Would you pay £1,000 for this post- card? - Picture Postcard Monthly

ut they werelimited in what they coulddo. Nevinson, a friend of thepoet Isaac Rosenberg and aparticularly vocal critic ofthe propaganda element ofwar art, was considered fartoo realistic and many of hisbest paintings were notexhibited until long after thewar had ended. Paul Nashcomplained that he was notallowed to put dead meninto his pictures “because,apparently, they do notexist.” When Orpen wasasked to paint leaders likeField Marshal Haig herefused, while the Americanartist John Singer Sargentturned down LloydGeorge’s request to paintsomething that showed theco-operation betweenGREEHITHE PERSPECTIVE(from page 23)those Swanscombe orGreenhithe cards was in adealer's stock box, it mightnot be seen by a local collectorfor weeks or months(or years if it's in a Yorkshiredealer's stock, forexample) - and if pencilledwith a £200 price it wouldstay in the box until Hellfreezes over. Put it on eBay,and enough collectors willfind it (you only need two)to drive the price up to£200, even if the startingprice is 99p! This is nothingnew and has been writtenabout enough times in yourPPM columns over theyears. Like hundreds orthousands of others, I bidon eBay because I seecards I have never seen at apostcard fair - and I've beengoing to such fairs sincebefore the first Bipex and(left) Frank Brangwyn’s“Comfort inthe Trenches,”dark, frighteningbut very realistic.postcard/collector shopssince 1965.“It also has to be saidthat I can still get new topocards at postcard fairs toadd to my very largeGravesend collection,although it's not easy. Ivery rarely find a 'super'card and tend to pick upwhat I might call 'lesser'cards such as the odd gapfillerfor an unspectacularseries. My weakness is thatif it's a numbered series,I've got to have any missingnumber, even if theimage is the same (evenidentical) as on anothercard. However, Saturday'sforay to Canterbury (CliveBaker's Collectors’ Fair)produced three or fourcracking Gravesend cards,and all from the dealerwho originally had that'Mansion House,Swanscombe' (£195 oneBay) card in his stock! He“The MeninRoad” by Paul Nash, a card produced bythe Imperial War Museum.American andBritish troops andproduced,instead, a paintingshowing theeffects of gas onAllied soldiers.Between1916 and 1918over ninetyartists werecommissionedand producedpaintings andsketches for thegovernmentabout the warand its effects.Some, likeJohn Lavey,specialised inpictures of lifeon the Home Front; some,like Augustus John, producedvery little; others likeNevinson and Nash wereprolific.The results of the WarArtists’ efforts were oftenexhibited, even during thewar years, back home inBritain. Sometimes theywere reproduced and publishedin pamphlets forCharles Masterman. Manyof them were published onpostcards for the Ministry ofInformation. These MOIcards remain highly collectable,being reproductionsof quality drawings that areusually far more realisticthan their photographiccounterparts. They have thedecided advantage that,despite the government’sintentions, they were usuallymuch more than propagandadevices that shownoble soldiers sacrificingthemselves in the line ofduty. There are dozens ofexamples of that type ofthing, produced by the variouspublishing houses ofthe time. They can be foundin any postcard dealer’s boxand while they undoubtedlysay something about theperiod and about the emotionalintensity of the waryears, they cannot lay anygreat claims to artistic quality.Cards by official WarArtists are very different.Sentiment is, in the main,missing from these paintingsand drawings, even theearly ones that date from1916 or 1917. The artistsmay not have been able toshow dead bodies but theywere professionals andknew how to relay the horrorof what they were witnessing- even if the government,on the whole, missedwas not the eBay seller (heand the seller have somesort of trading arrangement)but that card was inthe stock at £20 for aboutsix weeks before he decidedto try to move it oneBay. It was just a pity Ithat point entirely. Many ofthe cards have the logo“Ministry of Information”beneath the title of thepainting - but not all ofthem. The key is the totallack of sentimentality in thedrawings. Like all true professionals- writers,painters, musicians - theartists simply present whatthey see. They leave it to theviewer to make a judgementand to interpret thework as they see it.The Ministry of Informationwas dissolved inJanuary 1919 and did notresurface until the dark daysof World War Two. Yet in itscreation of a team of WarArtists who would offer amarkedly different view ofthe conflict it deserves thethanks of a whole generationof historians - not tomention postcard collectors.hadn't visited the stock forabout two months so justmissed it!”PPM keeps you intouch with the postcardworld!ALL COLLECTORSALL RISKS - NO EXCESSInsurance Cover for STAMPS: POSTCARDS:COINS: MEDALS: & all other CollectablesDEALER COVER ARRANGEDat premises and FairsPUBLIC LIABILITY for SOCIETIESSTAMP INSURANCE SERVICESC G I Services Limited (Dept 16PP)29 Bowhay Lane, EXETER EX4 1PETel: 01392 433 949 Fax: 01392 427 632Authorised & Regulated by the FinancialServices AuthorityPicture Postcard Monthly November 2009 25