A Folder of Vintage Postcards Featuring Mabel Lucie Attwell
This lot is a presentation folder of assorted vintage postcards, led by a selection of designs by the celebrated illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell. Her sweet, round-cheeked children and playful verses were printed in great numbers by British publishers between the 1910s and 1930s, and remain among the most recognisable postcard designs of the period. Notable examples include a Worthing greeting dated 1927, a kitchen scene captioned “Let who will roam, I like it at home”, and a domestic cartoon captioned “When work is done we has a sit”. The folder also contains a range of other early twentieth century cards, including a Lincoln Imp black and white card with a printed legend, a set of Donald McGill style seaside comic cards, a 1902 Scottish view and handwritten correspondence, a pair of theatrical photographic cards from “The Sign of the Cross”, and a Westminster Gazette cartoon. Several pullout multi-view cards are included, which fold out to reveal additional scenes and are a popular feature of the era.
Condition and Collector Appeal
Condition varies across the folder, as is typical for cards of this age and handling. The examples shown display some edge wear, light creasing and the ageing expected of postcards from the early twentieth century, while the colours on the Attwell designs remain bright. Several cards carry period postal markings and handwritten messages, which add to their social history and appeal to ephemera collectors. The card contents are housed in clear plastic sleeves within a brown faux leather album, which helps to protect them. Mixed lots of this kind offer an excellent opportunity to build a collection around a single illustrator, a seaside theme, or the early postcard era, and they are especially appealing to collectors of Mabel Lucie Attwell, whose work is consistently sought after.
