Directory N

H. Nacken & Company

Anvers/Antwerp, Belgium

• H.N. à A.
• H.N. à A.

H. Nacken & Company, Havana House, 4 Rue de l’Aqueduc, Anvers. This was opposite the cathedral and, as well as postcards, sold souvenirs, leather goods, cigars and cigarettes. As this information comes from a drinks mat, it may be inferred that, though the focus, initially at least, was presumably cigars, he also acted as a bar/cafe.

Source: cartophilie

This card: The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries are an ensemble of glazed shopping arcades in central Brussels. Designed and built by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer between 1846 and 1847, they precede other famous 19th-century European shopping arcades. Like them, they have twin regular facades with distant origins in Vasari’s long narrow street-like courtyard of the Uffizi in Florence, with glazed arched shopfronts separated by pilasters and two upper floors, all in an Italianate Cinquecento style, under an arched glass-paned roof with a delicate cast-iron framework. The faces the people in this picture appear to have been painted in a rather surreal manner.

Nadkarni & Company, Mumbai

• Nadkarni & Co., Bombay

Nadkarni & Company, Jambulwadi in the Dhobi Talao area of Bombay 2 were photographic and sports equipment dealers. Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian cinema bought a book, ABC Guide to Cinema, for a shilling in their photography shop. Although it did not contain much useful information, it had advertisements about the equipment. In January 1912, Dadasaheb told Yashwantrao Nadkarni, proprietor of the business his idea of producing Indian films. Nadkarni respected Dadasaheb’s imagination and skill in photography and loaned him ten thousand rupees. In 1918, Nadkarni and Company were the Indian sales agents for the British Journal of Photography. In 1930 MG Nadkarni was a member of Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Source: ORDEAL OF PRODUCING INDIGENOUS MOVIES

Naniwaya & Company

Kanda, Tokyo

• NANIWAYA & CO, Kanda Tokio

Naniwaya Co. 浪華屋 (Kanda, Tokyo 東京神田) Japanese postcard publishers in Kanda, a city district of Tokyo, published view and costume cards into the divided-back era. They later became Tokyo Design Printing Co. 東京図按(vl. 案)印刷社; Kuroda Hisayoshi 黒田久吉.

Source: Peter Romaskiewicz

Hotel De Naples, Naples, Italy

• HOTEL DE NAPLES NAPOLI RICHTER & Co. NAPOLI

Hotel De Naples, 55 Corso Umberto I, Naples (now the Hotel Naples). Founded 1896, the hotel was in the ownership of Andrea Cavalieri between at least 1907 and 1915.

Richter & Company of Naples (qv) produced luggage labels and courtesy cards for the Hotel de Naples.

P. Nardot, Montesson, Île-de-France

• P. Nardot a Montesson

Nardot, of Montesson in the western suburbs of Paris. produced undivided photocards of other places west of Paris.

This card: Villa Heriot was developed from the Villa of Rosine Stoltz, the French mezzo-soprano who became Countess of Ketschendorff by the grace of the reigning prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ernest II whose mistress she was. The first development was undertaken by Auguste Hériot around 1874 substantially on the site of the outbuildings of Mme Stoltz’s property. On the death of his brother in 1879, Claude Hériot’s second son, Zacharie Olympe Hériot (1833 to 1899), inherited the fortune. He demolished the Stoltz villa in 1882 and rebuilt as the Hériot villa. The new building was gigantic, comparable, it was said, to the town hall of Versailles. He built another villa in Venice, also known as Villa Hériot. Olympe also took the helm of the family company which had become the Grands Magazins du Louvre which he directed alone from 1885 until 1888 when the first signs of his mental illness forced his resignation.

On 6 June 1888, at La Boissière, Commander Hériot seized with a hot fever shot his wife with a pistol (without injuring her) then he tried to kill himself (without success). The Hériot affair hit the headlines for eighteen months and provoked litigation between Madame Hériot and her husband’s cousins ended by a series of judgments in March 1890 while Madame Hériot kept her husband locked up in the villa in Le Vésinet. The sumptuous villa Hériot had barely been completed in Vésinet, when it was abandoned in favor of a Château that Hériot had built between 1890 and 1892 in Essoyes, the cradle of the family.

At the end of 1890, Vésinet municipality removed the name of Stoltz from the municipal plans and renamed the access road to Villa Hériot after it, a name that remains today though not, it appears, the villa.

Source: Vésinet History Society – Le Commandant Hériot au Vésinet

National Art Company

New York

• NATIONAL ART COMPANY NY in a belt making a circle round an angel

National Art Company, 235 West 23rd Street, New York, published the work of artist Esther Hunt (qv). In the divided-back era they published a series of headshots of Native Americans. In 1920 they patented paper for box and bed coverings. From 1915 until his death in 1921 artist Samuel Schmucker patented 130 designs for the company, some at least for postcards. The company closed in 1929.

Source: Samuel L. Schmucker: The Discovery of His Lost Art Jack Davis, Dorothy Ryan, (2001, Olde America Antiques)

National Art Views Company

New York

• National Art Views Co. N.Y. City

National Art Views Company was based in New York City and was one of the earliest publishers of quality cards. They published nearly 3,000 titles starting, it is said, in 1903 though the name Executive Mansion that they use for a picture of the White House in Washington DC was superseded in 1901. In 1904 they were taken over by the Rotograph Co (qv) which was started that year, to gain quick access to their American views many of which they republished under the Rotograph name.

