Directory D

Charles Daferner

Galveston, Texas, USA

• Chas. Daferner, Publisher, Galveston, Texas.

Charles Daferner, publisher, stationer and bookstore-owner, Galveston, Texas was born about 1872 in Germany. In 1940, he was 68 years old and living in Galveston with his wife, Theresa, and son Charles A. Daferner published local topographicals which W.A & Co., H.E. printed as private mailing cards in Germany. Later, Daferner had divided-back postcards stone-lithographed in Germany. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, N.Y. printed Daferner’s Souvenir of Galveston, Texas…The Sea Wall City book of photo-gravures. In 1917 Congressman Daniel E. Garrett, entered into the Congressional Record dozens of telegrams and letters he received from his constituents, both for and against conscription. One of them was a telegram in favour of conscription from Daferner.

Source: Galveston postcard oddyssey

George Dahl, Molde, Norway

• H. George Dahl

Hans George Dahl (2 November 1856 to 30 September 1940), bookshop owner, Molde, Norway. Dahl’s brothers Hermann and Eilert were both photographers. Hermann’s first studio in August 1889 was in Dahl’s garden. Dahl published photocards into the divided back era. The brothers are all pictured in 1911 at a celebration of Eilert’s silver wedding.

Source: Romsdalsmuseet

Emilio d’Amico, Tunis

• Em. d’Amico, editeur Tunis
• D’AMICO, Libraire, 15, Avenue de France. – Tunis

Emilio d’Amico, bookseller and publisher, 15 Avenue de France, Tunis. Italian d’Amico’s bookshop on the Avenue de France was at the heart of the substantial publishing fraternity of the Tunisian capital and from here he worked with Neurdein brothers (qv) and distributed the work of many others. In December 1890 d’Amico was elected treasurer of The International Voluntary Relief Society La Croix-Bleue of La Goulette, the port of Tunis.

Sources: Vues de Tunis; The Tunisian Dispatch 5 January 1900

David Allen & Sons Limited

Harrow, Middlesex, England

• DRIVEN FROM HOME DAVID ALLEN & SONS LTD

David Allen & Sons, a printing and publishing firm formed in 1857. They published cards advertising theatrical productions, some of which, like this one, appear to be reproductions of their billboards. Billposting became a big part of their business.

In anticipation of the building of a cinema on his land, Mr King contracted with David Allen & Sons Limited on 1 July 1913 giving their subsidiary David Allen & Sons Billposting Ltd the right of posting their bills for advertising purposes for four years on a particular wall. However, King then leased that land, and his lessees refused to make good the promise in regard to advertisement. Allen sued in a case that went to the House of Lords judicial committee who held that the licence was not enforceable against the new tenant and King was liable for breach of contract

Driven From Home by Gilbert Hastings Macdermott, (27 February 1845 to 8 May 1901), music-hall singer, actor and playwright.

Macdermott served in his youth in the Royal Navy. As ‘Gilbert Hastings’ he made his first appearance on the stage in 1869 in Dover. A few months later he went to London, making his first appearance as ‘G. H. Macdermott’ at the Oriental Theatre, Poplar. Among his melodramas produced in London were The Headsman’s Axe at the Grecian Theatre (1870), Driven from Home at the Grecian (1871), The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Brought to Book (1876), both produced at the Britannia, and Racing (1887), at the Grand Theatre, Islington.
Meanwhile, in 1873, Macdermott made his first appearance at the London Pavilion music-hall, singing The Scamp the first of a highly successful series of comic songs.

Early in 1878, when political excitement in England over the Russo-Turkish war ran high, and Lord Beaconsfield, the Prime Minister, sent a British fleet into Turkish waters to resist the advance of Russia, Macdermott leapt into universal fame by his singing of a song written and composed by George William Hunt (1829 to 1904):

⁠We don’t want to fight.
⁠But by Jingo, if we do,
⁠We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men,
⁠We’ve got the money too

At Macdermott’s instigation, this became the watchword of the popular supporters of Britain’s bellicose policy and the words jingo and jingoism passed permanently into the English language.

The Great Macdermott was of fine stature and commanding presence, and possessed a powerful if unmelodious voice. He was practically the last of the lion comiques of the English music-hall, resplendent in evening dress with a vast expanse of shirt-front. In his later years Macdermott performed in dramatic sketches at music-halls, making a hit in Our Lads in Red. His last appearances were at the London Pavilion and Tivoli music-hall in 1894. Subsequently, he was proprietor and managing director of several music-halls.

Driven From Home was first produced at the Grecian Theatre on 31 July 1871. Laura Raybrook is driven from home by her father, out into the snow, for marrying a man of whom he disapproves. It was expanded and produced at the Grand Theatre in Birmingham on 10 October 1884 and then at the Pavilion Theatre on 14 June 1886. It was adapted by one of the Melville brothers around 1900.

Sources: [1916] UKHL 1 (14 February 1916); Dictionary of National Biography

Joseph Alexandrovich Daziaro, Moscow

Почтовая карточка Издательство Дациаро

• IDM 1827 Т-во Р. Голике и А. Вильборгь СГ. Б., ЗВЕНИГОРОДСКАЯ 11

Joseph Alexandrovich Daziaro (born 1844) art publisher and owner of a famous book store on the Kuznetsky Most, Moscow. Of Italian family, Daziaro was a merchant of the 2nd guild, trading in paintings, lithographs, art supplies and stationery in a business established in 1827. Merchants of the 2nd guild were allowed domestic (as opposed to international) trade and to own factories and river vessels. They had the right to ride barouches drawn by two horses and to be burgomasters. A photo of the Grand Duchess Alexandra Josefovna, (1830 to 1911) identifies Daziaro as its photographer and he also took informal photographs of the family of Tsar Nicholas II.

Daziaro published reproductions of artworks as postcards into the divided-back era. His divided-backs included topographicals of Moscow. This card was printed by Golike & Wilburg (qv) of St Petersburg.

Kuznetsky Most is a street of fashion and expensive shopping in central Moscow. It runs from Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street to Lubyanka Street.

J. D’Auria, Cairo, Egypt

• J. D’Auria Editeur Le Caire Egypte.

J. D’Auria, publisher, Cairo published a short series of numbered cards of drawings by S Poliaroli of ancient Egyptian tomb art.

Gustave Dautez, Gibraltar

• G. Dautez. – Gibraltar

Gustave Dautez, (1840 to 1902) was a French botanist and photographer with a studio in City Mill Lane, Gibraltar as early as the 1860s. Dautez held a warrant as photographer to HRH Duke of Edinburgh, a title Queen Victoria conferred on her second son, Prince Alfred, on 24 May 1866. Dautez’s photographs were produced as cards by Hauser and Menet (qv) more than once labelled in misspelt English.

