Antique & Vintage Postcards

She peers knowingly over her teacup beneath a towering stovepipe hat — a winking embodiment of Welsh national costume — and tucked inside her voluminous skirts is a fan of tiny black-and-white views that cascades out like a magician's trick: Upper High Street, the Loggerheads Inn, Ruthin Road, Moel Fammau Castle (its Jubilee Tower collapsed after a storm), and The Cross at Mold, among others. This charming pull-out "mailing novelty" from Valentine's of Dundee was a staple of British seaside and market-town souvenir shops in the 1930s and 1940s — the G.P.O.-approved format allowed the accordion-fold strip to be posted at the cheaper "printed paper rate" rather than letter rate, as long as no personal message was written. The Welsh lady in traditional dress — tall black hat, white lace cap, floral shawl — was already an iconic marketing image for Wales by this era, and this example uses her with cheerful wordplay: "One of the Hat-tractions at Mold."