Source: 1900px.com; metropostcard [offline as at November 2022]

Carlo Nava, Siena, Italy

• EDIT. CARTOLERIA⁶ C. NAVA – SIENA
• Editore: Cartoleria Carlo Nava, Siena
• Editore C. Nava-Siena

The 19^th century records of the Contrada della Lupa (She-Wolf district) of Siena have the Carlo Nava lithographic printing house at 10 via del Vapor. They were certainly publishing books between 1883 and 1911 some at least with an anchor logo. Their local view-cards were high quality photographs.

Navigazione Generale Italiana, Italy

• NAVIGAZIONE GENERALE ITALIANA SOCIETÀ RIUNITE FLORIO RUBATTINO STAB A MARZI ROMA

When Navigazione Generale Italiana, Società Riunite Florio e Rubattino (NGI) was founded on 4 September 1881, it was the largest industrial group in Italy and one of the largest in the world. It united the recently-formed Italian Kingdom from Genoa to Palermo (the terminal ports of the company’s shipping activities) and linked the new capital city of Rome, where the company had its formal headquarters.

The man behind the merger of the former fleets of Florio in Palermo and Rubattino, based in Genoa, was the Genoese banker Domenico Balduino, president of the Credito Mobiliare bank and main financier of the Rubattino concern. Raffaele Rubattino was considered one of the fathers of the motherland: he had put his steamer Cagliari at the disposal of Carlo Pisacane for his unsuccessful expedition to Sapri in Southern Italy and, later, he made the Piemonte and Lombard available to Giuseppe Garibaldi and his 1,000 Red Shirts for their much more successful campaign. Balduino was extremely worried by the disastrous financial situation of the Rubattino company and in 1881 persuaded the central government to issue Royal Decree 339 which transferred to NGI all the state subsidies and mail contracts for steam navigation from and to Italian ports. To achieve this, Balduino had first to persuade the great Sicilian shipowner Ignazio Florio to merge with Rubattino, thus saving the latter from a bankruptcy which would have been a dreadful humiliation for a prominent figure of the Italian Risorgimento.

This aroused much criticism, particularly among the other powerful Genoese shipowners who regarded the new NGI as an extremely dangerous competitor because of its size and financial power. They were right and, by the time of World War I, all the rivals had been absorbed by the Navigazione Generale. NGI celebrated its 50th anniversary with the launch of the famous Rex in August, 1931 but this proved to be not only the climax of the company but also its swansong. In January, 1932, it was merged with Lloyd Sabaudo and the Cosulich Line to become the famous Italia Flotte Riunite or, more simply, the Italian Line.

The early formal portraits of Navigazione Generale passenger steamers used in the printing of postcards and, on a larger scale, framed and hung in travel agents’ shops were virtually all in black and white, obtained from touched-up photographs and mainly produced by the Marzi printing company of Rome. The picture showing the vessel normally occupied the upper portion of the postcard in order to leave sufficient space at the bottom for the sender’s message. The print was a duotone: black for the photograph and the decorative frame around it and red for the descriptions: company and vessel name, etc.

In the first years of the twentieth century, with the arrival of the liners of the “Region class”, fitted with a small cabin class, NGI was compelled to alter the style of its postcards and ships’ portraits. The Marzi company printed a series of postcards in full colour, based on the artworks of well-known artists, mainly from the Ligurian area, such as Aurelio Craffonara (qv). At this time, the postcards and the other advertising material were enriched by a new and stylish NGI logo in the Art Nouveau style. From then on, NGI postcards were always in colour, downsized portraits of the ships or of the large posters designed to promote them.

Source: italianliners.com

H. Neelmeyer, Berlin

• BERLIN : VERLAG VON H. NEELMEYER : KUNSTANSTALT WILHELM BOEHME

Neelmeyer was a publisher of books and postcards. His postcards date from the undivided-back era and were published in co-operation with others; with Wilhelm Boehme he published several numbered series of reproductions of classical works of art. Meantime, H. Neelmeyer & Unverdruss, Berlin C19 claimed sole distribution rights of artist-drawn topographical cards of as far away as Paris.

In his own name, in 1905 Neelmeyer published at least part 2 of All sorts of things from Japan by Ludwig Riess (1 December 1861 to 27 December 1928). Riess was a German historian and professor at the University of Tokyo.

In 1905, Neelmeyer published Burn unopened (Uneröffnet zu verbrennen) by Countess Marie Freifrau Von Ebner-Eschenbach (13 September 1830 to 12 March 1916). In 1906 Neelmeyer published Der Voigt von Sylt the 1861 novel by Theodor Mügge (8 November 1802 to 18 February 1861) the German author and liberal activist. In neither case was Neelmeyer the first to publish these works.

Nels, Brussels

• Nels, Bruxelles
• Ed. Nels, Bruxelles.
• Photographie artistique Ed. Nels
• “Serie artistique”

In 1898 Edward Nels founded a postcard publishing firm in Brussels that went on to cover Belgium and its colonies. Four years later, his brother Paul opened a branch in Metz.

Carto.net attributes Serie artistique to Nels though it doesn’t bear his name. An example of the series here. Nels’ Serie Delft included examples of his own photographs of the Tyrol in the divided-back era.

Source: cartes-postales-nels;

Nenke & Ostermaier

Dresden, Germany

• Aufnahme und Photochromie¹⁰ N & O
• Original Aufnahme und Photochromie von Nenke und Ostermaier, Dresden
• Nenke & Ostermaier Kunstanstalt DRESDEN rubber stamp on card published for the Russian

* Photography and photochromy

In 1894 The British Lithographer reported that recently-established Nenke & Rolle were working with two presses. Nenke & Ostermaier registered an early patent for a photochrom process¹¹ and did the photography and reproduction for floral cards published by others including Gebruder Metz of Basel (qv). They published a large number of view-cards of the Netherlands¹². This anonymous tinted photocard marked for the Russian market has been hand-stamped with the N&O name. They published a World War 1 series showing different pictures by German-Austrian naval and landscape painter and illustrator Alexander Kircher¹³. They later used a logo of an N inside an O inside a D.