Sources: The People of Gibraltar; wikipedia

Davidson Brothers, London

• DAVIDSON BROS’. PICTORIAL POST CARDS.
• DAVIDSON BROTHERS’ PICTURE POST CARDS

Davidson Brothers of Basterfield Street, London were publishers of Christmas and postcards. In February 1902 Hirsch Davidson registered a distinctive trade mark of a globe surmounted by a painter’s palette. However, as many of the undivided-backs issued by them had neither number nor the logo, the date when they first issued postcards is unclear. My cards were postally used in 1903 but there is a record of a postmark of 4 November 1901.

Davidsons have a unique place in postcard history for their pioneering humorous and satirical publishing. They engaged a roll call of the leading cartoonists of the day. Byatt highlights that the arrangements with these artists were not with Davidsons but with Tom Browne & Co (qv) of Nottingham. Browne’s relationship with the company is unclear but the demise of the London company in 1910 occurred in the same year as Browne died.

Their Write Away and Illustrated Songs series were printed in Bavaria the latter featuring cartoons punning on popular song titles. My cards of the Theatrical Series have photos by Lafayette (qv). One of their later cards is an early picture of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby players.

Sources: Byatt page 64; National Library of New Zealand; Picture Postcard Annual 2020

Ludwig Decker

Rolandseck, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

• Luftkurort Rolandseck am Rhein

Although this card bears to promote the Climatic health resort at Rolandseck, the photograph is of buildings labelled Hotel Belle vue.

Carl Billau opened the newly built Hotel Billau on 13 April 1856 on the steamship dock beside the railway station building. It is listed around 1879 under “Guest Houses” in Grieben’s travel library no. 75 – Small guide for the Rhine journey from Cologne to Mannheim-Heidelberg. About 1900 it was bought by Ludwig Decker who changed the name to Rheingold Bellevue. In the main season, 18 employees supported the operation of the hotel with its eight double and eight single rooms and a beer pavilion in the garden. Decker’s son, also Ludwig, added a dance hall, which last opened for two seasons in the 1950s. The great location was both a blessing and a curse; The large hotel kitchen was flooded every time there was a flood. In 1926 Ludwig junior crossed the terrace hall in a paddle boat. The place was in ruins in 2017.

At 9.8 by 14.1 cm, this card is unusually large for its time. Later, Hotel Rheingold Bellevue published divided backs.

This card has some lines by German poet Hermann Grieben (8 February 1822 to 24 September 1890). As the son of the local grammar school sub-rector in Köslin in Pomerania, Grieben enjoyed the privilege of being his father’s pupil for many years. From 1841 to 1845 he studied theology, philosophy, history and literature at the University of Breslau. At the end of his studies he received his doctorate in philosophy with a work on Dante’s poetry. Politics and poetry were the themes of his life while journalism was his work and hiking his recreation.  He headed the Ostsee-Zeitung in Stettin from 1850, the Lübeckische Zeitung in Lübeck from 1852, then returned to Stettin to found the Pommersche Zeitung in 1853. From 1859 Grieben was on the editorial staff of the Kölnische Zeitung. His poetic output was huge, the (1884) third edition of Rhenish Wanderlieder and other poems extended to 352 pages. He doesn’t seem to have any link to the travel guides of the same name.

Sources: Kreisverwaltung Ahrweiler; Ein Ort verdichteter Sehnsucht

Théo De Graeve, Ghent, Belgium

• Heliotypie De Graeve, Gand

Théo De Graeve was photographer who immersed himself in the reproduction of his photographs and became a master of collotype printing. We can rank him as the emperor of the Belgian view card. De Graeve owed his success to the fact that the customer could order viewcards in limited editions, even single cards.

Source: Beste verzamelaar

Dégringolade Grand Bazaar

Geneva, Switzerland

• A la Dégringolade Grand Bazar Genève H.G. & Co. Z.
• A la Dégringolade Grand Bazar Genève. – Immense choix de cartes postales illustrees.

The Tumble Grand Bazaar, Geneva retailed a huge choice of illustrated postcards including a series cards featuring regional Swiss costumes produced for them by H. Guggenheim & Company (qv) of Zurich.

In the divided-back era, their cards also mentioned Societe Suisse des GALLERIES MODERNES.

W de Haan, Utrecht, Netherlands

• W. de Haan, Utrecht
• Uitg W DE HAAN Utrecht
• Uitg. Blankwaardt & Schoonhoven. ‘s Hage, en W. de Haan, Utrecht
• Uitgave v. W. de Haan, Utrecht.

W. de Haan, publisher (Uitgeverij), Utrecht published artist-drawn cards of traditional Dutch costumes by H. Cassiers (qv) and others and night-time views of Utrecht some of which bear to have been printed by Morks & Geuze of Dordrecht (qv). De Haan also published children’s books into the second half of the twentieth century. In 1906 Belgian artist Marie “Rie” Cramer moved her studio to be close to de Haan in Utrecht. He was enthusiastic and made it possible for her to publish her first self-illustrated book of verse, Of Girls and Boys late in 1906. In 1940 de Haan published the first Dutch novel by an Indonesian author. De Haan Books still trade, mostly in religious books.

Sources: The McClintock Letter The official quarterly newsletter of the South Jersey Postcard Club December 2011; Indische Letteren. Jaargang 1; De Haan Boeken

This card: Hugh Young Arnott (born 17 May 1865) graduated from Glasgow University M.A. 1890, B.D. 1893. He was Church of Scotland Minister of Newburgh from 1895. Newburgh is directly across the Firth of Tay from Dundee in Scotland. This is one a large number of cards he sent his daughters Misses E and JM Arnott when he and his wife undertook a tour of Germany and neighbouring countries in the Summer of 1903. A number of the cards are featured throughout this directory. Before 1908 Mr Arnott acted as Chaplain to the 6th (Fifeshire) Volunteer Battalion. On 1 April 1908 he was appointed Second Class Chaplain to the Territorial Force, ranking as Lieutenant-Colonel, in the Volunteer Force, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

Delittle, Fenwick & Company,

York, England

• Delittle, Fenwick & Co., York, England

Delittle, Fenwick & Company, York, published books and pamphlets in the 1890s under the name Delittle and Sons of 6 Railway Street and in the early 20^th century under their later name. William Delittle and John Fenwick formed the company in 1903 and, from the start, designed and printed their own cards. Premises additional to the Railway Street ones had to be obtained as early as 1904. They published divided-back cards in their D F & Co and Defco Series. These included comic cards and moonlight views. In 1910 they advertised as owners of the Yorkshire Chronicle and Delittle’s York Advertiser which was distributed free to nearly all but the very poorest houses in the city.

