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UPDATE: please note that cards with an anchor symbol on the back were printed by John Walker & Co. (G.B.) and NOT by Walch & Sons.
Any reference to a "Walch back" or similar below is incorrect.

Postally used in 1908, this card with a "Walch back" is inscribed with "Mrs. J. Nolan, Bookseller, Hobart" as the publisher.

Does anyone have other cards published by Mrs. Nolan or cards obviously printed for Walch & Sons but attributed to different publishers?

Found another - Walch postcard back - photo by "Sirius" (Gruncell) and Mrs. Nolan once again as the publisher.
...and another - same back - same photographer however this time with a different 'publisher' - T.L. Hood, Bookseller Hobart.

Note that it is the same card as for Mrs. Nolan (above)
Postally used from Broadmarsh to Old Beach (via Brighton Station) in 1903

Undivided back card with "Walch's postcard back)" printed for T.E. Barker, Furrier, Hobart.

Ross started off this thread by posting the image which I have copied below. What is the significance of the anchor between POST and CARD on the back? Is this an early J. Walch & Sons logo? It seems to only occur on these early vignetted images. The anchor symbol is exactly the same as the trade mark of John Walker & Co, of UK, as illustrated by Anthony Byatt in "Picture Postcards and their Publishers", fig. TM135. Des Beechey

Thanks Des,

it looks like my attribution to J. Walch & Sons as the printer of these cards is incorrect and I have corrected the subject titles for this topic.

Ross

P.S. I have just found another card printed for T.L. Hood & Co with the same 'postcard back' (with the anchor symbol)

John Walker & Company

John Walker & Co printed a dozen or so Tasmanian postcards about 1903. The following is a general introduction to their cards. More information and details of the cards can be found on my web site http://beecheyspostcardhistory.org.au

John Walker & Co was a London manufacturer and publisher of books, atlases, stationery, albums, leather goods and postcards. They published a wide range of postcard types including view-cards, military regiments, cricket players, comic cards and political cartoons. Their most notable series was the Geographical Series which showed a finely drawn map with a pictorial insert, an example of which is shown below. They did not produce any Tasmanian cards in this series.

John Walker’s postcards were manufactured by the engravers and map makers J.Bartholomew & Co. who were a long-established Scottish company.


About the Tasmanian Postcards

The Tasmanian cards published by John Walker & Co fall into two other series. The first is the Vignette Series, which are black and white cards with a vignette image printed by halftone. These cards are in exactly the same style, including the back layout, as cards they published of UK subjects. The second series, which I have called the Wide Series, have full width images, but have an identical back to the Vignette series. Both series can be identified as John Walker productions by the logo, an anchor in red separating the words POST and CARD. Both series of cards have an undivided back, which was the post office requirement in Tasmania until 1905. There are only a few usage dates on the cards I have; a few are 1903, one is a late usage of 1908.

The images on the cards are the standard scenes on early Tasmanian cards. About half of the Vignette series cards have the image identified as by Sirius, which is a pseudonym of Charles Gruncell. Gruncell was a schoolmaster and photographer in Hobart.

While all the cards were clearly manufactured by John Walker & Co, some bear the name of businesses in Hobart as the publisher; Mrs. J. Nolan, Bookseller, Hobart; T.L. Hood, Bookseller, Hobart and, for the Wide series, W.R. Propsting, Hobart. Presumably these were customers who ordered cards in their own name for advertising purposes.