Sources: VDP; The Postcard Album; wikipedia: Alexander Kircher

Rafael Neuber, Vienna

• Rafael Neuber, Wien-Berlin.

Rafael Neuber, art publisher, Vienna VII, published the art work of Eduard Döcker (qv) extensively.

As well as publishing cards for retailers such as Josef Weth (qv) in the Tirol, he advertised sole rights of sale of postcards printed and published by playing card-maker August Denk, also in Vienna VII. Denk (5 November 1852 to 2 July 1926) was an Austrian politician of the German National Party (DNP). Neuber licensed a template for a series of postcards with a painted border and space reserved for a photograph of the place in question to Horowitz of Trnava, now in the west of Slovakia.

Neue Photographische Gesellschaft AG

• N.P.G.
• The Rotograph Co N.Y. City (Germany)
• Rotary Photo Co. Ltd, E.C.
• NPG in a monogram where an elaborate middle letter give it the impression of a tree over 1902
• NPG in a monogram in a circle where an elaborate middle letter give it the impression of a tree surmounted by MUSTERSCHUTZ
• NPG in a monogram where an elaborate middle letter give it the impression of a tree in an equilateral triangle surmounted by GESETZLICH GESCHUTZT within a circle

The New Photographic Society (1894 to 1948) Berlin. NPG was the first, and for years the world’s biggest factory for real photographic bromide printing by the kilometre. The founder and driving force was Arthur Schwarz (1862 to 1944). He travelled to various countries and spent much time in the USA as well. Rotograph was registered under number 38,146. NPG was a member organization of photographers founded in Berlin-Schoeneberg by Schwarz. In 1894 their 35 members turned the group into a Limited Corporation. Schwarz travelled to various countries and spent much time in the USA. Their members published many real photo postcards and stereo-views, and they manufactured photo paper. They also printed real photo cards for other companies such as Rotograph and became the largest manufacturer of bromide postcards in the world. As demand for postcards grew they started publishing artist-signed cards as tinted halftones. Thanks to the various NPG patents registered between 1895 and 97 for many countries, Schwarz was in a position to minimise competition. NPG, with branches or associated partner companies in London, New York, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, and Milan and a total of about 1,500 employees, played a leading role not only as photographic printers but also as publishers of thousands of postcards, stereo cards etc.

The US business for photo paper, chemicals and other supplies for the automatic printing of photographs became the Rotograph Company in New York (qv). The backbone of the NPG success were machines used for photographic paper and printing constructed after US patents but improved and built to last.

Some NPG machines installed at the British daughter company Rotary Photographic Company (qv) were in use for over 60 years.

Source: The Postcard Album; metropostcard [offline as at November 2022]

A. Neumann, Hamburg, Germany

Kunstverlag A. Neumann, Hamburg 6.

Neumann, art publisher, Hamburg 6, published local topographicals and ships in Hamburg port into the divided-back era when he was at 82 Neuer Steinweg, Hamburg 3.

Carl Neumann

Vejle, Denmark

• C. Neumann’s Boghandel, Vejle

Carl Frederik Neumann, (7 August 1857 to 11 March 1937) bookseller, 22 Nørregade, Vejle, Denmark. Born in Assens, son of saddler master Adam Henrik Neumann, Neumann learned book-binding in Odense, then went to Vejle in 1880 where, as a 27-year-old, he took over Theodor Jørgensen’s bookstore in 1884. This included an information agency and the sale of postcards. Neumann cultivated music, art and literature and, in a long, working life built up one of the province’s most important businesses Neumann sat on the board of the Vejle Tourist Bureau from its establishment in 1893.

Source:Vejle Wiki.dk; Boghandlere i Danmark

Neurdein Brothers, Paris

• ND phot
• Collections ND phot
• Etablissements Photograpiques de NEURDEIN Freres, Paris and Collections ND phot

Neurdein Brothers, 28 Boulevard de Sebastopol, (1869 to 1889) 52, avenue de Breteuil, (1889 to 1918). The firm was directed by Etienne Neurdein (1832 to 1918) and Louis-Antonin Neurdein (1846 to 1914), photographers, publishers and printers. The Neurdein Studio was founded in 1864. Antonin managed the studio by himself for a number of years but after 1887 the brothers ran the company together. They used the mark ND from 1885 and from 1887 brands Neurdein Freres and “X phot.”. In 1915, the name became “Neurdein”, then, from 1916 to 1918, “Neurdein & Cie”. The brothers’ father was the French pioneer in photography Jean César Adolphe Neurdein (1806 to 1867), known as Charlet. They produced large quantities of stereo-views and lantern slides depicting scenes in Europe and French North Africa as it became more tourist oriented in the 1870’s. Many of these images would later be printed in heliographed albums. They went on to publish many continuous tone, monochromatic postcards of urban French views, nudes, panoramas, military themes, and many scenes from various French colonies and Quebec, Canada. They also provided photographs of paintings for many art cards. Collections ND Phot was awarded a Grand Prix in the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.

Etienne died of pneumonia in February 1918, the year in which ND merged with LL.

