HAPPY DREAMS of long ago

Once they learned HOW, they needed to be reminded of the possible consequences. I believe this fellow is now wondering, "HOW did this happen?"

I gave up trying to decipher the message. Something about getting home safe and wish the recipient had been there.

No information about maker of the card. Mailed on November 29, 1909 at 8 PM.

Teach me HOW!

This is just to let you know the reason you're here today is because long ago some people got together and taught each other HOW. Yes, granny and grandpa found out HOW. Great-granny and Great-grandpa knew HOW.

Today everything is in your face and people are far too blunt. There's never a question about someone's intentions and isn't that a shame. Far more suggestive lines can be found at the check-out stand on the front of a magazine, but somehow seeing these old cards with these suggestive lines seems so very strange. And then we add the message on the back...

say wes, what time
did you get home?
I han’t seen that
card yet, what is the
matter, did I make you sick? Ha. Ha.
do you think
you could teach me how? Ha. Ha.
well write,
let me know
if it will
make any difference
when I come (???)
them (???) are you
going to the fair?
ans soon
Lillian Howard
Lestershine, N.Y.
Box 84 R.8.2.

I think this about says it all, nudge nudge, wink wink.

Okay, the fact that the room they're in doesn't actually exist, nor the chair/table /window /paintings, makes this even stranger. I'm thinking Toonville with Roger Rabbit.

Do it NOW!

Oh my but I'm afraid to say anything with this one. My mind races.

Apparently it also left the person who purchased this vintage postcard so long ago speechless too.

Dear Auntie / Dear Cousin...FROM YOUR BAWDY NIECE / COUSIN

If you were going to send one card to your auntie and another to your cousin which one of the following would you choose?

The tweaker?

or the kissing fondler?

I know, tough decision, right? Well, as you'll see below "Marie" made that decision. Did auntie and cousin blush when they received these cards or were they aware of Marie's slight bawdy side?

Dear Auntie Dena...

Dear Cousin Francis...

Marie held the purse strings and Howard liked to bowl. Match made in heaven.

As to the publisher Bamforth & Co.:

Bamforth's was started in 1870 by James Bamforth, a portrait photographer in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. In 1883 he began to specialise in making lantern slides. During 1898 'Bamforth & Co. Ltd' started making silent monochrome films with the Riley Brothers of Bradford, West Yorkshire, who had been making films since 1896. James Bamforths expertise with lantern slides proved invaluable in the film making. They used a camera developed by Bradford cine inventor Cecil Wray. This partnership with Riley and Bamforth, known as 'RAB' films lasted until 1900. Though film production was restarted in 1913 it was again stopped in 1915, when the film production was changed to the new named 'Holmfirth Producing Company,, which quickly moved operations to London. The last Holmfirth film, Meg o' the Woods, emerged in February 1918.

In 1910 Bamforth started making illustrated 'saucy' seaside postcards which, like his films, were exported worldwide for sale. The company was bought out by the Dennis Printing Company, in Scarborough during the early 1980s. Following the demise of Dennis the 'Bamforth & Co' name and postcards rights to over 50,000 designs were purchased by Ian Wallace in 2001.

Although the Bamforth company was best known in the United Kingdom for producing the 'saucy' seaside cards, what is less well known was their rich history of filmmaking. Drawing heavily on their work with magic lantern cinema, the company began making monochrome films in 1898. The popularity of these films, in particular those featuring a character named Winky, led to a film industry in West Yorkshire which for a time surpassed that of Hollywood in terms of productivity and originality. It is also believed the company invented film editing with the release in 1899 of The Kiss in the Tunnel.

In September 2010, on the 100th anniversary of the original launch of the postcards, the new owner Ian Wallace has relaunched the publication and sale of the postcards, with the Jane Evans Licensing Consultancy. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Click here to see more about Bamforth & Co.

These were purchased a few years ago at an estate sale. Believe me, they weren't bought for their poetry.