M & L (McVilly & Little) Series

[Colin Salt]

Herewith copies of two cards bearing this imprint. Both printed in Saxony.

Standard local Hobart views, the Murray Street catches the leisurely pace of yesteryear.

[Hobbit123]

I have a fair number of these, and have so far identified 5 numeric series plus some un-numbered ones and some double-view cards. (I include McVilly & Little in this general topic).

The series are: 1 - 115 (with A numbers and some duplication (i.e 2 views with the same number))
69295 - 69318
93316 - 93346
99247 - 99300
133569 - 133601

Double cards are numbered 1 - 12 (a complete set?)

I am sure that readers can extend some of these numeric ranges. I shall be interested to see what emerges.

[Ross Ewington]

Hi Patrick

... do you think that these numbers

69295 - 69318
93316 - 93346
99247 - 99300
133569 - 133601

may be printer's index numbers (or batch numbers, etc.) rather than having been assigned by McVilly & Little to identify the cards?

As soon as I get my next auction catalog in to the post, I'll have a closer look at the information I have at
hand on M&L cards and report back here.

Ross

P.S. would you be able to illustrate both sides of one of your 'double cards' here please ...they sound interesting.

[Hobbit123]

Don't be too hopeful! The 'Double Cards' are just double picture cards.

The series is:
DOUBLE PICTURES

1 Russell Falls & Clematis Hut M
2 On Huon Road & Fern Retreat Hut M
3 Cape Raoul & Post Office, Hobart M
4 Smith O'Brien's Cottage/Port Arthur M
5 Blow hole, Brown's River & Gentle Annie Falls M
6 Macquarie Street & Government House M
7 Elizabeth Street & Derwent Lighthouse M
8 Apple Shipping Hobart/Hobart Harbour U
9 Regatta, Hobart & Franklin Square & GPO M
10 Clematis Hut & St John's Church, Newtown M
11 Russell Falls & New Norfolk M/U
12 High St New Norfolk & Russell Falls M

The pictures are fairly run of the mill. I will try to find some in my (very disorganised) albums and I will uplaod scans. I decided too late that I had enough postcards to sort by publisher, and only a few albums are (so far) dedicated to publishers.

[Ross Ewington]

...thanks Patrick - I thought that you had something akin to the Spurling multi-panel cards from the same period.

What do you think of my suggestion that the numbers on your cards 69295 - 69318, 93316 - 93346, etc were used by
the printer(s) in Germany and not by McVilly & Little?

[Mike]

I thought that I might add my 2 bobs worth on the M & L cards.

I have quite a few of these cards, although not very attractive and the printing quality not the best, they are an interesting set(s) of cards. Most are numbered which certainly helps when collecting these cards. None of my M & L cards have the 5 or 6 digit numbers printed on them. Am I looking at the wrong cards? I have not seen the "double cards" either. A few scans of these cards would be worthwhile. I have not looked at the date range of used cards yet.

IS IT WORTHWHILE TO START A LISTING ? Say by number and type as I have listed below.

To sum up on my classification

(1) Title in red, black or white,
(2) Is 1910 in title?
(3) Position of card number, bottom left corner or or as a series number printed upright left side, or perhaps no number.

My classification is as follows. As usual there are always a few anomalies.

Type (A) The 1910 set.

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Title of card is printed in red ink. Always has 1910 in title. A few cards have title in white.
Card number is in bottom left corner.
My lowest number is 27. highest is 61. I am sure this range can be expanded greatly.

Cards without 1910 in title.

Type (B) Title is in black print, again a few are in white print.

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Card number is printed upright on left as a series number. See scan.
My numbers range from 2a to 71. (a) numbers are found.

Type (C) Title in red print. Card number is as per Type (B)

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only 1 card number 53.

Type (D) Title in red print. Have 1 in white print

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Card number is printed bottom left corner as per 1910 series.
My range is 88 to 102. 113 title is printed in white.

[Ross Ewington]

I have just opened a new topic for recording any information in print about McVilly & Little
and their postcards that members may be able to share.

http://tps.org.au/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=486#p2017

[Des_Beechey]

I am making my first foray into Tasmanian postcards by sorting out the few McVilly & Little cards I have. One of these is the 2-views card, no. 9 as listed by the Hobbitt123 on this topic. Do we know a date for these double view cards?
Des Beechey, Sydney

[Des_Beechey]

Here is another hypothesis for classicication of the McVilly & Little cards. It is based on the classification that Mike gave a while ago, with a couple of types added - specifically the types with printer registration number that Mike did not see.