Sources: neurdein.over-blog.com; wikipedia: Neurdein; BNF Data; metropostcard [offline as at November 2022]

The New England News Company, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• The New England News Company, Boston Mass, Leipzig, Dresden
• The New England News Company, Boston Mass, Leipzig, Dresden with three-leaf ANC NY clover logo surmounted by POLYCHROME banner

The New England News Company was a newspaper and journal distribution company. A subsidiary of the American News Company (qv), they published cards in the same format. ANC’s Boston branch was formed by taking over the wholesale periodical business of Boston bookseller Alexander Williams. In 1854, Williams had bought out the business of Fetridge & Co., which operated on the corner of State St. and Washington, a large magazine store known as the Periodical Depot or the Periodical Arcade. Williams worked up an extensive trade as a jobber of newspapers and periodicals to out- of-town dealers all over the East Coast, and by the time ANC was organised, the wholesale side of the business had grown too large for Williams to handle alone. Along with two smaller competing firms, Dyer & Co. and Federhen & Co., the Boston trade was reorganized under the New England name, with Williams as one of the principal shareholders. Initially an officer of the new corporation, Williams was a bookstore proprietor at heart and left soon afterward, in 1869, to take over the famous Old Corner Bookstore. The Thomson & Thomson/New England News Company Photographic Collection contains approximately 3,000 photographic prints. These images were the proofs from which postcards were manufactured. The emphasis is on the commonplace, what visitors might encounter while walking through one of these locations. The range of subjects encompasses public buildings, town squares, parks, business blocks, playgrounds, factories, amusement parks, beaches, and residential streets. Many towns and cities in Massachusetts and several in New Hampshire are represented.

Source: Historic New England; wikipedia: American News Company

The New Inn Hotel

Gloucester, England

• The New Inn Hotel, Gloucester

The New Inn Hotel is situated in the heart of Gloucester and dates back to the 15th-century. It is considered to be the finest medieval galleried inn in Britain. The New Inn consists of oak and chestnut timber framed buildings enclosing two courtyards with stairs leading to two tiers of galleries. Originally there was accommodation for 200 people consisting of some 40 bedrooms. It was once the largest hostelry in the country.

In the sixteenth century the New Inn was a popular venue for strolling minstrels and travelling companies. It was used by the Queen’s players in 1559-60 and, given the geographical proximity to Stratford on Avon, it is highly likely that William Shakespeare performed at the New Inn. In 1858 the freehold of the New Inn was sold to the Berry family who ran it as a family business until 1942.

Herbert J. Berry, was elected a director, of the Gloucester Football and Athletic Ground Co., Ltd on 19 April 1899 and served until his death which was reported at the annual meeting held at the New Inn Hotel on evening of 15 December 1922. H. H. Berry was elected to take his father‟s place on the Board.

Sources: The New Inn Gloucester; Gloucestershire Pubs

New Orleans News Company

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

• New Orleans News Company, Berlin and Leipzig

A publisher and distributor of maps, guides, and postcards of Louisiana for the American News Company. Most of their cards depicted scenes of New Orleans. In 1922 they were listed at 214 Decatur St., New Orleans, La. in the Publishers’ Weekly, The American Book Trade Journal.

G.E. Newton

• G.E. NEWTON

G.E. Newton, artist most notable for his waterside scenes in moody weather, many of which were reproduced by Rafael Tuck (qv) on postcards in their Rough Seas series both as undivided and, later, as divided backs. He also painted their Picturesque Abbeys. He seems to have been G.E. Newton-Jones by 1908.

New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal

• NZ Graphic Series

New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal was an illustrated weekly journal published (1890 to 1908) by Henry Brett (1843 to 1927), who also published the New Zealand Farmer and the Auckland Star newspapers. Brett was born near Hastings in England where he was initiated into publishing by his uncle, T. R. Brett, a newspaper proprietor, stationer and local historian. In 1862 he emigrated to New Zealand aboard the Hanover. When it dropped anchor in Auckland harbour on 17 September the proprietor of the Daily Southern Cross boarded the ship looking for reporters, and hired Brett as a marine reporter. He lived in sight of a signal station. Day or night, once a ship was signalled as being in the Rangitoto channel, he would rush to the waterfront and hire a waterman to row him out to the ship to get the latest overseas news. Brett introduced photo-engraving in New Zealand, bringing out the Graphic in 1890. The Graphic issued postcards and Stereoview Cards to boost sales.

Sources: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography; Heritage et AL

Nicklis & Lawrence

Niagara Falls, USA

• Nicklis & Lawrence, Niagara Falls

E. E. Nicklis and Frank E. Lawrence were both active in the infrastructure that served visitors to the Niagara Falls.

In 1902 F E Lawrence was manager of the Niagara River Elevator Company at Whirlpool Rapids. This company owned the incline railway on the American side and an elevator and store on the Canadian side of the river, north of the Grand Trunk steel arch bridge. A regulation fee of fifty cents was charged at all the elevators. The business also sold souvenirs and photographs. On 28 August 1910 its elevators on the American side and the incline railway were destroyed by an early morning blaze. An employee was asleep in the fancy goods store and was (as the press reported) burned to a crisp:

The shaft of the elevator created a roaring furnace and the flames soon licked up the frame structure at the top of the bank and the one running down the face of the cliff to the Gorge Road tracks. The Gorge Road frame office on the river side of the tracks was also destroyed and the tracks of the railroad at that point so twisted that there was no traffic over the road until 9 o’clock this morning.

