare Vintage airliner = BOAC 707.
Conversely, more knowledgeable sellers, including many club members are seeking to offload more common cards in multi-card lots ranging from 4 card sets by airline or type to really bulk lots . The latter can either be sold, “lucky dip” with a brief description only of the overall theme, or sight unseen with a listing but no picture, or “ scatter them on a table/the floor and take a picture”.
Returning to the “innocent seller”, one US seller – who appeared to be an antique, if not postcard, dealer proclaimed that they were selling some old airplane postcards from an estate but “ did not know much about them” ( Either true or a cunning plan) . A lot were military linen type cards of USAAF air bases 1930s/40s but there were others including many early photographic Glenn Curtiss flying boat cards.
Phil Munson reckoned that there was an example of every one that had taken him over 20 years and a fair amount of cash, to acquire.
Both of these real photo postcards show the Curtiss America flying boat, built at Hammondsport , NY for a proposed transatlantic flight in 1914. The occasion is the naming ceremony on June 22 and these 2 cards feature Curtiss himself – far left top card, and Irishman Cyril John Porte who was also involved in the design. ( right with hat, lower card). The design was underpowered and before improvements could be made, the outbreak of war later in 1914 caused Porte to return to service in the Royal Navy where he had previously been a submariner as well as an aviator in the RNAS. Rejoining the RNAS he was instrumental in buying the America for the RNAS in 1916 and in the development of the Curtiss based Felixstowe boats before dying from a revival of his recurrent TB in 1919.
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