Sources: Picture Postcards and their Publishers Anthony Byatt (1978 Golden Age Postcard Books) page 84; Grace’s Guide

Deller’s Supply Stores,

Paignton, Devon, England

• Deller’s Series

Deller’s Supply Stores was a high quality grocery firm at Paignton, on the South Devon coast. In 1868, a 20 year old Ipplepen man called William Lambshead was employed to manage the Deller’s grocery store in Winner Street. He married the owner’s daughter Elizabeth Ann, giving him the opportunity to expand the business into other areas. A prominent Methodist, Lambshead, along with other similar-minded entrepreneurs, was largely responsible for the expansion of Paignton town centre around the site of Lloyds Bank and Palace Avenue. He was also chairman of the committee that built Venford reservoir to supply water to Torbay and was instrumental in introducing electricity to Paignton. In 1893, under Lambshead’s management, Deller’s Supply Stores Limited were at Palace Avenue, Winner Street and Torbay Road, Paignton. Architect Henry Hyams, of Hyams and Hobgen architectural practice in Paignton, created imposing seaside cafés for Deller’s in Paignton and Exeter. Deller’s Supply Stores Limited was wound up in February 1933 upon the sale of the business to Cadena Cafes Limited. Deller’s Series were un-numbered monochrome photo-cards of local sights.

Sources: Leisurely consumption, the legacy of European cafes Paul Cleave International Review of Social Research 2017; 7(1): 31–45; Exeter Memories; London Gazette 7 March 1933.

de Loma, Gijon, Asturias, Spain

• Imp. y lib. de LOMA.

de Loma, printer and publisher, Gijon, in northern Spain published topographicals local to Gijon. His undivided-backs were small images in black outlines with most of the space for messages. Before the era finished, the business passed to de Loma’s widow.

Giuseppe Del Taglia

San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy

• Giuseppe Del Taglia, San Gimignano – Fot. Alinari

Giuseppe Del Taglia, book shop and stationers, San Gimignano published local photocards of the work of Brogi (qv) and Alinari (qv) into the divided-back era.

De Luca & Company, Naples, Italy

• De Luca & C. Napoli
• De Luca e C. Napoli
• De Luca, Gentile e C. Napoli
• ED. G. DE LUCA

F. De Luca Gentile & Company of Naples, typographers, printed shares in railway companies as well as local topographical photocards into the divided-back era.

F. B. den Boer Company, Middelburg, Netherlands

• Uitg. F. B. den Boer

F. B. den Boer Company, Middelburg, founded in 1868 by François Berrier den Boer (1843 to 1922). In 1896 the company was trading in artists’ equipment and music and, later, art was added. A printing and publishing business operated in the St. Pieterstraat under the name GW den Boer from the beginning of 1918. FB den Boer Jr. followed GW den Boer at the end of 1929. Middelburg is a city and municipality in the south-western Netherlands serving as the capital of the province of Zeeland.

Source: Encyclopedie van Zeeland Brabants dorps leven

Mrs Dencher,

Pasuruan, Java, Indonesia

• Uitgave Toko Mevrouw Dencher, Pasoeroean

Mrs Dencher’s Store, Pasuruan, Java.

• Uitgave – edition in Dutch
• Toko – store in Indonesia
• Mevrouw – Mrs in Dutch
• Pasoeroean – Pasuruan (Dutch: Pasoeroean) is a city of East Java, Java, Indonesia – Dutch East Indies at the time.

E T W Dennis

Scarborough, Yorkshire, England

• E.T.W.D.
• E.T.W.D. G.E. Over
• E.T.W.D. C. THWAITES, DURHAM

E T W Dennis of Scarborough is credited with having published the first commercial British picture post card in 1894. His firm, founded in 1870, had a long and distinguished career as a printer and publisher, which effectively ended in June 2000, when the firm went into liquidation. In the 1883 Dennis Guide to Scarborough a full page was given to photographs for sale, for all GB locations. Photographs with ETWD on them denote his copyright ownership. Given this photo trade background, it was natural for Dennis to take up postcards, when they started in 1894 and Picture Postcard Annual 2020 recorded a view of Scarborough postmarked on 15 September. Dennis greatly expanded the printing side of the business to such an extent that he needed new, larger premises. Printing became his firm’s major occupation. Some of my cards of South Africa have most of the Dennis initials, pointing to a wider geographical reach than one would have supposed. Closer-by, he produced cards for J R Russell of Edinburgh (qv), Thwaites of Durham (qv) and G E Over of Rugby (qv). Dennis’s printworks on Vernon Road in Scarborough were demolished in 2013. Before 1918 Dennis published a series of Giant View Cards, a massive 12.4 by 9 inches.

Sources: ETW Dennis

Dennis & Holloway

Scarborough, England

• Dennis & Holloway, Scarborough

Dennis & Holloway, The Bar Library and Spa Bookstall, Scarborough. Frederick Gregory West Dennis (born 1850) who was the younger brother of of E T W Dennis, (above) and Albert Holloway. The firm issued court size picture postcards of Scarborough between about 1898 and 1900. These cards were printed by ETWD. They went on to publish undivided-backs of Yorkshire more widely in the standard size and divided-backs in the Dainty Series. They also had cards specially published by Tucks in their Art Rapholette Glosso series. Their description as Heraldic Stationers may indicate they were members of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers.

Source: heraldry wiki; Webber Postcard

Dennison Manufacturing Company, Maine, USA

• Dennison’s CHRISTMAS POST CARD

In 1844 Andrew Dennison left the shoemaking trade because of increased competition and mechanisation. Dennison Manufacturing Company, Maine and Massachusetts, USA were manufacturers of boxes for jewellers from the 1840s. In the 1870s, by this time based in Boston, they began to import tissue paper for retailers and soon sold it to the public as wrapping paper with booklets on how to wrap presents. This extended to the other things used in wrapping, in due course decorated with Christmas themes making them pioneers in the seasonal trade. This extended to Christmas postcards in the undivided back era – one of mine is postmarked December 1906. Later The company was in the forefront of the corporate welfarism movement. In 1915 Dennison Manufacturing became the first company in the U.S. to set up a permanent unemployment insurance program, paying 80% to those laid off with dependents and 60% to those without on terms which fully included women workers.

Sources: Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890-1943 Patrick D. Reagan Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1999; Christmas: A Biography Judith Flanders, Pan Macmillan, 1 Nov 2018; The Dennison Manufacturing Company: An Introduction To The Company, Its Most Influential President And Its Archive Gloria Vollmers, University of Maine Accounting Historians Notebook, 1998, Vol. 21, no. 1 (April), pp. 12-13, 35-40

Felix De Ruyter

Huy, Liege, Belgium

• Edition F. De Ruyter, No. 664, Verborg- Van de Vyvere.

Felix De Ruyter (1868 to 1931) bookseller and publisher of picture postcards at 18 Rue Fouarge, Huy betweeen 1899 and 1914.

