Erin in a horseshoe

Published by Raphael Tuck and Sons, Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen. Processed in Saxony.

Raphael Tuck & Sons, publishers from the mid 1800's into the early 20th Century.  Raphael Tuck & Sons were proudly known to be the Publishers to Her [sic] Majesties the King and Queen, with printing houses in London, Paris and New York.

They began in London, England in 1866, selling pictures and frames.  Raphael Tuck was joined by his three sons in 1871 and published their first Christmas greeting card.

In 1893 they were granted a Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria. . . .

They entered the postcard market in the United States in 1900 with an office in New York.   American artists designed many of the postcards, but the cards were printed in Europe (Germany, Saxony, England) and then returned to the states for sale.

Unfortunately, like many other postcard printers and manufacturers of their time, the history, records, original paintings and postcards of Raphael Tuck & Sons were destroyed during the bombing blitz of London during World War II.

I think this particular card was purchased in Ireland and sent to the US inside a letter. (The mother of John Jameson lived in Ireland and frequently sent postcards to John and his wife Laura, my maternal grandmother's oldest sister.)

Notice there's no little missing chunk from the top of the map, as there is in a modern version, where Northern Ireland is represented as part of the UK. (Of course it was ALL part of the UK back then; the Irish Free State was declared in 1922, and the card is pre-WWI.)

Do you have any further information this postcard -- including historical details about the images, etc.? Put it in the comments, please!

Anyone may feel free to use cards from my turn-of-the-century postcard collection as long as they remember to credit me (Gail Hapke) and Scribal Terror as the source.

Comments

[joanna]

That's a beautiful card, Gail. Too bad the Irish weren't treated as well as the cardmaker of Queen Victoria!

[Pixie]

Well... the shamrock of course - represented the triad prior to the Christianization of Ireland, and was then used to represent the trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit. That's why I could never understand the whole 4-leaf clover dealio. I recently learned the 4-leaf clover represents hope, faith, love, and happiness.

:)

[MC]

And a lucky horse shoe to ya!

[ellis]

please can anybody find and let me know of any remaining photo's of raphael tuck, he was my great great grandfather and i dearly would love to have some photo's to show my children. we have the stories handed down from my nan to my mum and down to me but photo's would complete it. please please let me know. thank you. ellie.