This classification is made from the scans that MIke put up, as well as the half-dozen cards that I have. It excludes the 2-picture cards that are well listed by The Hobbitt.

I will be interested to see how it stands up when compared with a larger collection than mine.

TYPE A

Front: Title top left, title in red, font with descenders on caps.
Back: In red-brown:
At top: “Post Card ~ Tasmania.”/”For Communication only. For the Address Only.”
At left: “M. & L. Series. [Copyright] Printed in Saxony”
Bottom left: Card number eg 32
Stamp box: Dotted outline “Affix/Stamp”

The typeA back

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TYPE B

Front: Title top left in black, weak italics, no descenders on caps.
Back: In red-brown:
At top: “POST CARD”/”ADDRESS ONLY”
At left: “McV. & L. Series No. 21a Printed in Saxony”
Stamp box: Dotted outline, “AFFIX/STAMP/NGTT” or “NGTT/AFFIX/STAMP”

type B card back

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TYPE C

Front: Title top in red, no descenders on caps.
Back: In red-brown:
At top: “POST CARD”/”ADDRESS ONLY”
At left: “McV & L. Series no. 53 Printed in Saxony”
Stamp box: Dotted outline, “AFFIX/STAMP”

type C card back

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TYPE D

Front: Title bottom right, white upright caps
Back: In green:
At top: “POST CARD:/The Address to be written on this side/This space may be used for Correspondence/ within ...... 1d. rate Foreign,/charged ordinary letter rate”
At left: “Published by Mc. Villey [SIC!] & Little, Hobart, Tasmania”
Stamp box: Dotted. “Printed/in/Germany”
Bottom right: card number eg 69311

type D back

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Type E

This is the same as type D, except that the title on the front is in small, white, italic caps, and “McVilly” is spelt correctly on the back, ie without an “e”,

Front: Title bottom right, small white italic caps.
Back: In green:
At top: “POST CARD:/The Address to be written on this side/This space may be used for Correspondence/ within the ........ rate Foreign,/charged ordinary letter rate”
At left: “Published by Mc. Villy & Little, Hobart, Tasmania”
Stamp box: Dotted. “Printed/in/Germany”
Bottom right: card number eg 93323

type E back

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[Des_Beechey]

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[Geoff Dane]

The attachments show an image that was recycled by McVilley and Little for the different postcard printings (with the reverse of the postcard following the front view for series identification). As well as 1 version in colour, the young lad in the foreground has been added/deleted between printings. The card title (front) typeface is also quite different.

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[Des_Beechey]

I have set up a web site for putting Tasmanian post cards and their history on line, and would appreciate feedback and some assistance. I hope this web site can become a communal site for cataloguing Tasmanian postcards, not just my small collection. The site is at:

http://beecheyspostcardhistory.org.au

I have just started putting McVilly & Little cards onto the site, with just a dozen or so cards there..

I have organised the McVilly & Little cards into eight series, the first of which I am calling "Subscript "a" Series", as the card numbers all have a subscript "a". If you click on the button labelled "How to identify McVilly and Little cards" you can see how I have defined the eight series.

You will see I have only a small proportion of the Subscript "a" series cards on the site. This is where the assistance is need! If you have other cards of this series, you could assist in two ways:
1. By sending me scans of cards.
2. I haven't been able to establish the publication date of this series, so I would like to know postmark dates. If you have any with a clear postmark date, I would like to see them,

It is best to contact me by email. My email address is desbee[@] optushome.com.au.

Thanks

Des Beechey

[Des_Beechey]

I have two cards in a series of monochrome McVilly & Little cards that is quite unlike their other cards. Some of their other cards are monochrome, but they have 'Printed in Saxony' on them.

The characteristics are:
- Printed by halftone in black and white.
- Poor quality, fuzzy faint printing on fairly thin card.
- In the stamp box on the back it has "McV. and L. Series". None of their other series has this identification inside the stamp box.

There is no indication of when or where they were printed, or of a date.

Are there more of these cards? Any used examples with dates would be particularly interesting.

Example below.

Des Beechey

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[Des_Beechey]

Below is a McVilly & Little card of a style I haven't seen before - oval-shaped picture, pink surround, caption in green. I can't place this in any of the recognised series of M&L cards.

