My collections: Postcards

One of my most loved collections is my collection of postcards. I've been collecting them most of my life. Some I've bought myself, some have been sent to me, and many were collected for me by my grandparents from their friends and neighbours. Above you can see some of my favourite postcards bought on my last trip to Japan. And I must apologise if the word "favourite" is a bit over-used in this post, because they are all my favourites in different ways!

I decorated my room with postcards when I was at university, as you can see from the photo above. I love looking at this photo and trying to spot postcards that are still in my collection (I thinned down the collection a bit after that).

Here's how I store my postcards. I keep them in a couple of boxes designed for holding photos, which tend to be slightly smaller than postcards, but most postcards fit just fine. Those that don't, I keep in the box shown on top.

Did you know that the Royal Mail release postcards of (most of) their stamps? (The reason I say most of, is that I wanted the Royal Wedding ones a few years back, to match the two sets of Royal Wedding ones I have from the 1980s, but they didn't release them as postcards this time). Back in the 1980s you could only buy them in the post office, so I would go down and queue there on the day they were released, hoping they would be in stock. I got every set that was released over a number of years. My mum also has the Halley's comet ones, framed along with the matching stamps. You can order the Stamp Cards online these days, and in fact I've just ordered the Christmas 2014 ones as I loved the style of the illustrations.

Scientific Stamp Cards

Retro illustrations on postcards from my grandparents and the Hummel ones bought secondhand

Some early (and favourite) postcards from my collection, showing clothing from around the world

The first two postcards in my collection, one from my parents to me, and the other from their friends to them. I did have another postcard at that time, a circular one of a beach scene with palm trees, that looked the same when you turned it upside down.

Some favourite postcards bought on childhood holidays. And a bit of a theme going on there!

Some favourite scenic postcards

Some favourite postcards of Edinburgh

One of my strangest postcards, it's a jigsaw!

Two letterpress printed postcards, the one on the right is my favourite ever postcard, bought a few years after I started collecting postcards.

A couple of arty postcards, of Hundertwasser's art, with gold highlights on them.

I could spend all day showing you my postcards, and telling you the stories behind them! I hope you've enjoyed this little look at them. Postcards are a great form of affordable art, and collecting them is a great way of gathering together images that inspire you - it's like the original Pinterest!