Judges Postcards is a picture postcard manufacturer based in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, first produced by Fred Judge in 1903. [1] It was known as Judges Limited between 1910 and 1984.
Judges Postcards is a picture postcard manufacturer based in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, first produced by Fred Judge in 1903. [1] It was known as Judges Limited between 1910 and 1984.
Fred Judge (11 June 1872 – 23 February 1950) was an English photographer of all parts of the British Isles and founder of the company. Judge was born at Old Market Place, Wakefield, the son of Joseph Judge, a corn dealer, and Harriet Judge (née Waldron).[ citation needed ]
Judge moved from Wakefield in 1902 and purchased Algernon Booker’s photographic business at 21A Wellington Place, Hastings. [1] Initially his business directory entry makes no mention of postcards: “landscape photographer, lanternist and photographic materials dealer”. [2] Apart from lantern shows, these activities continued to be a major part of his business, prior to 1910.
The first Judges postcards were not produced until 1903. A newspaper advertisement of 15 August 1903 offers “P.O.P. postcards 12 costing 6d” (Printing Out Paper). [1] This may refer to an arrangement with customers that the first postcards he produced were multiple copies of their photographs required for their own use.[ citation needed ] The earliest of the probably privately submitted cards known are three views for use by the nuns at the Convent Chapel at St Leonards-on-Sea.[ citation needed ] The earliest of these is postmarked 16 November 1903. Fred and/or his younger brother Thomas Winn Judge, who did much of the “back office” work, were quick to exploit the new medium available to visitors; namely postcards, with a view on the front, that they could write a message on the back and post to their friends and relatives.
Judges first published commercial card is probably a multi-view of the Great Storm of September 1903 of which a copy has been seen postmarked 4 October 1903.[ citation needed ] The only indication that these cards are by Judges is a tiny embossed Fred Judge on a corner of the card. By January 1904 other more general views of Hastings had been published in sepia bromide format. Other topics were produced including flowers and animals.
Between 1903 and 1908 Fred produced many local views and always had his bicycle at the ready to take photographs of any local events or disasters and produce postcards for sale, often by the next day. [3] He was a keen member of his local photographic society and was able to promote himself nationally and internationally, receiving over 100 photographic medals and diplomas by 1908. In 1915 he joined the Royal Photographic Society and was elected a Fellow the same year. [4]
Between 1903 and 1908, many different types of photographic paper were used although 'Printing Out Paper' was widely used, with prints developing in the sunlight coming in through the shop and other windows.[ citation needed ] The problem was producing cards in quantity, and Judges also sent batches of negatives to other printers in England and Germany for series of coloured cards produced in collotype and photo-lithography. [4] However, a turning point seems to have been in 1906 with the move to larger premises at 42 White Rock and the purchase of an exposing machine from Ellis Graber of Tunbridge Wells. This machine could produce larger production runs of cards to a consistent format and quality. This coincided with the publication of the first 10 cards in the new main series (that was eventually to run from 50-31782) which were used in the Judges Postcard Voting Competition. [5] Initially black and white cards with a glossy surface were produced in this series before sepia tone became ubiquitous apparently because the tone was more sympathetic to being tinted.
In 1910 the firm again moved to new premises, bought more new Graber machinery and was re-formed as Judges Limited, a wholesale producer of postcards.[ citation needed ] The former retail shop was sold to Marriott. By appointing sole agents to sell their cards in specific towns and cities and opening their own retail depots in others, Judges became a national manufacturer.[ citation needed ] A card dated 1911 exists, written by T.H.W. Judge, and signed Judges Ltd, with which Thomas Winn sought business from W H Smith in Nottingham. [6]
Towards the end of the First World War, the company experienced a shortage of paper and as a result had to buy some from Sanbride, or possibly sub contracted the printing to them. Judges was again at a turning point, but instead of closing Judges added £10,000 of preference shares to the existing £20,000 capital in 1920 to provide additional capital to build and equip a new machine shop, and open and stock additional wholesale and retail depots. [6] Fred Judge took all the published negatives up to 7400 and probably up to 7699 but then in 1921 he took on Oliver Butler as an additional photographer who was carefully trained and monitored to ensure that his work was compatible and comparable with that of the master. Also by then Fred was using his artistic talents to produce packs of 4 or 6 lithographic sketch versions of certain cards and packs of 12 photogravure cards to offer cheaper alternatives.