On the back the card has "M. & L. Series 16", so it seems to belong to the M&L Series. But the other cards in the M&L series are standard monochrome cards.

Are there other cards in this style - oval shape, pink surround, green caption ?

Des Beechey

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[Des_Beechey]

I now have an understanding of when each of the common series of McVilly and Little cards was printed, and who printed them. It turns out to be quite simple. The first four series were printed by C.G. Roder, of Leipzig, Saxony and the next three by Emil Pinkau of the same city.

Series 69,000..............C.G. Roder, Leipzig, Saxony.......1905
Series 93,000..............C.G. Roder, Leipzig, Saxony.......1906
Series 99,000..............C.G. Roder, Leipzig, Saxony.......1906
Series 133,000.............C.G. Roder, Leipzig, Saxony.......1907
M&L Series.................Emil Pinkau, Leipzig, Saxony.......1910
McV&L Series..............Emil PInkau, Leipzig, Saxony.......1911-1912
Subscript "a" Series........Emil Pinkau, Leipzig, Saxony.......1913-1914

The first four series, printed by C.G. Roder, have printers numbers on the back, at the bottom right. Example below:

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From 1910, McVilly & Little changed printer to Emil Pinkau, another printer in Leipzig, Saxony. For the first few series, Pinkau did not print their name or any identifying numbers on their cards, so identification of the printer was a bit harder.

The M&L series has "M. & L. Series Printed in Saxony" along the left margin at the back.and the card number at the back bottom left. An example:

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The McV&L Series has "McV & L Series No. xx Printed in Saxony" along the left margin of the back. An example:

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The Subscript "a" Series cards are so named because they have an "a" after the card number. The cards have, for example, "McV & L Series No. 17a" on the back along the left margin. The code NGTT appears in the stamp box. An Example:

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There are a few cards which I have not yet been able to place, such as those with oval pictures or those with titles in red or green caps. More examples are required for these.

[Ross Ewington]

Excellent research Des.... keep up the good work ....... I can see an article for The Courier in the making!

[Mike]

An advertisement for McVilly and Little, Red Arcade, Liverpool Street on the side of the SS Kangaroo. Real Photo by W.S.Little.

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[RMA179]

Updating the Roder card number ranges:

69295 to 69319 (25+ cards)

93314 to 93346 (33+ cards)

99247 to 99300 (54+ cards)

133569 to 133601 (33+ cards)

Also another shorter series:

93585 to 93587 (3+ cards)

[RMA179]

VARIOUS OTHER NUMBERED SERIES SEEN:

Colour views in embossed white "frames" and the same views in full picture B&W Nos. 1 to 14. (many other views of the colour types in embossed white "frames" seen without any card numbering).

"A HANDFUL OF TASMANIA" SERIES (views within map of Tas.). Nos 10, 13 & 15 seen in B&W. Many others seen without numbers, some views (if not all) exist in both B&W & colour.

M & L, Nos. 1 to 9+ (HARDING & BILLING printed backs)

McV. & L. Series: Nos. 1 to 12 (dual sepia views "set"); Nos. 1a to 21a+ (colour views); Nos. 28 to 85 (mostly colour views but some are B&W; B&W views with the same no. as colour views may be a different view, e.g. No. 34 colour is "Apple Shipping, Hobart, Tas." whereas No.34 B&W is Wellington Falls, Hobart, Tas.)

M. & L. Series: Nos. 1 to 115. Initially only B&W views, then same no. given to both B&W and colour views (but different views until from card no. 32 where both B&W & colour are of the same views mostly). Colour view no.12 probably had the wrong card no. printed. There are 2 different B&W views numbered 36 so one of them may be a printing error of the card number. Colour views appear to be more common than the B&W views. No. 61 is the highest numbered B&W view seen. A block of 6 cards (nos. 62 to 67) has not been seen (possibly a set of 6 cards without any series or card nos. printed on the back). Nos. 68-79 is a "set" of 12 map cards with nos. only printed on back (no M&L Series) but have W.J.L. SERIES on the front. Nos. 80-85 is a "set" of 6 Hands-across-the-sea map cards. At least 2 other B&W M. & L. Series cards have been seen that are missing card nos. on the back, and several other M. & L. Series cards of the oval picture types of Kingston & Hobart Views (late 10s to mid 20s numbers) have also been seen without any numbers printed on back.