De Ruyter published cards of Flemish cities. He looked for photographers to work with him in the cities he wanted to publish cards of. In Kortrijk that was August Ruys (born 1853). In 1890, Ruys established himself as a photographer at 31 Vrouwstraat with his wife Marie-Louise Morel. He usually signed his photos as A. Ruys-Morel,

Ruys took portraits and cityscapes including demolition and construction works; During the construction of the new Noord or Gerechtshof bridge in 1891-92 and the first Groeninge bridge in 1895, he took photographs of the works and progress which he published afterwards in a bulky album. In 1899 he also made an album of the demolition of the houses around the Halletoren. He recorded special events, for example, in 1894, he took a number of photographs of the flooding of the Leie in the city and the surrounding areas. Around 1899, de Ruyter published four of Ruys’ photographs of the flood as postcards.

De Ruyter was still a bookseller at no. 20 when he died. He is buried in the Cimetiere de la Buissiere at Huy.

Sources: Directory of Belgian Photographers; Kortrijk Postcards

M. De Torres, Lourdes, France

• D.T. Edit. Lourdes
• D.T., Editeur,

Photographer and publisher in Lourdes. De Torres published a large number of postcards throughout the department of Hautes-Pyrénées and neighbouring departments: Basses-Pyrenees in the West and Haute-Garonne in the East. They are carefully numbered. Almost all his cards are undivided-back, indicating that he stopped publishing soon after divided backs came in in France in 1903³⁹. He also published a hardback album containing 12 photographs of Lourdes.

CParama has a very comprehensive list of this publisher’s cards.

Detroit News Company

• Published by The Detroit News Company, Detroit, Mich.-Leipzig-Berlin

Detroit News Company. The Detroit News is one of the two major newspapers in Detroit The paper began in 1873, when James M Scripps rented space in the rival Detroit Free Press‘s building. Joseph A. Marsh established The Detroit News Company in 1876, an entirely different company of confusingly similar name which was part of the American News Corporation of New York. It seems likely that the latter business published postcards. Marsh’s company were wholesalers of books, periodicals, stationery and business supplies. In 1897 the manager was German-born Erhard Charles in whose time the business was described as wholesale booksellers, stationers and news dealers. Topographical photo-cards bearing the company name were published into the divided-back era.

Sources: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Detroit Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis Chicago A. N. Marquis & Company 1908; The Detroit Wolverines: The Rise and Wreck of a National League Champion, 1881–1888 Brian Martin McFarland, 28 Nov 2017 page 99; wikipedia

Detroit Publishing Company, Detroit, Michigan, USA

• DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHIC CO.
• DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHIC CO., PUBLISHERS
• DETROIT PUBLISHING CO.
• Detroit Publishing Co.
• artist’s palette containing a year between 1898 and 1905 COPYRIGHT BY DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHIC CO.

The Detroit Publishing Company, 1880’s to 1936, Detroit. Originally a printer of religious books and calendars, the Detroit Photographic Company Ltd shifted production in 1897 when owners William A. Livingstone and Edwin H. Husher saw the potential in postcards. After negotiations with Orell Fussli, Detroit became the sole American company to license the Swiss photochrom process, which they would eventually register in 1907 under the name Phostint. In addition, they also distributed Swiss made prints for Fussli in America. When the well-known Western photographer William Henry Jackson joined the company as a partner, he added his thousands of negatives to Livingstone’s collection of Great Lakes imagery and Husher’s photos of California. All this provided a strong foundation to start publishing postcards. Jackson travelled around the United States taking many additional pictures until 1903 when he took over the management of Detroit’s factory. By 1904, as postcards sales increased to seven million per year, they changed their name to the Detroit Publishing Company⁴⁴. Most of the Detroit Photographic Co cards precede that wording with COPYRIGHT, and a year between 1898 and 1905, a practice that the Detroit Publishing Co continued. More of their cards here.

Source: Library of Congress

Deutschen Vereins-Druckerei

Graz, Austria

• Deutschen Vereins-Druckerei, Graz

The Associated German Printing Company, Graz were publishers of the Grazer Tagblatt newspaper and its offices featured in the first postcard they published. The Grazer Tagblatt was an Austrian newspaper that appeared in Graz between 1891 and 1919. From 1897 it was the newspaper of the German People’s Party for the Alpine countries. Politically, the paper was associated with the Greater German camp which favoured close ties with Germany, which it viewed as the nation-state for all ethnic Germans, and the possibility of the incorporation of Austria into a Greater Germany.

Source: Druckmuseum Graz

A. Devaux, Paris

• Devaux Paris

A. Devaux of Paris published topographical photocards of Sicily for the Italian market and cards of France into the divided-back era. In 1906 Devaux built Le Prismac, a fairly early rollfilm stereo camera to the designs of Deloye which was marketed under the name Devaux & Deloye⁴⁶.

Source: The Illustrated History Of The Camera From 1839 To The Present Michel Auer, New York Graphic Society, Boston 1975

This card: The Cathedral of Monreale is a church in Monreale, Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. One of the greatest existing examples of Norman architecture, it was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral. Since 2015 it has been part of the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale UNESCO Heritage site. The church is 102 meters long and 40 meters wide, a national monument of Italy and one of the most important attractions of Sicily.

Deyring-Honnest, London.

• Deyring-Honnest London.

Deyring-Honnest, London, publishers of real photographic cards of London. A July 1903 copyright agreement for a photograph of The Royal Exchange in London named Max Redlich, formerly of 314 Goswell Road but now of 63 High Holborn, London as a partner in the firm of Deyring Honnest. The other party to the agreement was Paul Georges Huardel (qv). In 1903 they advertised as continental advertising agents. Another of their cards here.

Source: National Archives

The Diamond Post Card Company, New York

• THE DIAMOND POST CARD CO., N.Y.

The Diamond Post Card Company published a number of photo and illustrated cards of Coney Island. The July-Dec 1906 Catalog of Copyright Entries, Engravings, Prints Etc. Fine Arts New Series Vol 1 Part 4 shows Greeting from Dreamland registered by them. There were also Diamond Post Card Companies in Philadelphia and Chicago and it is not clear whether they were connected with the New York business.

Michael Zeno Diemer

• M. Zeno Diemer/Mchn signature in corner of painting

Michael Zeno Diemer, (8 February 1867 to 28 February 1939) German artist. Diemer became known for his impressive battle scenes. He spent six months of 1894 in Innsbruck producing a 1,000-m² giant round painting depicting the Battle of Bergisel of 13 August 1809. In Munich his paintings included a representation of a Roman aqueduct for the department of hydraulic engineering, an ideal image of a medieval herb garden and the landing of the Zeppelins in Munich in 1909. Diemer’s postcards included depictions of airships as well as topographicals. He also worked as a musician and composer. In 1893 he travelled to New York, where he created a diorama for the World’s Fair in Chicago with Beatus Wieland. My card of a painting of Braunschweig was published by Ottmar Zieher (qv).

