References

This will be a very short post but hopefully useful to most collectors.

I have started to list some of the reference material I use for both Salmon postcards and for A. R. Quinton cards. These references are listed under the ‘Links & Websites’ section to the right.

These links will also include some sites that I have purchased cards from as well as general sites for postcard magazine, sites with some good postcard collecting hints & tips, lists of dealers, fairs and auctions.

And so that I don’t leave this post without a postcard image, here is a recent card by the artist C. T. Howard. No signature but it does appear in the Salmon catalogue.

4224 The Pier and West Parade Rhyl

Jump Forward in Time

Just wanted to jump forward and talk about a card that I purchased at auction just a few days ago. Not really sure if a got a deal or not.

The card was inexpensive and it was not listed in the ARQ catalogue that I use as a reference. However I have a second catalogue that lists all Salmon postcards not just A. R. Quinton and it was listed in that catalogue. The card is the Victory in Portsmouth by the artist ARQ.

3444 The Victory Portsmouth

The Salmon catalogue has the caption of the card as “HMS Victory Portsmouth” but the caption on the reverse of the card reads “The Victory Portsmouth”. Also there is no artist signature on either side of the card but there is what looks like a signature to the left side of the Victory, near two cannons. I really can’t make out the signature, certainly not A. R. Quinton or ARQ. I did examine the card under a magnifier but the signature was such a low resolution image I couldn’t make it our. So I’m not really sure if this is indeed the correct 3444 card by ARQ. Any feedback on this card would be welcome.

How many Cards are there to collect?

So I think 6,000 cards is too many as a starting goal, maybe I should narrow my scope from all of Salmon cards to only those by a single artist, maybe A. R. Quinton. That would bring down the scope to about 2,300 cards. I think I could handle that. 


So off I went again, on that well know auction web site and found a set of 5 cards from Tenby which looked in really good condition and all had attractive scenes. Now I had 6 cards from Quinton or ARQ as he sometimes signs his cards. Not sure why some cards are signed A. R. Quinton and some cards signed ARQ, even to this day after seven years of collecting it remains a mystery to me.

2347 Tenby Harbour

2343 Tenby & Caldy Island

2350 Tenby from The Slopes

 3769 St Catherine's Rock Tenby

3796a Tenby from the Sands

The last card, I have added the letter 'a' to the number because this card is not the original 3796 image, in fact the image has been altered where two rowing boats have been removed from the original image and the green deck chairs have been added. I still do not have an image of the 3796 card with the two rowing boats. Anyone out there that has this card that would like to donate the image for my files, that would be great. I also found out at a later date that this card may have been updated not by ARQ (even though the card had an ARQ signature) but by another artist, William Carruthers and he signed his cards as WC.

At this point, I was collecting in the dark so to speak. I had no catalogues, no list of Quinton cards or indeed of Salmon cards. So my next task was to do some research to see if there were any lists out there.

How it all Started

7 years ago I was browsing a well known auction site on the web and came across a postcard of a view that looked very familiar. It was a view of a narrow lane leading down a small hill to the beach. At the end of the lane was an old church and at the end of the beach was a pier that extended out to sea. The scene looked familiar because it was a place I had been to many times when visiting my sister. The town and beach was Teignmouth in Devon. But the scene wasn't a photograph it was a painting. I zoomed in on the image to see the detail and discovered the faint artist's signature in the corner that read A. R. Quinton.

1179 Teignmouth from the East

street lamps added to promenade

So this began my search, not just for postcards painted by the artist A. R. Quinton but eventually for all postcards published by J. Salmon Ltd of Sevenoaks, from the Watercolour Series, approximately 5,300 postcards in all with numbers ranging from 500 to 5650.

1 down, 5,649 to go.........