Buffalo Courier Express 29 August 1910

At that stage, since the death of James Brundage, the company comprised Frank E Lawrence and Frank H. Zeiger, and carried a large stock of fancy goods of the kind that are sold to tourists and an extensive photograph business was conducted there. 1910 had been a very busy season with seven people employed.

In 1913 Nicklis was the superintendent of the Great Gorge route. The Great Gorge Route or Niagara Belt Line was a trolley belt line encompassing the Niagara Gorge, operated by the International Railway and Niagara Gorge Railroad. Many dignitaries rode this line and during the tourist season they would use a flat car with search light to illuminate the Niagara Whirlpool at night. Nicklis reassured the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America that everyone who worked for him during the summer months would be required to join the local branch of the union.

In 1900, with editions in subsequent years, Nicklis published Niagara in Summer and Winter, a book of photographs.

The business published tinted photographs of the falls and Canada printed in Germany, numbered in double figures preceded by 24. In 1904 A. T. Brown Printing House published for the business an 18-leaf book of tinted photographs Niagara Falls. According to the publisher’s statement on the verso of the title page: The process used in the reproduction of these views is a new one, originated and used exclusively by the A. T. Brown Printing House, and is known commercially as the Brownotype.

In the divided-back era this card was published for the Canadian market with a coat of arms in the top left of the image.

Carlos F Niemeyer, Valparaiso, Chile

• Carlos F Niemeyer, Valparaiso. 3

Carlos Niemeyer (Born in 1852). The Unversal Bookstore at 13 Calle Esmeralda (then Cape St), Valparaíso, and 17 State, Santiago was a partnership between Eduardo Niemeyer and Inghirami founded in 1851. They had a music store and sold foreign newspapers, musical instruments, note books and papers of all type, educational books, games of chance and French and German literature. The partnership was dissolved in 1878 and the shop passed into the hands of Carlos Niemeyer who made it one of the most important postal publishing houses in Chile. My card was postally used in 1903. Valparaiso is a major city, seaport, and educational centre in Chile.

Sources: Fondo de Investigación y Documentación de Música Tradicional Chilena Margot Loyola Palacios; For an alternative version of how he came to have these book shops: Alice & Eiffel: A New History of Early Cinema and the Love Story Kept Secret for a Century Janelle Dietrick BookBaby,14 Feb 2016 especially footnote 173.

Max Nierth, Leipzig, Germany

• Verlag von Max Nierth, Leipzig 1898

Max Nierth, 775 Kramerhaus, Leipzig. Nierth’s cards are an important record of the lost buildings of Leipzig. Between 1897 and 1907 Nierth’s publishing house issued more than 450 historic postcards of Leipzig and its suburbs in a numbered series Old Leipzig. However, he also published many more contemporary cards of the area, many of them photographs from the 1890s.

Further reading: Max Nierths altes Leipzig (2011) Matthias Voigt & Thomas Nabert

Mlle. L. Niggli

Serrières, Switzerland

• Mlle. L Niggli, edit.

The Misses Niggli ran a grocery store in the village of Serrières, on the western side of the town of Neuchâtel.

On 2 October 1917 the police at Neuchatel published a notice bringing butter rationing into force. Voucher for 50 grams were to be sold at a maximum price of 62 cents for 100 grams. Retailers were required to sell the butter to any buyer without distinction on presentation of the voucher and forbidden to require the purchase of any other commodity for the sale of butter. L Niggli of Serrieres was one of the authorised retailers.

In 1921 Miss Niggli was retailing PerPlex, a first-rate product fjor the elimination of stains in the laundry. The family were succeeded in the shop by the Dubois family. This photograph was taken by E. Ch of Neuchatel who also supplied photographs for other local publishers’ cards.

La Cité-Suchard is a district of houses on the edge of Lake Neuchâtel, clearly visible in the lower part of Serrieres. The first houses in Cité-Suchard were built in 1887, on the initiative of Suchard, the world-famous chocolate factory, to house some of its workers. In 1984, Suchard decided not to renovate the district and to sell the houses to their occupants in the form of co-ownership.

Carl Nilssons Ljustrycksanstalt

Stockholm

• O. Rangnitt, foto C. N:s Lj., Sthlm
• Carl Nilssons Ljustrycksanstalt, Stockholm.

Carl Nilsson’s Light Printing Institute, Stockholm was a major producer of Scandinavian topographicals, particularly railway stations, and also made cards for other people including Oscar Rangnitt. Started in 1903, from 1911 until it closed in 1929, the business was called Svenska Litografiska.

In 1904 a strong spring flood in Stockholm prompted Nilsson to produce a series of reportage images, which later also became postcards. He later published his Nordic Venice series postcards on the same theme. According to the Svenska Dagbladet on 29 June 1909, 112 kilos of Nilsson’s postcards – approximately 28,000 – were confiscated for lack of the Import on the cards.

Source: Kort med vyer

This Postmark: PKXP No 8

The initials P.K.X.P. (Postkupéexpeditioner) indicate Travelling Post Office (literally: Forwarding Mail Van). Postmarks had dotted circle and serif lettering or full circle and sans-serif lettering. PKXP numbers did not necessarily indicate the same route throughout their existence.

Source: TPO & Seapost Society

Ernest Nister

Nuremberg, Germany and London

• E. NISTER, NUREMBERG
• E. NISTER NUREMBERG LITH²⁹.
• Ernest Nister, London
• ERNEST NISTER, LONDON
• E.NISTER, NURNBERG UTH.