Sources: wikipedia; askART

Dietrich & Company

Brussels, Belgium

• DIETRICH & Co. BRUXELLES

Dietrich & Company, 59 Montagne de la Cour, Brussels. An extravagantly art nouveau letter head in use in 1900, gives their business as art bookstore and publishers dealing in engravings, watercolours & photographs. They published a series of paintings of Dutch traditional costumes by Flemish artist Henri Cassiers (qv) and the art nouveau artist Gisbert Combaz.

H. C. Digby, Eltham, London

• H. C. Digby, Eltham

Henry Charles Digby, printer and publisher, 31 High Street, Eltham, London, E9. Digby published the second annual volume of Pictures and their Value (10s. 6d. Net) which gave a record of the prices realised at the picture sales conducted at the principal London sale rooms during the season 1906 — 7. In 1908 International Studio noted in its review: The faulty sequence of names in the alphabetical list of painters, of which several instances occur, is a serious blemish in a work of this kind. The first edition had been published by Turner and Robinson, also printers in Eltham (6s. net). Digby also took over the 1907 edition of Turner and Robinson’s Directory of Eltham and published it until 1915.

Further Reading: chorltonhistory.blogspot

This card: Eltham is a district of southeast London within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, 8.7 miles (14.0 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross.
From the 14th to the 16th century Eltham Palace was an important royal palace, where monarchs often stayed and hunted in the surrounding parks. A highlight was the medieval hall with its magnificent hammerbeam roof and moated garden. After centuries of neglect, Eltham was leased to Stephen and Virginia Courtauld in 1933. They built an up-to-the-minute house that incorporated the great hall. The result was a masterpiece of 20th-century design which this card predates.

Paul Dittrich, Cairo

• Phot. Dittrich

Paul Dittrich (11 November 1868, Vienna to 30 December 1939, Salzburg) was an Austrian photographer who established himself in Egypt in 1894. He succeeded Ignaz Heyman at Heyman’s studio in Cairo. Dittrich was one of the photographers to the Court of Egypt. American journalist Amédée Baillot de Guerville refers to him in the 1905 book New Egypt:

“To those in Cairo I can thoroughly recommend either M. Lekégian or P. Dittrich, photographer to the Court. The latter has a wonderful collection of portraits, admirably done, of all the more important persons. His rooms are a real museum of all the celebrities, masculine and feminine, whom Cairo has known in the last five-and-twenty years.⁵³“

Like Lekégian, Dittrich’s photographs were published as cards by Comptoir Philatelique d’Egypte (qv).

Source: wikipedia

Divald Károly, Budapest

• Divald Karoly, Budapest.

Divald Karoly, (2 November 1830 to 7 November 1897) photographer, pharmacist, cave photographer. Divald fought in the unsuccessful Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-49. After the war he took a pharmacy course in Vienna and had a pharmacy in Bardejov (now in Slovakia) for 6 years. Three of his five children (Lajos, Károly Jr. and Adolf) become photographers. His wife died young, after which Divald married her sister with whom he had five more children. Divald established a studio in nearby Prešov in 1863. Having studied it in Munich, Divald set up the first Hungarian photographic printing operation in 1878, reproducing his images by light printing.  Divald was one of the first pioneers in this field. He later moved to Budapest where, by 1885 he had 18 employees. His photographs of Budapest are a valuable record of his time.

Divald was a methodical photographer of the Tatras Mountains . Through decades of work, he captured almost every peak, valley, lake, stream, waterfall, sea, building, and resort. He was the first to photograph Hungarian landscapes and caves systematically.  He published his most beautiful and successful pictures into albums. His first photo album was published in 1873 about the High Tatras. He gradually passed on his business to his sons, the principal postcard publishers of his work. His images were distributed in millions of postcards.

Sources: Divald Károly (wikipedia); Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography John Hannavy Routledge, 16 Dec 2013.

This Card: The Budapest Castle Hill Tunnel is a 350 metre long tunnel connecting the Buda end of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge (Clark Ádám Square) with Krisztinaváros. It was constructed between 1853 and 1857 according to the plans of Scottish engineer Adam Clark ( 14 August 1811 to 23 June 1866).

Dixon & Company, London, SE

• PRINTED IN DRESDEN FOR DIXON & CO., 184 NORWOOD ROAD, S.E. in oval in corner of photograph

Dixon & Company, publishers, were established at the Post and Telegraph Office in Norwood Road. They published topographicals into the divided-back era when their address was The Post Office, Stationery Stores, 184 and 186 Norwood Road. In 1897 Messrs. Dixon reprinted a little meditation headed In Norwood Cemetery.

Dobbs Kidd & Company, London

• D. K. & Co., L.

Dobbs & Co was founded by Henry Dobbs in 1803 and had, by the middle of the nineteenth century, become one of the leading manufacturers of embossed, ornamental and illustrated cards, writing paper envelopes and valentines. Throughout the 19th century Dobbs traded in a series of partnerships: H. Dobbs & Co (from 1803); Dobbs (after 1810); Dobbs Patent (c. 1820 to1838); H. Dobbs & Co. (from 1838); Dobbs, Bailey & Co. (from 1845 to 46) and finally Dobbs, Kidd & Co. (1851 to 1906 when the firm was bought by the Sandle Brothers Manufacturing Stationers of Paternoster Row).

In the 1830s, paper duty at 1½d per pound was one of the “taxes on knowledge”. In 1853, the business was one of a number to respond to queries about the tax in the Journal of the Society of Arts, reporting no adverse consequences from the tax.

In 1884 they were wholesale ornamental and general export stationers, envelope, card and pencil makers, perforators and embossers at 134 Fleet Street advertising wedding, “in haste” and black-bordered stationery.

The business issued a small number of sets of postcards including The Coronation in 1902 and Ping Pong at twelve for sixpence.

Source: Fitzwilliam Museum; Picture Postcards and their Publishers Anthony Byatt (1978 Golden Age Postcard Books) page 86

Leontine Dobrecourt

Uccle, Brussels

• H.M., Uccle, 1902

Mademoiselle Leontine Dobrecourt 24 rue des Champs, Uccle, Brussels. Mlle Dobrecourt set up in business on her own account in 1893, selling sheet music and stamps for philatelists. In 1910, she was listed as the owner-manager of a stationery shop in Brussels – Ixelles, Rue du Tabellion, 12. She moved to Place de la Couronne, 4 in 1920.

Divided backs were labelled H.M.Dobrecourt which doesn’t help explain the relationship of the initials to Leontine. Photographs of the Belgian Royal Family were a common feature of the output.

