Carriages and buggies

Very early real photo postcard posted at Winnipeg on December 14, 1904 and received on December 29 by the addressee, Mrs Ball, 4 Manor Street, Nottingham, England. There is no indication of the exact location but it is likely near to Winnipeg. The image is very clear and shows the machinery quite nicely. The card is on the usual early Canadian Velox back. 1904 is the year in which RPPC begin to appear in southern Manitoba. The earliest image that I can date on such a postcard in my collection is around the beginning of May 1904. This one would have been taken in September or October of that year. It's quite a good image for the 1904-06 period -- many of the cards from that era have condition problems, primarily fading and silvering.

Winnipeg Photo Co. card #1107 dated 1908, showing the main street of Ninga, Manitoba. Inscribed on reverse "Uncle Richard, from Charlie".

Nice Ed Justement image of Main Street, showing the Palace Hotel. This is taken from the CPR Bridge, I expect. It is looking north from the subway. The receipt stamp is dated December 19, 1905 at Saintes-Charente-Inférieure, France. Here the Belgian printer seems to have believed that "Ed. Justement" stood for éditions Justement, which would mean "Justement Publishing (Co.)", and took it on itself to expand the abbreviation to "Edit." Of course it actually stood for "Edmond".

Looking south from College and Spadina (compare the other card looking in the opposite direction). This is a Pugh Manufacturing Co. card. Pugh cards are less commonly found today than those of Valentine & Co. Pugh was headquartered in downtown Toronto -- on Toronto Street I believe. They seem to have produced a huge selection of postcards from all parts of Canada, but you don't see them that often.

Very nice photo of the Hamilton Hotel, "Dan. Hamilton, prop." in Neepawa, Manitoba. Note the livery vehicle at right and the little wheeled cart that two boys appear to be riding along the sidewalk. Despite the fact that it was one of the larger towns in Manitoba at the time, cards from Neepawa from this era are not especially common.

Valentine & Sons card 102,181, showing Victoria Park in London, Ontario.

Warwick Bros. & Rutter card no. 1013 with misspelling of "Assiniboine" -- later corrected on subsequent printings.

Interesting Valentine & Sons card showing Garry Street in Winnipeg, looking north to (and beyond) Portage Avenue. On the right the tall building is the Garrick Hotel, with the small building farther down (which is still there as well) -- the Inglis Building (or Northwest Commercial Travellers Building) was built a year or two later on the site that in this image is occupied by the Angelus Cafe. In the distance one can see the tower of the Maltese Cross Building. The Bank of Nova Scotia appears to be complete at left (the white building) -- this suggests that the image dates from 1911 (plus or minus 1/2 year). The Valentine serial number is 107,228.

MacFarlane card HA.110. The stamp has been removed but there is enough of the cancellation to show that it was sent or received in December 1906. The message on the front is presumably in Flemish. The sender is J. B. Vigneron of St. Boniface and the recipient appears to be a Mr. St. Elfons Van de Broeck (?), "school master"), Lovenjoul by Leuven, Belgium. The handwriting is difficult to read. The card is quite intricately coloured, making for a convincing overall effect. Same image on www.ipernity.com/doc/wintorbos/44381896 (possibly the work of Barrowclough).