The Inside Story By An IFPD Dealer

May 28, 2010

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of articles by Members of the International Federation of Postcard Dealers who will reveal interesting aspects of deltiology, the study and collection of postcards. This article is by Stanley Davidson of Hyannis, Massachusetts.
I am a collector, dealer and author of books specializing in signed artist postcards. Some of the familiar artists’ cards are those by Clapsaddle, Fisher, Christy, Gibson, Boileau, O’Neill, Shmucker and Brundage. Comic artists include the well-known works of Outcault, Drayton, Dwig, Hutaf, Zim and Grigg, among others. But sometimes there are unsigned cards that pique one’s interest, challenging the collector to find the name of the artist. Here’s a case in point.
Mary H. Huber
I have been collecting an unknown artist’s work for a few years. Unsigned examples of the cards pop up under topical sections of children and comic. They are unlike any other artist’s work but I thought I could eventually link them to some artist I knew, but I could not. So I kept filing them away.
Much to my surprise I found the "missing link" in my own stock of Artist Signed cards. It is signed Mary H. Huber and was published and copyrighted by the Campbell Art Company of Elizabeth, New Jersey. The card is signed beneath the front illustration (see below), is postmarked 1918 and has a printed message on the back:
A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
When Santa’s unlocking
His stores for your stocking
Be quiet and still as can be;
Just heed well this warning
And then in the morning
A happy surprise you will see.

 

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