Ernest Nister was one of the most outstanding printers and publishers of quality postcards. The business he built up at one point employed 700 people in its Nuremberg factories. Nister was born in 1842 at Oberklingen and brought up in Darmstadt. He travelled widely through Europe and America until, in 1877, he took over a small lithographic business in Nuremburg. In 1900 Nister was the largest publisher of Christmas cards, calendars, picture books and transfer pictures in southern Germany. He bought his paper directly from the mills and his consumption of paper, mainly of German make, amounted to about $125,000 per year. He issued many cards of fine paintings of fruit by German artist Marie Billing (qv). My lovely card’s painting of the Champs Elysees bears the wording SCHMIDT-HTG which might be a reference to Rudolf Schmidt (qv). Nister also printed cards of the work of the much admired artists Louis Wain (qv), Manuel Wielandt (qv) and Heinrich Kley (qv) that were published by Velten of Karlsruhe (qv) and artist Peter Schnorr that were published by CF Autenrieth of Stuttgart (qv). In 1888 Nister 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 name E. P. Dutton & Co. New York. Nister’s Holiday Annual of 1894 was a volume of pictures & stories for little folks.

After Nister died in 1909, his partner Theodore Loefitz took over the business. The London business was disposed of under instructions of the Board of Trade and, when it re-opened after WW1, it didn’t deal in postcards.

Source: Paper in Foreign Countries. Vol. XIX. Reports from Consuls of the United States, in answer to instructions from the Department of State 1900; Picture Postcards and their Publishers Anthony Byatt 1978 Golden Age Postcard Books page 192

This card: Alfred Serenius Jensen (16 November 1859 to 29 June 1935) marine painter. Danish-born Jensen went to sea at the age of 14 to Africa, Australia and China among others. From 1884 to 1885 he studied with Heinrich Leitner in Hamburg. Then he went back to sea. In 1897 he continued his studies, this time at the Academy in Kassel with Emil Neumann. Afterwards, he lived in Hamburg and worked as a professor at the local arts and crafts school. Source: wikipedia

Nobrega’s English Bazar

Tenerife, Spain

• English Bazar
• Bazar ingles
• Nobrega’s English Bazar

Nobrega’s English Bazar, Tenerife seems likely to have been Francisco Nóbrega Sá (Born Portugal 1879 – died Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1920). They published tinted topographical and ethnographic photo-cards of Tenerife.

This card: The sender appears to have bought this card in the Canary Islands but not to have sent it until he reached the Cape of Good Hope. Pier Head was a post office in Cape Town between February 1905 and 1907.

Johannes Nöhring

Lübeck, Germany

• Lichtdruck von J. Nöhring, Lubeck

Johannes Heinrich Franz Nöhring (2 May 1834 to 2 August 1913) was a German architecture and art photographer. Nöhring wanted to be an artist, but in 1856 failed to get the necessary scholarship for art school. He became a restorer and worked on the restoration of the Elisabeth Church in Marburg during his travels. In 1861 he became self-employed as a photographer. In addition to the then very modern portraits, his topographical photographs featured Lübeck’s increasingly threatened secular architecture. Nöhring recorded many Gothic and Renaissance buildings in other cities in northern Germany. Until 1871 the photographs were distributed via the Hamburg bookseller Hermann Grüning. After that, Nöhring marketed his work independently as a publisher and he received a medal at the 1873 Vienna World Exhibition. In 1874 he opened a light printing house, not a success and only short-lived. Nöhring had to sell his publishing house in Lübeck to the local book dealer Carl Bolhoevener who, in 1877, moved the business activities to Munich where Nöhring briefly followed. He returned to Lübeck in 1879 and, again, founded a light printing business. This second attempt was more successful and, with increased interest in German history and art history, his systematic recording of all Lübeck cultural assets was now in demand. Nohring produced high quality work including, in 1890, the Old Masters of the Royal gallery at Cassel and in 1892 the plates for Histoire pittoresqne de architecture en Russie.

Nöhrings Verlag published Elisabeth Reuter’s large painting Blick auf Lübeck as a postcard under the title Lübeck Port. In 1904 he retired as a photographer, handing the publishing house to his son, the art dealer and publisher Bernhard Nöhring (1866 to 1938). Nohring’s postcards were excellent photographs of Lubeck.

Source: wikipedia: Johannes Nöhring

Norddeutscher Lloyd

Bremen, North Germany

• Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen

Norddeutscher Lloyd was founded in 1857 with a company emblem of an anchor and the Bremen key crossing each other, surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves. The company was often called the Bremen Line. During the first year of its operations a line to England was started with three small steamers. Four large screw steamers were ordered in England and Scotland for the New York service.

At 6 on the evening of 19 June 1858; the Bremen left the wharf at Bremerhaven on her maiden voyage to New York, carrying 100 tons of freight, 1 cabin and 93 steerage passengers. This was the first transatlantic sailing of a Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer. She arrived in New York at 7 o’clock in the morning of 4 July.

During the same year three more transatlantic steamers were added to the service and with those four steamers a regular fortnightly service to New York was commenced. In 1859 the completion of the Geeste railway between Bremen and Bremerhaven allowed all passengers to be carried from Bremen direct to the steamship. In the following year the postal authorities, in the UK and the United States entrusted the Company with the carriage of their mails, thus placing the new line on an equal footing with the older British lines.

Notwithstanding various technical difficulties and the American Civil War, business continued strongly. A new steamer, the America, started in 1863. With a speed of 13 knots an hour on a daily coal-consumption of 45 tons, she was one of the fastest steamers of her day. Built by Caird & Company of Greenock, her cast steel propeller shaft was the product of Krupp in Essen.