On 28 November 1906 the Civil Tribunal in Brussels decided the copyright case Dobrecourt v Laegart. You can find a card of an open-sided tram headed for the Stock Exchange (Bourse) and the Uccle district of Brussels here.

Source: Directory of Belgian Photographers

Eduard Döcker junior

• E. DÖCKER Verlag Jos. Weth, Buchhandlung in Landeck. Rafael Neuber, Wien-Berlin.

Vienna Artist Eduard Döcker junior had a long relationship with Rafael Neuber (qv) who published his cards as he embraced the Secessionist (art nouveau) style, particularly in his Modern series. Marcus Munk (qv) also published his work as cards.
Bookplate commissions were a common thing for 19th-century artists and some of Docker’s were very fine. The journal Announcements From The Ex-Libris Association In Berlin featured a work, Vienna, library interior (lithography and autotype) in its exchange offers pages.

Rudolf Dohmen, Cologne, Germany

• Verlag von Photograph Rud. Dohmen, Koln

Rudolf Dohmen, photographer, Brunostraße, Cologne In 1898 Dohman was running an Institute for Technical Photography in the course of which he documented the industrial development of Cologne and published other local topographical lichtdruck images as postcards.

Source: Leseprobe Köln ungeschönt

Adolf Domanig

Colle Isarco, South Tyrol, Italy

• Verlag: A. Domanig, Gossensass.

When this card was produced, Gossensaß was part of the Austrian Empire and, in 1908, it was raised to a market town by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. After WWI, and the division of Tyrol, it became Colle Isarco. On the death of Elias Domanig in November 1902 his business in Gossensaß passed to Adolf Domanig, then a businessman in Innsbruck. Domanig published local topographicals and featured his shop in St Mark’s Square in postcards he marketed himself.

Adinolfi Domenico, Naples, Italy.

• Adinolfi Domenico, Editore – Via Roma 68 – Napoli.

Adinolfi Domenico, postcard publisher, 68 Via Roma, Naples. Domenico published black-and-white topographicals of Naples.

D’Ambrosi Domenico

Lido di Venezia, Italy

• Edit. D’Ambrosi Domenico-Lido

D’Ambrosi Domenico of the Venice Lido published tinted photo-cards of the Lido.

Dominican Printing House, Florence, Italy

• TIP. DOMENICANA, EDITRICE – FIRENZE

In the mid-1400s, Vespasiano da Bisticci’s bookshop in Florence was said to contain all the wisdom of the world. Vespasiano and his team of scribes and illuminators produced exquisite manuscripts for popes and princes across Europe, rediscovering and disseminating some of the most significant texts from classical antiquity. At his shop, the most formidable minds of the city would gather to debate these old ideas of revolutionary power.

But in 1476 a new technology arrived in Florence. The convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli, a community of Dominican nuns on the other side of the city, acquired a printing press from a bankrupt German printer. Before long, with the enterprising nuns working tirelessly as typesetters, the Ripoli Press began printing a series of books and pamphlets that triggered an explosion of ideas in politics, philosophy and religion.

Dominican Order is one of the four great mendicant orders of the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded by St. Dominic in 1215. Its members include friars, nuns, active sisters, and lay Dominicans. From the beginning the order has been a synthesis of the contemplative life and the active ministry. The Dominican order is noted for an unswerving orthodoxy, based upon the philosophical and theological teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, and has steadfastly opposed novelty or accommodation in theology.

Unsurprisingly, the printed output of the Dominican printing house and bookshop of the early 20th century was largely religious. They also committed to the war effort in WWI and, in 1915, published Our War, a book of essays by university professors for the benefit of the Italian Red Cross.

When World War I began in July 1914, Italy was a partner in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, but decided to remain neutral. However, a strong sentiment existed within the general population and political factions to go to war against Austria-Hungary, Italy’s historical enemy. Annexing territory along the two countries’ frontier stretching from the Trentino region in the Alps eastward to Trieste at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea was a primary goal and would liberate Italian speaking populations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while uniting them with their cultural homeland. During the immediate pre-war years, Italy started aligning itself closer to the Entente powers, France and Great Britain, for military and economic support.

On 26 April, 1915 Italy negotiated the secret Pact of London by which Great Britain and France promised to support Italy annexing the frontier lands in return for entering the war on the Entente side. Italy resigned from the Triple Alliance on 3 May and declared war against Austria-Hungary at midnight on 23 May.

Sources: theworldwar.org; The Bookseller Of Florence: Vespasiano Da Bisticci And The Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance Ross King (2021) Random House.

This card:

Girolamo Savonarola (21 September 1452 to 23 May 1498) was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor. He prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church.

In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, such prophecies seemed on the verge of fulfilment. While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medicis and, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world centre of Christianity and “richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever”, he instituted an extreme puritanical campaign, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth.

In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, the pope excommunicated him in May 1497, and threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the three friars in the main square of Florence. Source: wikipedia

M Dosio & Company, Rome

• M Dosio & C

M Dosio & Company, photographers, 58 Via Condotti, Rome, a photographic studio specialising, it seems, in pictures of the Pope, Pius X. One of their efforts was included in the Sacred Art section of 1904 Italian exhibition in Earl’s Court, London along side a full size photograph of His Eminence Cardinal Merry del Val. Their post-cards were made by NPG (qv).

Source: Italian Exhibition

Emil Dotzert

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

• KUNSTVERLAG EMIL DOTZERT, FRANKFURT a MAIN

Emil Dotzert, art publisher and travel agent, Frankfurt A Main.

Travellers, including women, find demonstrably brilliant existence in our officially-approved travel business for charitable purposes.

Die Woche (The Week) 30 March 1907

A number of series at the turn of the century featured fine artwork of stylish art nouveau women. Some of his cards at this time were printed by Louis Glaser of Leipzig (qv).

The chromolithographed postcard — which had emerged in the 1880s — offered a wide scope for German imperial, martial imagery. A slew of particularly bombastic full-colour postcards were rushed off the presses; they sold widely and flowed through the postal system. Dotzert produced a number of five-colour postcards depicting cute Chinese children supporting their new German imperial masters; the children are drawn wearing Prussian helmets and saluting the German flag. The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German leased territory in Imperial and Early Republican China from 1898 to 1914. In the 1898 Patriotika series, Greetings from Kiautschou featured a child with spiked helmet.

