Three good examples of variation in colour, Ross.
Just in case some readers are not up to speed with 1905 printing technology, I can give a little background. There was no way at that time for a printer to print from a coloured photograph. The customer supplied the printer with a black and white photographic print, and some way of telling the printer what the colours were to be. This was either another copy of the photograph that had been coloured by hand, or a description in words of what the colours were. The printer's colorist then made up three different printing plates - one to print red, and to print yellow, and one to print blue. They did this by eye, skilfully working out which parts of the image were to be printed in each colour so that when the colours were printed on top of each other in the three passes through the printing press, it all came out correct. So each time a different printer produced a card, new plates were made up by a different colorist and the results came out differently.
You will know that the cards Ross has shown were published by J Walch & Sons, who were the main stationers in Hobart. Walchs had an agent in London, who bought the goods that Walchs wanted and shipped them to Hobart. His name was H. Bishop, and his address was in Ludgate Hill, London. The system was that Walchs wrote him a letter each week saying what they wanted (eg 10 tons of apple wrapping paper!), and sent the letter by sea mail, and he received it 5 weeks later. He immediately ordered the goods required from dozens of different suppliers in UK, by writing them a letter, and then wrote back to Walches saying what he had done and when to expect the goods.
I have just found in the Tasmanian State Archives copies of the letters sent by the London agent to suppliers in UK and Europe, and copies of the letters back to Hobart. They are an amazing source of information about postcard orders and deliveries in the period 1903-1915; I copied about 100 pages of letters, and it will take a long time to analyse them. Our Archives Office is to be congratulated for preserving these important documents and having them available over a hundred years later.
As a start, I have attached a copy of a letter that shows how the colour information was sent to the printer when no hand-coloured photo was sent. This letter is from the London agent to the printer C.G. Roder in Germany, on 7 June 1905. From the 12 card descriptions, can you work out which series of Walch cards are being printed? It is the cards labelled "Series G -1906". For example the card referred to in the letter as "Hut amongst ferns and Trees' is 67469. (This letter is a little difficlt to follow. They are asking for 24 post cards, 12 of which are reprints of the year before, and 12 itemised in the letter are nw)
These letters get us quite a long way. Firstly, they tell us who printed the cards - in this case, G.G. Roder in Liepzig, Germany. Secondly, it tells us when. And other letters tell us the price paid to the printer. Other letters tell us the quantity ordered (usually 2000 or 3000) and they tell us that Walch wanted the cards sent in uncut sheets with nothing printed on the back - Walch printed the backs themselves in Hobart!
All in all, a wealth of information and I find it pretty amazing that such records still exist.
Des Beechey
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