POSTCARDS ON KODAK PAPER - IS IT POSSIBLE TO "DATE" THEM?

[DonAnderson]

With respect, your PC addressed to Mrs Southall, The Beeches, Cliffords Mesne, Newent, Glocestershire, England has an enlarged letter ‘K’ in the top RH of the stamp box. This would classify it as Type KP-2 or Peterson's K-B, K-C, K-F, etc., recorded so far as: first seen: 1913, last seen: 1933.
Here are some other dates which may help to narrow the date-range of the card.
The UK 1939 Register (a register of all UK residents prior to the outbreak of WWII) finds Mrs Ethel M Southall (born 1873), resident with her husband Alfred W Southall (born 1871) and three servants at The Beeches, Cliffords Mesne. At that time, Ethel was recorded as ‘Incapacitated Through Illness’. Other records then show that Ethel, died in 1940.
This would set a logical latest date for posting the PC as 1940. (With an earliest date established as 1932 or later.) It could however have been printed earlier than this, to coincide with the earliest date of the Polar Bears in Beaumaris zoo,
Of interest are other records which show Alfred Southall, of Cliffords Mesne, to be a shareholder in Great Western Railways, as early as 1924 and again in 1931.
In 1926, Alfred and Ethel, again of Cliffords Mesne, sailed from Southampton for Genoa. Whether this was simply a vacation, or temporary migration cannot readily be established, but they certainly returned to The Beeches, Cliffords Mesne.
Might I also suggest that the partial PostMark on the PC does not depict the letters ‘OZ’, but ‘ON’. This could be indicating postage from Brighton, Tasmania.

[GarethL]

Fantastic, thank you. Although I'm in Britain I'm utterly useless at tracing anything this end. I had tried but got nowhere at all.

The only thing I can say about the earliest date is based on the appearance of the bears, they're still fairly young, so that puts it at about 1925. As an aside these two were some of the few animals which left the zoo alive after it's decline and ultimate closure in 1937. Date of sending has to at the earliest 1933, due to the reference to 'Inheritence' which was first published in that year.

I agree that 'ON' most probably refers to Brighton, not 'Oz'.

Thank you for the information, much appreciated.

[Mick Kerr]

I also have one of these Kodak postcards where I am trying to pinpoint the date. It has the written square in top right corner but I notice that the word Kodak on the bottom line seems to have a triangle instead of the letter A. It could be a printing error of course but to my ageing eyes it looks like a triangle.

Dating George and Thomas postcard.jpg (45.24 KiB) Viewed 1124 times

[Cameron]

I also have one of these Kodak postcards where I am trying to pinpoint the date. It has the written square in top right corner but I notice that the word Kodak on the bottom line seems to have a triangle instead of the letter A. It could be a printing error of course but to my ageing eyes it looks like a triangle

Mick,
It does look like a triangle, but in some of my samples the letters are quite unevenly printed. Since the triangle shape matches part of the expected "A" then I am confident that yours is also just uneven printing.