The end of the American Civil War in 1865 brought a large increase in the trade with and migration to the United States. The fortnightly sailing could no longer meet the demand. In 1866, 2 new steamers, were added to the fleet. In 1867 the weekly service between Bremen and New York was inaugurated with eight big steamers. 65 round trips to New York in the previous year having yielded receipts amounting to about 2½ million thalers.

The North German thaler was a currency used by several states of Northern Germany from 1690 to 1873, first under the Holy Roman Empire, then by the German Confederation. After the 1840s the different North German states made their thalers equal in value to the Prussian thaler; these thalers were then made par to the Vereinsthaler in 1857. The various North German thalers and vereinsthalers were all replaced in 1873 by the German gold mark at the rate of 3 marks per thaler.

In the spring of 1866 the line to Baltimore was established facilitated by arrangements between the Lloyd and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. By 1874 the North German Lloyd ships averaged 11 days and 13 hours on the transatlantic crossing.

The Franco-Prussian war caused a temporary check in the Company’s development. But as early as Autumn 1870 the traffic was fully resumed. The next year a new line to the West Indies was started, In 1875 a new line to South America was established, and three years later it became necessary to divide this line into two distinct services, one to Brazil and the other to the River Plate.

In 1904 a new service from Marseilles to Naples and Alexandria started and in 1909 a joint Summer service between Bremen and Hamburg to Quebec and Montreal was instituted with the Hamburg America Line, Red Star Line and Holland America Line. Bremen to Galveston ships commenced calls at Philadelphia in March 1910 and a new service started in 1913 to Boston and New Orleans.

At the outbreak of WWI, many North German Lloyd ships took refuge in US ports, and these were seized by American authorities in 1917. After the armistice, the company lost every worthwhile ocean going steamer as war reparations, and in 1920 chartered ships from the US Shipping Board to resume services. They gradually rebuilt their fleet and in 1925 took over the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line, the Dampschiff Reederei Horn and the Roland Line. In 1928 Quebec and Montreal services were resumed. During World War II, North German Lloyd again lost almost their entire fleet and again restarted with chartered ships. In 1970 the company amalgamated with Hamburg America Line to become HAPAG-Lloyd.

Sources: Norway Heritage; Simplon PC

This card: SS Karlsruhe was launched in 1889 at Glasgow by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Limited. The Karlsruhe belonged to the class of city steamers from Fairfield of the NDL. The ship had two masts, a funnel and a speed of 13 knots. There was space on board for 44 first class, 36 second class and 1955 steerage passengers. The Karlsruhe started on its maiden voyage from Bremerhaven on 10 November 1889 to La Plata in Argentina.

On 13 February, 1890, she sailed from Bremerhaven to Baltimore via New York for the first time. Her first trip to Sydney took place on 28 September 1892. On 31 January 1894, she sailed from Bremerhaven to Shanghai for the first time. After that, the ship was used alternately on all routes making it difficult to know where she was going on 4 May 1899, the date on this card. On 25 May 1908, the Karlsruhe was sold to Neugebauer & Co. for scrapping and scrapped in Lemwerder, less than 25 kilometres north-west of Bremen.

Source: Schiffe Maxim

Normanns Kunstforlag, Norway

• N.K.

Normanns Kunstforlag was founded in 1906 by Carl Normann (22 October, 1886 to 8 January 1960), Norway’s most famous postcard photographer and his company was by far the largest. Normann’s family emigrated to America from Trondheim when he was 16 years old but he didn’t go. Instead, he began to photograph and thought he could make a living of making postcards which until then had been dominated by foreign companies. Normann used a bike to photograph around Trondheim and then went out again to sell the cards to local businesses. His business expanded when he got a motorcycle and again, in 1920, when he got a car. In 1935 the publisher lost his entire archive in the great fire of Hamar. The company was owned by his family until 1986. The company Pictura Normann AS is Norway’s largest card publisher.

Source: Forlegger Foreningen; STORE NORSKE LEKSIKON

North Star, Darlington, England

• North Star The Popular Halfpenny Morning Paper of the North

North Star, Crown Street, Darlington was one of a number of provincial halfpenny morning papers that pioneered the way for Fleet Street in the closing days of the 19th century.

William Alexander Wooler of Sadberge Hall was one of eight sons of Joseph Wooler of Whitfield Hall, Wolsingham. Willliam was many things: a solicitor, a property-dabbler (Wooler Street in Northgate is named after one of his developments) and a friend of Charles Darwin. Above all, he was a Conservative. He formed the Darlington Conservative Association in 1879 and then the North Star newspaper in 1883 to act as a counterbalanace to the Liberalism of the longer-established Northern Echo 100 yards away.

North Star ceased publication in 1924.

North Star & Farmers’ Chronicle was first published on 6 April 1893 in Dingwall, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland and continued to 1913. It could be this paper rather than the Darlington one but its banner doesn’t match my card.

Emile Nourry, Dijon, France

• E. Nourry, Edit.
• E.N. Edit.

Emile Nourry (1870 to 1935), bookseller at Dijon, then at Paris. Nourry had a marked predilection for the oldest books: incunabula, Gothic and books of the sixteenth century; and for some specialties that particularly interested him such as travel, ancient medicine, history of religions, occult sciences, hunting and fishing. Nourry was also an author under the pseudonym of P. Saintyves. He self-published his writings on folk studies in France. He was president of the Society of French and Colonial Folklore. Nourry had his photocards of Dijon printed by Breger brothers of Paris.