By the 1920s, the success of the company was partially because they were able to establish a recognisable brand, known for the consistency and high quality of its products.[ citation needed ] Examples[ which? ] show that purchasers of their cards have specifically referred in the message on the card to the fact that they have purchased a Judges card or are sending it to a Judges card collector.[ citation needed ] In 1924 Fred Judge published a book Camera Pictures of London At Night. [7] By June, 1926 the cost of a postcard was 2d. and hand tinted flower cards 4d. [8] The new factory at St. Leonards was opened in 1927. [9] Fred Judge ceased taking his own new negatives from No. 9347 apart from the Buttermere series from No. 9760 to 9841.[ citation needed ] Some cards taken by Fred Judge were given higher numbers than this as they were not published with other cards taken at the same time.[ citation needed ] Oliver Butler continued until No. 12971 was taken in 1930 the year when Norman Button was also employed.[ citation needed ] Between 1930 and 1932 they both continued until No. 15323 was published.[ citation needed ]
The Second World War saw the cessation of new negatives and the company was in a poor state.[ citation needed ] Cards without a border were introduced during the war.[ citation needed ] The 1949 annual report mentions that a new Ford 10 car was not purchased until 1948 to enable Ernest to take new negatives. [6] After the war home production of luxury items such as postcards was severely limited while exports were encouraged.[ citation needed ] Many Irish cards are found without borders as after the war evidently efforts were made to sell cards to this “export market”. [ citation needed ] Fred Judge, on ARP duty, was injured by one of the last HE bombs to fall on Hastings and after a long illness died on 23 February 1950.[ citation needed ]
Fred’s daughter Marjorie inherited the company, which was kept going through the quiet years of the 1950s mainly by the efforts of Ernest Bartholomew. [6] The first 200 of the “C” series are older negatives with colour applied and printed on a rotaprint machine from about 1954. The first postmarked date of a “C” series card recorded is April, 1957. Again new investment in a German colour printing machine in 1960 and an offset litho machine in 1964 led to a rise in fortunes for the company. [6] The main series of now sepia tone and black and white cards was continued with the colour series running alongside for a number of years. Evidence for this can be seen in the images of 30770 and C350, (30770 and C350 Pony Trekkers Elan Valley) which were clearly both taken on the same date about 1966.
Litone black-and-white printing was introduced for some customer preferences in 1957 and eventually black and white replaced the sepia until colour became the norm. Gradually a niche market was carved out with Judges continuing to trade on its past reputation producing high quality cards of the more select tourist locations and increasingly batches of cards to specific order for many unusual organisations but primarily religious locations. Modern cards exist of small villages, country houses, retirement homes etc. Disaster did though almost strike in the early 1980s. The company was purchased by Peter Pugh of Burwood Ltd who were the selling agents for the Francis Frith Collection. However, the failure of an unrelated venture led to the company being placed in the hands of the receiver on 31 January 1984. Disaster though was averted and the company reformed as Judges Postcards Limited with the Wolford Family and former director Ernest C. Bartholomew taking control. [9] Since then the company has developed from a niche producer, continuing producing cards to special order, but now producing larger quantities of cards of larger tourist locations for general sale and also developing cards of general interest such as the Thomas the Tank Engine Series. In 1995 postcards were only 30% of the company’s turnover and the percentage has decreased further since then.
Judges have continued to be produced for over 100 years, and have produced about 32,000 main series sepia tone and black and white cards, 800+ London cards, 800+ 4- main series multi-views, 500+ pre main series, 1000+ other non standard and serrated calendar cards, a series of 1,500+ “A” series black and white modern cards, as well as a continuing series of approaching 40,000 “C” series colour cards. [10] [11]
A Judges Postcard Study Group, with about 40 members, exists. [12] Andrew Reynolds is Chairman and Keeper of the Records. The group researches and collects Judges Postcards and also pools information to create an extensive database of the cards.
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare.
The cyanotype is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300 nm to 400 nm known as UVA radiation. It produces a monochrome, blue coloured print on a range of supports, often used for art, and for reprography in the form of blueprints. For any purpose, the process usually uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate or ferric ammonium oxalate, and potassium ferricyanide, and only water to develop and fix. Announced in 1842, it is still in use.
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stadiums, or celebrities.
Wacky Packages are a series of humorous trading cards featuring parodies of consumer products. The cards were produced by Topps beginning in 1967, first in die-cut, then in peel-and-stick sticker format. There were 16 series produced between 1973 and 1977, with some reprints and several new series released up to the present day.
Photographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency , or a digital image file projected using an enlarger or digital exposure unit such as a LightJet or Minilab printer. Alternatively, the negative or transparency may be placed atop the paper and directly exposed, creating a contact print. Digital photographs are commonly printed on plain paper, for example by a color printer, but this is not considered "photographic printing".
Platinum prints, also called platinotypes, are photographic prints made by a monochrome printing process involving platinum.
Erotic photography is a style of art photography of an erotic, sexually suggestive or sexually provocative nature.
In photography, toning is a method of altering the color of black-and-white photographs. In analog photography, it is a chemical process carried out on metal salt-based prints, such as silver prints, iron-based prints, or platinum or palladium prints. This darkroom process cannot be performed with a color photograph. The effects of this process can be emulated with software in digital photography. Sepia is considered a form of black-and-white or monochrome photography.
Photochrom, Fotochrom, Photochrome or the Aäc process is a process for producing colorized images from a single black-and-white photographic negative via the direct photographic transfer of the negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography. Because no color information was preserved in the photographic process, the photographer would make detailed notes on the colors within the scene and use the notes to hand paint the negative before transferring the image through colored gels onto the printing plates.
Deltiology is the study and collection of postcards. The word originated in 1945 from the collaboration of Professor Rendell Rhoades (1914-1976) of Ohio and colleagues at Ohio State University. A biographical sketch of Dr. Rhoades life by his wife Nancy, was provided to the Canadian Friends (Quaker) Historical Association in 1994. Dr. Rhoades had responded to a contest by Editor Bob Hendricks in Post Card Collectors Magazine to create a more scholarly name for the hobby of postcard collecting. 'Philocartist' was a term used in the early 1900s, possibly coined by the noted early philatelist Fred Melville in his 1903 publication The A.B.C. of Stamp Collecting
A real photo postcard (RPPC) is a continuous-tone photographic image printed on postcard stock. The term recognizes a distinction between the real photo process and the lithographic or offset printing processes employed in the manufacture of most postcard images.
Collotype is a gelatin-based photographic printing process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855 to print images in a wide variety of tones without the need for halftone screens. The majority of collotypes were produced between the 1870s and 1920s. It was the first form of photolithography.
The cabinet card was a style of photograph which was widely used for photographic portraiture after 1870. It consisted of a thin photograph mounted on a card typically measuring 108 by 165 mm.
Raphael Tuck & Sons was a business started by Raphael Tuck and his wife in Bishopsgate in the City of London in October 1866, selling pictures and greeting cards, and eventually selling postcards, which was their most successful line. Their business was one of the best known in the "postcard boom" of the late 1890s and early 1900s. During the Blitz, the company headquarters, Raphael House, was destroyed, including the originals for most of their series. The company never fully recovered.
William Eastman Palmer & Sons was the name of a family partnership of photographers which was started in Devon in the 1860s by William Eastman Palmer and his wife Maria Louisa née Eales. By 1881 the five sons in the partnership were beginning to separate and to pursue their photographic careers further afield. As of 2011, the last recorded photograph by this family was made in 1935, in the Swindon area.
John Arthur Dixon was the British founder of the eponymous manufacturer of greetings cards and postcards, J. Arthur Dixon.
Barrier-grid animation or picket-fence animation is an animation effect created by moving a striped transparent overlay across an interlaced image. The barrier-grid technique originated in the late 1890s, overlapping with the development of parallax stereography (Relièphographie) for 3D autostereograms. The technique has also been used for color-changing pictures, but to a much lesser extent.
Foma Bohemia spol. s.r.o is a photographic company based in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic established in 1921, originally as Fotochema, being renamed in 1995 on privatisation. They are mostly known for their line of black and white films and papers but also produce movie film, X-ray films for medicine and industry and personal dosimetry film along with processing chemicals. They formerly produced aerial and surveillance films.
A large collection of photographs was created by two generations of photographers based in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. The collection is currently being catalogued before being deposited in Cumbria Archives, where they will be available through their online catalogue CASCAT.
The history of postcards is part of the cultural history of the United States. Especially after 1900, "the postcard was wildly successful both as correspondence and collectible" and thus postcards are valuable sources for cultural historians as both a form of epistolary literature and for the bank of cultural imagery included in the postcard illustrations reflecting historic popular culture norms and tropes. Postcards are also valuable resources for scholars of architectural and regional history.