Vol. 4, No. 3, May-June-July 2008
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Postcard News From Courthouse Square
Published Semi-Monthly by Jim Taylor and
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This issue has information on upcoming postcard shows. We hope you this issue informative and adding to your interest in postcards and postcard collecting. Let us know if you have ideas for upcoming articles or contributors. Your feedback is welcome. Our membership is over 6,000 and an ad or article can get wide circulation.
We send a 'digest' version of this newsletter via email to our listserv, no attachments, then you click on the links to the full Postcard News from Courthouse Square Newsletter here.
FEATURED ARTICLE:
The Story Behind the Illustrated Checklisting of John V Dedrick's Postcards
by Hal Ottaway
There has long been a fascination with Native Americans, and photographers have recorded images through the years, and many have been produced as postcards. I can recall as a child going around a turning postcard rack while on vacation, and picking out Indian postcards to buy. Later I was introduced to the older Indian postcards at antique shops. My parents collected antiques and I would make myself happy with a shoe box of postcards and pick out a few there too. Most of what I was buying was the colorful postcards showing Indian men, women, and children in their buckskin clothing. As I learned more about postcard collecting, I began taking a closer look at the black and white postcards and those that showed Indians in what we now term real photo postcards.
These became favorites and I added to this part of my collection. Back in the 1960's and 1970's the rage then was for the "pretty colorful holiday greetings" and those black and white real photo and printed postcards were considered dull and were not so popular. I liked seeing what everything looked like in the earlier days and these were what I collected. Antique shop prices in those days were five cents or maybe six for a quarter!
In the late 1970s under the leadership of Bert P Jones, we formed the Wichita Postcard Club. We found several local collectors who shared this postcard interest, and in a short time we began thinking about how we might be able to see more postcards to buy. We had several local antique shops that had postcards, and there were one or two antique shows in Wichita every year and that was all. And so, we decided to host a Wichita Postcard Club Show and bring the dealers to us. The rest is history, and in 2008 we will host our 31st Annual Show on October 17,18,19.
We began to look at our postcards and to sort them in various ways. In the Indian category we separated the printed from the real photo views and started noticing publishers and photographers. To make a long story short, we began to checklist the postcards of this Taloga, Oklahoma photographer named Dedrick in the monthly Wichita Postcard Club News. Club members began sorting through their own collections and finding more Dedrick postcards and reporting them to us and this list grew, and more of the numbers were filled in with titles.
During those years we had a Wichita Postcard Club member by the name of Pat Kelsey who came each year to our show all the way from Seattle, Washington. She returned home one year and told her husband (who was also a postcard collector and had a bent for research) about this interest in Dedrick postcards. The name must have clicked in some way, for Harry Kelsey found a man named Lord Edwin Nelson Dedrick, who was retired from the maintenance department of the Veterans Administration Hospital at American Lake, Tacoma, Washington. An appropriate time for an interview was set up and Harry went to meet this man who turned out to be the photographer Dedrick's son.
Harry went on to write up the interview and this was published in the Wichita Postcard Club News along with still another updated version of the checklist. We now knew that the photographer was John Virgil Dedrick.
Bringing all of this up to the present time line, I gave a talk at our Wichita Postcard Club's January 2003 monthly club meeting and Dennis McBurney was present that evening. He became so enthusiastic about the Dedrick postcards, and the story behind them, that he offered to use his computer skills and to professionally scan and record each image. What Dennis has done is to publish a wonderful reference work that is titled,
"Numbered & Illustrated Checklist for Real Photograph Post Cards by John V. Dedrick, Taloga, Oklahoma: Native Americans, Cowboys, Settlers, Sod Houses, Buildings, Wildlife, and a Few Surprises." This publication is three holed punched so it will fit into any standard three ring binder. Each and every known Dedrick postcard is beautifully illustrated and described, beginning with number 1 and going through number 123. This is a must have publication for reference libraries, and collectors of postcards and photographic images that are detailed in the title above. The Wichita Postcard Club has published this work and any profits made from this publication are returned to the club.
The Wichita Postcard Club through Dennis McBurney is asking friends to look through their postcard collections and hopefully come up with some of the 'missing' numbers. If you happen to have one or more of these numbered images (#11, 18, 38, 62, 66, 117, 119, or 122) please be in contact with Dennis. His email address is Dennis.mcburney@douglassks.net We thank everyone who has helped on this project through the years.
Here you will see three of the Dedrick postcards, No. 5 An Oklahoma Soddy; No. 7 "Magpie"A Cheyenne Indian Family; and No. 15 Indian School at Cantonment, Okla.These give you an idea of the quality of most of the Dedrick images and show why collectors admire his photographic skills.
(Our thanks to friend Hal Ottaway for his article and photos. Re-printed and updated from our Vol 1, No 1, 2005 issue)
Checklist is available at CourthouseSquare.net
Auction News from Lyn Knight Postcard Auctions:
Here is the latest on the upcoming Fall auction to be held online and at Lyn Knight Auctions in Lenexa KS.
Our Fall 2008 Postcard and Paper Auction is just around the corner, October 22,23,24. Cataloging is well underway, and another great Lyn Knight Postcard and Paper Auction Catalog will be ready to go online and ship(printed) in late September. This sale promises to bring lots of fresh material to the market. We will not only have thousands of small lots of the finest vintage real photos, signed artists, and Halloween seen in years, but will have hundreds of box lots of both sorted and unsorted stock and bulk offers perfect for collectors as well as dealers. A great opportunity for some unpicked boxes from numerous sources, some great 'front table' stock as well as value bulk boxes of vintage cards, ideal for stocks, malls and internet sales.
Some highlights of the October auction include the two most recognizable Coca Cola postcard images, not only the "Coca Cola Girl' by Hamilton King, but the "Coca Cola Duster Girl" as well. Beautiful classic Coke advertising. Hundreds of 50 to 100 piece lots of sorted topics and views at reasonable low minimum bids should be very popular with both collectors and dealers attending or bidding online.
An important collection of Czech artists, Mucha, Kirchner, and other great Art Nouveau and Deco artists are here, and all major topical areas are well represented as well, in both printed and real photo formats. Major propaganda, poster-art, and rare advertising are here as well. Two Asian collections, one primarily Imperial Japan, and WWII propaganda are in the sale.
State views, including many small lots of real photo small town streets, depots, and more have been consigned and are present.
Jim Taylor, Managing Director
Lyn Knight Postcard Auctions
jim@lynknight.com
Lyn Knight Postcard and Paper Auction FALL Sale
Oct 22,23,24, 2008
(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Morning.)
(Lot Viewing Monday and Tuesday, Oct 20, 21, earlier by appointment)
http://www.lynknightauctions.com
Lyn Knight Postcard and Paper Auction 2008 Fall Sale Catalog is being prepared. Price is $25 USPS Priority postpaid ($35 non-U.S. address), and prices realized will be forwarded by mail after auction. To order your catalog here, right now, just CLICK HERE
Lyn Knight Auctions will have a representative accepting consignments and buying for Spring 2009 sale at the following upcoming shows:
Aug 22,23, Springfield MO; Aug 29,30, Collinsville IL; Sept 26,27, Plano(Dallas) TX; October 10,11, LaQuinta Joplin MO; October 19,20 Wichita KS
Call Jim Taylor, 888.451.0340 for consignment cut off dates.
(For contact information and details, see our ad below or visit Lyn Knight Postcard and Paper Auction Website by clicking here)
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