Source: Le Bibliomane Moderne : Bibliophilie et autres Bibliomanies …Bertrand Hugonnard-Roche

Nouvelles Galeries, France

• Edition Speciale des Nouvelles Galeries

The New Galleries were a chain of department stores present in the largest cities of France created in 1867 by Charles Démogé. They were acquired by the Galeries Lafayette Group in 1991.

Source: wikipedia: Nouvelles Galeries;

The Novelty Import Company

San Francisco, California, USA

• The Novelty Import Co, San Francisco, Cal. Leipzig, Germany

Novelty Import Co are listed in the San Francisco telephone directory of August 1907 as BOOKSELLERS & STATIONERS at 128-4th Ave and in relation to Postal Cards with Theo A Kruse as their Manager. By the 1915 edition of Style, they were listed extensively as makers and suppliers of ladies’ fashion accessories including Venise allovers and by 12 January 1927 in San Francisco Business as importers of hearing devices and linked with the name William Rosenthal at 717 Market to 593 Market.

Source: Internet Archive; Internet Archive

‘Novitas’, Berlin

• Logo of N in six pointed star Berlin S. 42
• Made by Novitas Berlin S. 42

Neuheiten-Vertrieb (Novelty sales?) Novitas, Berlin news distribution publishing house was set up by Oscar Heiermann in 1902 at 29 Prinzessinenstrasse, Berlin S42 as postcard publishers and wholesalers. Heiermann’s partners were Otto Kellner and his wife. They also dealt in de luxe paper products, albums, paper decorations, menu cards and even wooden frames. Otto Kellner was later in Hamburg. Novitas made my card published by the Basel Mission Book Depot Accra W.-Africa (qv).

Source: archiv.sachsen.de; The Postcard Album; The Postcard Album

Novitas GMBH

Hamburg, Germany

• CHROMOLITH. RITTER & KLOEDEN, NURNBERG NOVITAS G.M.B.H. HAMBURG. ARTUSHOF NOVITAS-VERLAG VON KUNSTLER POSTKARTEN NACH ORIGINAL AQUARELLEN

Novitas GMBH (limited company) Artushof (Arthurian Court) 49 to 59 Grosse Bleichen, Hamburg. Novitas specialised in reproductions of fine watercolours of German scenery – including the Artushof building in Hamburg where they were based. This was a prestigious address in the centre of the city.

Armand Noyer, Paris

• Anthony’s Photo A. N. Paris.
• A. N. Paris R.P.I.

Armand Noyer (1864 to 1954) publisher, Paris. From the early years of the 19th century until after the Second World War, Armand Noyer was the proprietor of a large French photo studio and postcard publisher, at 22 Rue Ravignan, Paris. Noyer offered artistic and children scenes, women and glossy cards some of which were published by RPI. In 1907 he was at 37 Boulevard de Strasbourg,

Output included art and illustrations, glamour cards and cards of children, first world war pictures, sports and film stars – around 1300 Les Vedettes de Cinema cards. postcards. During WW1 Noyer produced patriotic cards under the marque Patriotic. Other Noyer marques are Zed (Bromure glacé et ordinaire) in the 1922 directory, YSA in the 1925 directory and EVA. Noyer was the most prolific publisher of cards of the 1924 Olympic Games.

Noyer’s cards used a AN logo extensively and some of the later ones, Fantaisies, bromure grand luxe, an A NOYER roundel.

It seems possible that Anthony’s photo was produced by E. & H. T. Anthony & Company of 591 Broadway in New York who did have some engagement in the French capital.

Joseph Nuss, Amsterdam

• Kunstinrichtung Jos. Nuss, A’dam
• uitg. Jos. Nuss & Co. Haarlem tulip trade mark in a diamond lozenge
• Edition Delft, J. N. A.
• JOS. NUSS & Co. HAARLEM KLEURENPHOTO. VOORHEEN AMSTERDAM tulip trade mark in a diamond lozenge

Josephus Maria Hubertus Nuss, (born 20 Mar 1879), printer. Nuss (known as Joop) set up in business in Amsterdam in 1899, trading from 1903 Kunstinrichting, publisher of postcards. After 1905 Jos. Nuss & Co was in Haarlem with the tulip trademark. Joop’s partners were the five managing partners of the Emrik & Binger printing company in Haarlem. The company came to an end in mid-1908, after which Joop continued under the same name until the limited company was established in October of that year. NV Haarlemsche Photo and Lithographic Establishment “De Tulip” continued the business – Joop had one share in addition to his job. But a director was appointed above him, he was dismissed from the NV in 1909 and a few months later he went bankrupt. After the Second World War, he set up in Eemnes issuing cards under the name Jos. MH Nuss. More cards on the more cards page.

Source: brabants dorpsleven

Nusserwanjee & Company, Karachi

• Nusserwanjee & Co., Karachi

Nusserwanjee & Company, Nusserwanjee City Stores on Dundas Street, Karachi seem to have been in every form of business from an early stage. By 1879 their head office on Elphinstone Street was grand indeed as was their bonded warehouse. The Karachi Steam Roller Flour Mills and Nusserwanjee Tiles were both part of this empire and in 1918 Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta paid for the establishment of The Mama Parsi girls High School. Mr Mehta, Merchant of Nusserwanjee & Co was a member of the first Governing Council of the Indian Institute of Bankers on its establishment in 1928. Meanwhile, on 17th November 1928 the company were in correspondence with suppliers of equipment for the manufacture of soft drinks in Bahrain.

Source: The History of The Indian Institute of Bankers 1928-2002 Padmini Murti

This card: The Indus is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The 3,180 km (1,980 mile) river rises in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Kashmir, bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan, before it empties into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi. Source: wikipedia