Harbour Bridge under Construction. 1930

This real photo postcard depicts the progress made in constructing the bridge which had been made by October 1930. It also depicts one of Australia’s few warships of the time: HAMS Canberra. The card has a ‘Kodak’ back. It was obviously commercially produced,evidenced by the quality printing of the caption on its front. However there is no record of the photographer who took the photo or the person who distributed the copies of it for sale.

L’Australie. By Lieberg

A Liebig Trade card from the L'Australie series

This is one of 6 cards in one of the hundreds of  sets of cards produced and distributed by the Liebig company, largely in Europe, to promote the sales of a meat extract paste manufactured by that company. The card depicts three images through “early European eyes”: the Blue Mountains, Sydney Harbour, and an aboriginal hunter. The quality of the printing in this set, as is the case with numberous other Liebig sets around the turn of the 20th Century, is very high.

“Refreshments” by Ida Outhwaite

"Refreshments" by Ida Outhwaite.

This is one of 6 cards published in Series 71 by A&C Black of London in the early 1930s. The image origionally appeared in a Children’s book entitled “The Enchanted Forest”. Ida Outhwaite, nee Rentoul, was born in Australia and, as a relatively young woman illustrated a number of highly sought after postcards. She married and migrated to England and produced many more illustrations for a number of children’s books and postcards. Her postcards are very popular with collectors of children’s art and of fantisy. As one of the koalas in “Refreshments” is dressed in an Australian Cricket team blazer and is holding a cricket bat, this particular card is also sought by collectors of cricket memorabilia.