[Hugh]

Cross-writing is when a writer gets to the bottom of a page, or the space available for writing on a postcard, and has more to say. So, he or she turns the page ninety degrees and keeps writing over what has already been written. It one of my collecting interests ... and I'm always looking for new examples. 

Here's one I found recently. 

It was sent from Hardwick, Vermont to Laconia, New Hampshire on July 16 probably in 1908.

The date is not clear on the duplex cancel .. it looks to me like it's either 1903 or 1908. However, this is a divided back postcard and that format was not allowed in the United States until March 1, 1907. So, I'm going to go with 1908.

   

Hardwick was a small granite-quarry town on the Boston and Maine railway line. The card was addressed to Mrs. Harry Holbrook. 'Cuz' in the salutation confirms a family connection.

Laconia was about 115 miles south of Hardwick.

Stamp:
US - Benjamin Franklin
Issued on February 3, 1903
1c, green
Sc. 300

The then current domestic postcard rate was 1c.

Cancel: Single Ring Duplex
Outer ring - HARDWICK / VT
Inner - JUL / 13 / 8 PM / 190[8]

Postcard:
A privately published Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) showing a well-dressed couple in a four-wheeled open runabout (buggy). [Sophie and Leroy? See below]
Written on the photo, is the word 'Kernal' ... probably the name of the horse. The man is wearing a straw hat, a sack suit and a bow-tie. The woman is wearing a 'merry-widow' hat with a plume. Kodak introduced the 'Brownie' camera around 1900 and US postal regulations allowed privately printed RPPCs by 1904.

   

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Message:
The message is cross written to add more content but, to make it easier to read, the horizontal portion of the message was written in pen with a dark ink and the vertical portion was written in pencil.

The message reads:

[vertical]
Hardwick Vt.
Dear Coz,
We got home safely. The folks met us at the depot.
Am not feeling very good yet - tired from walking home today.
Went up to the pasture and got my horse this afternoon;
He came right up to me.
Leroy said his boss told him that he thought he had got killed somewhere

[horizontal]
Will write soon.
Love to you both.
From Sophie and Leroy.

Cheers, Hugh

[Hugh]

Here is another example, a Canadian one, of cross writing. This time on an early 1876 Queen Victoria Regular Post Card (Webb P2) sent from Galt, Ontario to Dominion Barb Wire Rope Co., Montreal 2 on April 24, 1880. (Single ring CDS in black ink - GALT / ONT with AP 24 / 80).

It's a commercial Use with a blue oval dated hand-stamp from COOPER FAIRMAN & CO. / MONTREAL dated APR / 26 / 1880.

"In 1872 James Cooper and Fred Fairman established in Montréal the hardware firm of Cooper, Fairman and Co.. James Cooper later established the Dominion Wire Manufacturing Company, the Dominion Wire Rope Company, and the James Cooper Manufacturing Company (manufacturers of mining machinery). Cooper, Fairman and Co. held controlling interest of Dominion Bridge Co., up until the time of the dissolution of Cooper, Fairman and Co., in 1889. In addition, James Cooper operated a general contractors and railway supply business. Cooper died at Montréal, July 11, 1903." [Source: McGill University Archives]

   
   

[RICHARD]

British card

[Hugh]

Hi Richard ... thanks for sharing your cross-written postal card. 

Not only is it interesting as an example of cross writing, the thimble date stamp is interesting too. It's from Auchnasheen ... a small highland village in Ross-shire in Scotland. Located between Dingwall and Skye it was a stop on the Highland Railway and, therefore, despite its small size had a post office between 1887-1906. The assigned PO number was 29. 

From the highlands of Scotland to the US, 11 days is reasonable given that Auchnasheen is on the Highland Railway. It would have been a quick trip to a packet port and, in 1886, steamship transit times across the Atlantic would have been about 7-8 days. 

Small diameter single-ring 'Thimble' dated hand-stamp
Inside ring AUCHNASHEEN
Centre B / AU 12 / 86 [August 12, 1886; B = afternoon sorting]
Whitney, 9/7

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Obliterator
Scotland (4th Series) Horizontal Rectangle of Bars
PO Number 2[9]
The '9' is muddy as the obliterator appears to have been struck twice

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Postal Stationery Postcard / Post Office Issues
CP15a 1883, 1d Brown, stamp design L4, foreign card format CF6 without arms, buff card.

Cheers, Hugh

[Hugh]

The letter-card is one of my favourite collectibles. Postcards were the social media of the late 19th and early 20th century. In the big cities with multiple daily postal deliveries, postcards could be used like phone calls and text messages. The disadvantage was that others could read your message.

Cross-writing made it harder to read a messsage (and allowed more content in a small space) but the letter-card took it one step further ... the message was completely hidden. It was a postcard with the attributes of a letter.

I love it when I come across an example of a letter-card that also has cross-writing. It's like the sender was taking no chances ... and doubling down on the length of the message.

   

This one was sent on December 2, 1906 from Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, a fashionable health and holiday resort to Julius Heywinkel in Borås in Sweden. Borås was a town well known for its textile industry. Julius Heywinkel was born in Bielefeld, Germany and after his apprenticeship as a weaver, went to Sweden to work in the textile industry. Seven years after this card was sent he formed his own company, in 1913, in Osnabruck to mill sail cloth. The firm still exists and today is known as Heytex Bramsche GmbH.

When this letter post was sent to him in Sweden he wasn't there. It was forwarded on December 5 to Osnabruck where it arrived on December 7. It would appear that Julius was already exploring the opportunities in his home country.

A nice set of cancels from Ventnor, Boråk and Osnabruck. There are two cancels from Boråk. I assume one was the original arrival cancel and the other was applied when it was forwarded to Germany.

   

   

Cheers, Hugh