I’ve already featured a series of postcards that used a colourisation process to add colour to black and white photos. There are several colourised photos in my postcard collection and I’ve attempted to recreate the process using modern digital tools. Red or Blue? These cards are a perfect example of how colourisation produces very different …
Lady Gwendolen Mary Anne Stuart (Fitzalan-Howard) played a significant part in the development of Castell Coch. Gwendolen Fitzalan-Howard (1854 – 1932) was the daughter of The 1st Baron Howard of Glossop and granddaughter of The 13th Duke of Norfolk. She was engaged to John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute in February 1872 and the couple …
When I’m researching old postcards, it’s sometimes a struggle to identify the publisher and often difficult to find out much information about them. I was delighted to discover the amazing TuckDB Postcards, which has documented over 135,000 cards from the famous publisher. CDF 72 – Castle Coch, Near Cardiff (1959) I bought this postcard a …
“Castles and Abbeys of Wales” was written by D J Cathcart King (MC, LLM, FSA) and published by the Department of the Environment in 1975. The 40 page book features 49 monuments and 32 photographs. The two photos of Castell Coch (below) are prominently featured in the centre of the book. The monuments are organised …
John Hassell was an English watercolour landscape painter, engraver, illustrator, writer and publisher. “The Beauties of Antiquity Or Remnants of Feudal Splendour and Monastic Times” was published in 1806 and contains a fantastic illustration of Castell Coch. There’s a short description of the castle and some of its history. The magnificence of its front is …
I’m really pleased to share the art of Gary Yeung after he recently posted a fantastic illustration of Castell Coch for the popular #inktober2023 drawing challenge. I’ve been following him online for a while and got in touch when I realised he’s produced quite a few pieces featuring the castle. I asked Gary to tell …
I’ve been planning a series of blog posts that look at each room in Castell Coch. While I work on this I thought I’d share another postcard from my collection. This view of Lady Bute’s bedroom is from a 1967 postcard published by the Ministry of Public Building and Works. William Burges’ stencilled cabinet isn’t …
The James Valentine Collection is the photographic production of a business which began operation in 1851 in Dundee, Scotland. Although many people think of Valentine’s as postcard publishers, they produced several types of photographic products. There’s a very comprehensive history in the collection that charts the rise and fall of the business. I have quite …
“Letters Describing a Tour Through Part of South Wales” was written by Armand-Louis-Bon Maudet, Comte de Penhouët (1764 – 1839) and published in 1797. The book is a collection of letters written to an anonymous lady and “sketches of every object that had attracted my attention.” The Breton aristocrat was in exile in Britain because …
I purchased this booklet a few years ago but I’ve only recently looked into the history of the author. It’s an excerpt from Volume L (50) of the “Transactions of The Cardiff Naturalists’ Society”. It contains a report by John Stuart Corbett on the Society’s visit to Castell Coch on June 27th 1917. The booklet …
