The History of Saucy Seaside Postcards!
The entry below is a synopsis of our speakers talk on 5th Feburary 2025
A very interesting presentation this week by Mr Michael Gatherar this week about “History of Saucy Seaside Postcards!”.
Michael started by saying that in1869 the GPO started issuing post cards by which English Service men could communicate to their family’s at home, the problem was that it could only be written on one side of the card as the other side was used to encode the sending to receiving information. When the postal system changed (the card was divided into what we have today) and the other side could have photos or graphic text or photos on it.
The Yorkshire-based publisher Bamforth & Co started producing 'saucy' postcards in 1910. These cheeky designs became synonymous with the English seaside resorts where they were sold, but were exported all over the world.
After WW2, Bamforth artists began to satirise the classic comic archetypes that still resonate today, henpecked husbands, naughty nurses and randy milkmen.
The Bamforth Collection celebrated the golden age of these comic gems with a selection of more than 250 cards originally published from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, in one year more than 1 million cards were sold.
Contemporary concerns ranging from the contraceptive pill to the Space Race also received the irreverent Bamforth treatment, and the battles with the postcard censorship committees that resulted in almost 150 prosecutions.
Questions followed to conclude the presentation.
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