Source: Advertising Empire: Race And Visual Culture In Imperial Germany David Ciarlo (Harvard University Press 2011)

These Stamps: Expressverkehr Berliner Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft (Express Berlin Packet Society) was founded on 2 February 1884 and bought the property at 93 Alexandrinenstrasse in May 1884 and then moved to 98/99 Ritterstrasse. It was active in many areas; as a bus company from 1887 to 1894, Packetfahrt maintained 5 bus routes. It was a large private post office from 1897 to 1900. Passenger transport began in 1885 and was discontinued in 1893. Letter delivery began in 1899 and private postal parcel delivery only ended in the 1920s. The business had its own red post-boxes in the city, and customers were instructed `Nur in die rot(h)en Kasten der Packetfahrt zu werfen` (only put Packetfahrt in the red boxes). Around 1900 the rise to being a large forwarding company began There were other interest over the years; Schenker got involved before 1914, more so after 1919, by the end of the 20s had the majority of shares. In the course of the 1920s, the parcel service became the most modern and in the 1930s probably the largest forwarding company in Berlin. The Ritterstrasse premises were almost completely destroyed on 9 February 1945 after which, the parcel service moved to Neukölln’s Zigrastrasse.

Source: THE HISTORY OF BERLIN

Douglass Post Card & Machine Company, Philadelphia, PA, USA

• DOUGLASS POST CARD & MACHINE CO., PHILA, PA
• DOUGLASS – 27 N 10TH ST. Phila.
• DOUGLASS – 27 N. 10^TH ST. Phila. ouglass Post-Card Co., 27 N. 10th St., Philadelphia, Pa.
• Douglas Post-Card Co., 27 N. 10 th St. Philadelphia, Pa (Berlin, Germany).

Douglass Post Card & Machine Company, 27 North 10^th Street, Philadelphia, PA. At the Quarterly Communication of the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania field in Renaissance Hall, New Masonic Temple on 6 May 1875 tribute was paid to recently-deceased members which was printed by Chas C Douglass’ Steam-Press at 21 North 6^th Street.

According to the report of the US court case Bamforth v. Douglass Post Card and Machine Co. (158 Fed. 355; Circuit Court East District, Pensylvania. 1908), Bamforth (qv) manufactured post cards with pictures photographed from living models. Douglass made exact copies of these photographs – initially even including the Bamforth name – and sold them on postcards at a much lower price than Bamforth could. However the court refused Bamforth an injunction because, in the absence of copyright protection, neither a book nor a photograph can continue to be the author’s exclusive property, after it has been printed and offered to the public for sale. In the court papers Mr Chas C Douglass was named as president of the Company and Mr Burge as secretary and treasurer. One of my cards has an eagle on the address side strangely reminiscent of the logo of the Illustrated Post Card Co (qv) who were presumably wise enough not to sue.

W. & D. Downey, London

• W. & D. DOWNEY, PHOT. MARION & CO., LTD., PUBS.

W. & D. Downey were Victorian studio photographers operating in London from the 1860s to the 1910s. William Downey set up the company with his brother Daniel. They opened their first studio in 1863 on Eldon Square, Newcastle. Queen Victoria recorded her approval in her journal when she was first photographed by Downey on 22 September 1866.

In 1872 William moved to London while his brother continued to look after the Newcastle branch. W. & D. Downey established studios in London at 6 Ebury Street (1872  to 8), and subsequently at 51 Ebury Street (1879) and 57 Ebury Street (1880  to  90), although much of their printing and finishing was still completed in Newcastle.

Downeys became known for their photography of members of the Royal Family and other society figures. They were commissioned annually by Queen Victoria to photograph the visitors to the Balmoral estate. Downeys’ carte de visite photograph taken in 1867 of the Princess of Wales carrying her daughter on her back sold over 300,000 copies, probably the most successful carte ever. The firm could claim to have photographed nearly every crowned head of Europe.

Although known for their photography of Royalty and celebrities they were, as the Photographic News of 30 April 1880 pointed out, happy to photograph anyone who would tender one guinea. This gave the subject one position and a dozen cartes. Whether this included the use of the studio trapeze, which was mainly used for posing ladies, is not recorded.

The firm continued to operate after the death of Daniel Downey, in July 1881, and in 1896 Queen Victoria and her family were all photographed by Downey by the new cinematograph process, which the Queen recorded, makes moving pictures by winding off a reel of films. William Downey’s son, William Edward Downey, acted as operator for most royal sittings of the Edwardian era.

Sources: Royal Collection Trust; Roger Vaughan Personal Collection 2012

Dufresne Brothers, Paris

• CHOCOLAT DUFRESNE 19, Rue Auber 3, Boulevard Denain PARIS 36, RUE DE PARIS, TROUVILLE-SUR-MER IMPORTE

By 1855 Dufresne Freres, were at 69 St-Martin, Paris 4 and their chocolate factory at 52 rue de Flandres, Paris 19 used steam processes. They won gold medals in the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle. In 1885, they were making sugared almonds, candied fruits, chestnuts and chocolates by steam.

In addition to this series of cards for the Japanese market, Dufresne also had Neurdein overprint photocards of France with their name above “CARTE POSTALE”.

Managing Director Paul Dufresne, (1862 to 1932) bought two 1908 bronzes by Italian sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, recorded in the inventory of his villa in Asniere-sur-Seine, in July 1939.

Not to be confused with: Dufresne chocolate was being advertised in the French-Canadian press in 1932 but the Château Dufresne built during WWI in Montreal, Quebec was the home of Dufresnes brothers who were engineers

Source: General directory of trade and industry, the judiciary and the administration, or, Almanac of the 500,000 addresses of Paris, departments and foreign countries 1855

Abel Dugas

Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France

• Edition A. D., N.

Abel Dugas (1856 to 1945) and his son Alexandre (born 1894) were booksellers and printers at 5 quai Cassard, Nantes until at least 1913. Nantes is a city on the River Loire in the Upper Brittany region of western France. Dugas issued postcards from 1903 under the company name Héliotypie Dugas, Nantes, then in 1904 under the name of Héliotypie Dugas et Cie, Nantes.

Their 1903 series capturing the construction of a bridge across the Loire is fine photo-reportage as are the photocards they produced of the December 1910 flooding in Nantes. Their Life in the Fields and Life at Sea series of photocards captured the lives of workers.

Dugas won a gold medal in the stationery and printing class in the 1904 Nantes Industry and Commerce Exposition. They collaborated with Joseph Nozais in producing a series of postcards on the Exposition.

The publications they printed seem largely to have been non-fiction. In 1908, when they published Charles-Arsène Montel’s  Illustrated departmental guest book. Directory and album. Department of Sarthe, they described themselves as art printers.

Source: Les Frères Vassellier, phototypeurs à Nantes (1903-1918), cartes-postales de Rennes ou d’ailleurs, Chmura Sophie, mis en ligne le 28 septembre 2018.

Paul Dupré

Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France

• Epreuve obtenue avec Jumelle Bellieni et Plaque de la Maison Lumiere P.D. J.R.

Paul Dupré, printer, 34, rue Croix-Belle-Porte, Saint-Quentin produced a large collection of postcards covering mainly the north of the department of Aisne, but also the east of the Somme or Oise, often only identified by his initials in the title.

