After digging through my collection for 1980s memorabilia back in 2022, I’ve gone back to see what I have from the 1990s. I’m fascinated by the very early history of the castle but I also love more recent history (yes, I know the 90s were 30 years ago!) I have a selection of guidebooks, leaflets, …
For Valentine’s Day, I’m sharing this unique panoramic postcard by the famous publisher J Valentine & Sons. J Valentine & Sons was a prominent postcard publisher based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded in 1851 by James Valentine, the company initially focused on photography and printing before venturing into the postcard business in the late 19th century. …
In this instalment of Postcards of Castell Coch I investigate a 1908 card from a rare Cardiff publisher. Researching this postcard sent me down a rabbit hole investigating the history of a small Cardiff business that was established in 1880 and expanded into the early 1900s. I spent hours looking through decades of adverts in …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Castell Coch is currently closed for its annual conservation housekeeping. The trees surrounding the castle are also undergoing some maintenance so I looked through some old postcards to see how the view has changed. This postcard was published by “The R. A. P. Co. Ltd. London. EC4.” It’s unposted but I believe it’s from between …
I have several postcards that use the same image so I thought I would research an interesting series of cards posted between 1905 and 1910. All three postcards were produced by Blum & Degen, who produced millions of cards between 1895 and 1908. The first two postcards are later versions of the first “divided backs”, …
There are lots of postcards with aerial photos of the castle in my collection and this is one of my favourites. The company who produced the image have a huge collection of photos available to view on Amgueddfa Cymru’s website. Scaffolding has been erected on the curtain wall and it looks like roof tiles were …
