Tuck's In the Air

A recent private purchase included a set of Raphael Tuck & Sons 'In the Air' series 3101. A set of six in very good condition they are illustrated by artist G.T.Clarkson. The postcards show an early biplane in various manoeuvres, Banking, A banked right-hand turn, Diving with engine running, Climbing, In full flight and Gliding with engine stopped.



Quite often in these circumstances you only get five cards instead of the full set of six as one would be posted immediately after they were be bought.

Days Past Postcards - Aviation

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Do I throw away damaged postcards?

I've inherited a family collection of postcards, when my aunt passed away recently. They're in an album and include quite an assortment of types, places, churches, comedy and are in both colour and black and white (photos?).

Sadly, most of them are damaged and I must confess to being at least partly responsible for this as I remember us playing with them as children at my Grandma's house in Hove.

As a one time philatelist I'm aware that this kind of damage can render collectables worthless, so am asking your advice before throwing them away. Is this the same with postcards? Regards, Richard Gabriel

Hi Richard,

I'd never advise you to throw them away regardless of the condition, though you are correct in that the damage will almost certainly affect value. Some description of the actual damage would have been useful.

With postcards it depends very much on the type. A rare photographic topographical card (a local scene) by a local photographer would still appeal to a collector of that area, because of the information contained in the image. THe damage would affect the value but not as much as to a mass produced or printed card of a more general subject such as an artist drawn glamour or childrens card - here the collector would be striving to obtain items of the highest quality for the collection and may reject damaged cards - confident of (eventually?) finding an example in much better condition. So in this case the damage would affect value far more.
Hope this helps.
Mike Day

Two postcards with a similar degree of damage illustrate this below...



A faded, slightly creased photographic postcard with pinholes...but this is a rarely seen view of coal picking during the strike of 1911 taken by a local photographer fascinating detail, important local history and would still fetch a good price regardless of the damage.



Dirt, Ink marks and rounded corners on this Mabel Lucie Attwell postcard, a popular subject but the card is not at all attractive in this condition, possibly of use as an album filler, but worth only a fraction of what a pristine example would fetch