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Their postcards were not numbered and their name appears within the stamp box on their early cards. When the divided back postcard was authorized, the Albertype company created a line down the back of their cards with the words Post Cards of Quality and later with The Finest American Made View Post Cards.
Many publishers large and small printed cards though the Albertype Co. The style and quality of the way the watercolor paint was applied changed over the years but their RGB pallet remained consistent. One variation of these cards were printed as novelties in a 6 by 8 inch format. They also printed postcards in duotones and tinted monochromes of various colors. An early type was their Sepia Delft series printed in dark high contrast tones. While most of Albertype's postcards were based on photographs they also produced an unusual set of sepia art reproductions of line drawings.
This company worked out of Nassau Street, New York, NY between and and claimed to be the largest publisher and distributor of books, magazines, newspapers, and postcards in the United States exclusively through their national network of affiliated news agencies. Their earliest cards were printed as black and white views, followed by their lithographic Polychromes. Other series were added each being printed in a different manner.
Some of these techniques have a specific letter prefix to their numbers, while others kept adding letter prefixes sequentially from A as they ran out of four or five digit numbers assigned to that card. Many cards with undivided backs were later reprinted with divided backs after Many small publishers also contracted out postcards though the American News Company. Their printers in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, Germany produced most of their cards, but many were manufactured in France and the United States as well.
They produced cards by various processes using different trade names Americhrome - This series was printed in the United States using halftone lithography. These cards are characterized by a medium screen pattern, limited pallet, turquoise skies, and small red block lettering. Their soft look creates the illusion of continuous tone lithography. In later years white border cards and a fine textured linen type card were made that continued to carry the Americhrome name but not the old printed characteristics.
They were not always published by the American News Company. Bromide Chrome - A German made card printed in continuous tone lithography. Bromide Chromes are characterized by a sharp crisp image. Druckchrome - A german made card printed with a black halftone, and then overlaid with continuous toned bright lithographic colors.
Embossed - These cards were simply colored though cards with the same numbers could have different coloring schemes. Excelsior - A gravure card printed in Germany. Helio Dore - A German made card printed in continuous toned heliogravure.
These cards are characterized by flat tones, stylized clouds, and a dull finish. Litho-Chrome - A German made card printed in continuous tone lithography. Their individual colors are sharp and tend to stand out. They are drawn more toward more solid tones than to texture. Many of these cards were printed with a dominant blue pallet that is sometimes so heavy to render a scene highly un-natural.
American News Company Litho-Chrome logo. Mezzochrome - A German made card printed in a four-color printing process similar to that of a collotype. They have a very fine dot pattern, which gives them a more photographic than drawn look. It was promoted as the highest quality budget card but its average look caused few to order cards in this series.
Newvochrome - A German made card printed in four-color continuous tone lithography. The colors on these cards tended to be applied in broad areas, characterized by a sharp look and a dull finish. Octochrome - A german made card printed using four-color continuous tone lithography. These cards are characterized by a sharp look with hard clean colors that emphasize blues and reds.
Prefixes D, E Photo Chrome - This series in four-color lithography were printed in the United States. The grain of the continuous tone on these cards is so fine but distinct it almost resembles a halftone screen on close inspection.
The MetroPostcard list of vintage postcard publishers and printers beginning with D. Numbered to Started adding printing the date to the While most of the photochromes printed by Dexter Press boor the words. Dexter press postcard dating the dating of the postcard dexter press postcard artvue dating how to date vintage postcards for years or eras of.
Photo Chrome cards are characterized by bright cool colors and a soft hand drawn look. Prefixes D, E, M Photo Helio - A German made card printed as a four-color continuous tone heliograph. These cards are characterized by a fine grain with smooth color transitions in the skies and crisp foregrounds. A bright cool pallet was usually used.
Plenochrome - These German made cards with a fine grain cards with a dull finish seem to bu printed in color gravure.
Many cards were produced using this technique but most only have the name of a local publisher and lack the Plenochrome lable. It is not known if these cards were published through the American News Company or directly through the printer. Poly-Chrome - A German Made card printed in continuous tone lithography. Its colors are bright and so flat that they almost resemble screenprints. The poly-chrome process was almost exclusively used before Other European publishers also used the same process but without the Poly-Chrome name.
Cards with the Poly-chrome name were also printed in the United States during the First World War, with an M prefix and white borders, but these lithographic cards have a grained texture.
Quarto-Chrome - A German made card printed in four-color continuous tone lithography. Sextochrome - A French made lithographic card made by usilizing six-color halftone plates in its printing. These cards are characterized by an extremely fine grain. Special Colored - A french made card printed in lithography by using four-color continuous tone plates. These cards are characterized by a crisp sharp image in black overprinted with colors in lighter tones. Steeldrucktone - A series printed in gravure with deep brown tones. One of their more mysterious sets of cards were hand colored in France with a more varied than usual pallet and a wider than usual border.
While some cards are painted carefully in subtle tones others are loosely painted in bold colors.
Only a few of these cards have a logo on them with most only carrying the local publishers name. They seem to have been largely distributed in New England by E. Dickerman, and the New England News Company. Many views were also made of Long Island, NY. The logo that appears on only some of these cards have been attributed to the Eastern News Company, but it is hard to say if the logo was used exclusively by them or the American News Company as well. A good many of these cards have no attributes at all.
Originally based in Amelia, Ohio this company operated between and Some were made in a small panoramic format and many cards were printed with gold borders. They eventually built a new factory in Zanesville, Ohio. The company is best known for publishing postcards of the plaques at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, a business they bought from Albertype in They produced the Hall of Fame cards until The only reference I can find to this company is a furniture dealer in North Carolina with the same zip code as the one on the postcards. It was not unknown for companies to publish postcards as well as their main business.
A major publisher and printer of linen view-cards of the United States based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts between and They later went on to publish photochromes and small spiral bound picture booklets under the name trade name Plastichrome in the 's. In business from to It's hard to date early Curt Teich postcards as they were not well documented. After , dates began to appear occasionally in the order books kept by the company and from on, production dates were well documented.
They published a wide range of national view-cards of America and Canada. Many consider them one of the finest producers of White Border Cards. The Linen Type postcard came about through their innovations as they pioneered the use of offset lithography.
The Teich Company continued to operate in the same building and continued printing Teich postcards until when the plant closed. With the production of the very first natural color post card in , Tom Dexter established a tradition of innovation and craftsmanship that would be associated with the Dexter name for years to come. While all the photochromes printed by Dexter boor the words Genuine Natural Color they went through a variety of phases.
Their early photochromes went under the name Dextone and tended to be flat and somewhat dull in appearance. As years went by their optical blending techniques improved producing richer and more varied colors. During that same time period, the Burney brothers, located in Aurora, Missouri, were quickly becoming one of the largest road map printers in the country. In , the two companies combined forces to create MWM Dexter.
Godecke published several local postcards. The bookstore which was located on Wabash Ave, just east of Fourth Street. It may be noted that many of the early Pioneer views were reprints as Private Mailing Cards.