In November 1913 Dupre joined in partnership with fellow printer Victor Thellier to form Thellier & Dupré. Their printing works in the Place de l’Hotel de Ville, were requisitioned in 1914 by the occupying German forces and in ruins by 1919. In 1925 Dupre published Elie Fleury’s book, Sous la Botte. History of the city of Saint-Quentin during the German occupation. August 1914-February 1917. In 1923 he had published the same author’s book of reproduction and commentary of the 213 posters affixed on the city walls during the occupation.

Louise Duparque

Florenville, Belgium

• Edit. L. Duparque, Florenville

Louise Duparque, (24 July 1875 to 1959) postcard publisher, Bazar Longueville Florenville, Florenville. Louise Stevenot married Joseph Duparque (1871 to 1941) and they had 3 children. Mrs Duparque published numbered and unnumbered local topographical photo-cards into the divided-back era when a relationship with Nels of Brussels (qv) is noted. Duparque also published un-numbered unofficial cards of the 1905 Liege International Exposition. Florenville is a Walloon city and municipality in the Belgian province of Luxembourg on the Semois River, facing the French border.

Hugo Duphorn

• H. Duphorn

Hugo Heinrich Wilhelm Duphorn (10 June 1876 to 20 April 1909) German painter. Duphorn went sea as a cabin boy in 1892 but after 19 months had to give up sailing by reason of myopia. From Spring 1894 he did an apprenticeship with a house painter in Oldenburg while in the evenings he took drawing lessons. In October 1895 he volunteered for the Oldenburg Infantry Regiment 91 and did military service until September 1897 after which he resumed his artistic studies.

These he interrupted between the late Autumn of 1900 and 1902 when he joined the New Community. This was an anarchist-communist commune operated between 1900 and 1904 by the brothers Julius Hart, Heinrich Hart and Gustav Landauer in the Berlin district of Schlachtensee, in which mainly politically active life reformers, anarchists and artists took part. Duphorn became friends with Julius Hart after he took up a studio in Steglitz above Hart’s apartment in November 1900.

In 1907 Duphorn bought the Lilla Backa homestead on the rocky shores of Lake Kärnesjö in the Swedish province of Halland. In Spring 1907 Duphorn moved with his family to Sweden and continued to work as an artist there. In 1909 he had an accident on the brittle ice of the lake and drowned together with his eldest son and a friend who was a retired teacher.

Source: wikipedia

Louis Durand

Tonnerre, Yonne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France

• Cliché L. Durand. Phot. Tonnerre

Louis Marie Durand (9 August 1876 to 31 March 1965) photographer, rue de la République, opposite the sub-prefecture, Tonnerre.  In 1896, when Durand went before the military review board, he declared himself a dyer as his father was.  He was discharged from conscription in November 1897 in respect of astigmatism.  He was a photographer in his hometown of Tonnerre when he married in May 1902, visiting a branch in the Market Square in Chablis on the first Sunday of the month. At one stage he also had a branch in the Place de l’Eglise, Clamecy.  Despite his vision problem, he was mobilized in December 1914 and ended the war as an airman.  Demobilized in February 1919, he resumed his activity as a photographer in Tonnerre until at least 1926. In 1931, he was a trader and then an electrician in 1936 by which time Charles Henri Boisseau was a photographer on rue de la République.

The word cliché can mean both a photographic negative and a printing plate. The former seems more likely here where M. Durand sent his negatives for incorporation into postcards by a publisher who misread the caption.

Durie, Brown & Company, Edinburgh, Scotland

• The Post Card Bureau, 106, Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Durie, Brown & Company, listed in the Post Office Edinburgh and Leith directory 1904-1905⁵⁸ as cash stationers, Swan fountain pen and picture post card specialists, 5 Drumsheugh place (Telephone, 681), and 106 Princes street (Telephone, 762), and 135b Princes street (Telephone, 1866). They claimed to hold a stock of a quarter of a million postcards at their shop in Princes Street which was open until 11pm⁵⁹.

Source: Picture Postcards and their Publishers Anthony Byatt 1978 Golden Age Postcard Books page 87;

Edmund Dusedau, Plaistow, London

• Edm Dusedau Plaistow London

Edmund Dusedau of Plaistow, London published photo-cards of London and Tasmania into the divided-back era. The Cardiff Evening Express of 20 March 1906 reported under the heading 17,000 BAD POST-CARDS:

At West Ham Edward Dusedau. a fine-art publisher, of Barking Road, Plaistow, was Summoned to show cause why an order for the destruction of 17,476 postcards should not be made. Mr. Barker, who prosecuted, said that a search warrant was granted on February 26, and subsequently Detective-inspector Godley and Detective-sergeant Eustace visited the defendant’s premises and found six girls stamping and cutting out post-cards which, it was suggested, were obscene. Between 17,000 and 18,000 post-card, were seized. Mr. Hare, who appeared for the defendant, objected to destruction of 12,000 cards. He would like to point out that, although some of the cards were vulgar, they were not obscene, and many of them were simply samples Mr. Gillespie made an order for the destruction of 17,439 cards, and directed the defendant, who had been twice previously convicted, to pay £10 10s. Costs.

Edward P. Dutton & Co. New York

• E.P. Dutton & Co. New York

E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1864 Dutton expanded to New York City, where it began publishing religious books. In 1888 Ernest Nister (qv) established a branch of his fine art printing firm at 24 St Bride’s Street, London EC. Some cards from this business also bear the Dutton name. They also published children’s books under their joint marks. In 1906, Dutton made a deal with English publishing company J. M. Dent to be the American distributor of the Everyman’s Library series of classic literature reprints. John Macrae joined the company in 1885 as an office boy and in 1923 was named president. In 1928, the publishing and retail divisions were split into two separate businesses with Macrae acquiring the publishing side, operating as E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc. In 2014 Dutton, then an imprint of Penguin Random House, marked 150 years of publishing.

Source: wikipedia

D Duval, Bourg-en-Bresse, France

• D Duval, phot. Bourg

D Duval practised as a photographer at 1 Place Joubert, Bourg Ain from about 1900, a business he took over from the well-known photographer Henri Gaudichon when the latter moved to Cannes⁶². The Archives municipales de Bourg-en-Bresse credit Duval with postcards between 1890 and 1910. Bourg-en-Bresse is a commune in eastern France, capital of the Ain department, and was capital of the ancient province of Bresse. It is located 70km (43 miles) north-northeast of Lyon.

J Duval and company, Paris

• complex anchor logo with intertwined initials J. D. and a superimposed C on the anchor

Duval and Charles L’Hopital published in separate companies but very similar styles and content with, it seems, the same anchor logos. Their relationship is unclear but it seems that in 1905 both were incorporated in the postcard-publishing company E.L.D., founded by Le Deley (qv) which initially retained the anchor as a logo.

Source: leonc.fr