Call me fickle – in my last blog I told you not to play with fire, and here I am praising the joys of candlelight. However, please note that I am only talking about images of candles. Some of you may celebrate advent by lighting first one, then two, then three, then four candles – as in the German Advent poem . Even if you don’t follow this tradition, I hope you’ll still enjoy the atmosphere of the cards from my collection.
Photo-cards

The Mainzer company was founded by siblings Renate and Alfred Mainzer, who started the business in their New York City home in 1938. It bears the 118 East 26th Street, NY address on the back, indicating that this was printed in 1955 or before. In January this year the Alfred Mainzer Company was acquired by Christian Brands.

The VEB Volkskunstverlag was founded in 1951 – it’s history (VEBs usually came about through nationalisations of companies) can be found (in German) here.

Toppan is a Japanese printing company – founded in 1900 and still in business. You can find their 3-D or lenticular postcards from the 1970s (in every conceivable subject) on Ebay, Etsy and other collector’s sites
Illustration



A Gibson Card – probably 1940s. Gibson was founded by brothers George, Robert, Samuel and Stephen in 1855 as Gibson & Company, Lithographers in Cincinnati, USA. It was sold to brother George as Gibson Arts in 1883 and became Gibson Greeting Cards Inc. in 1960. In 1999, it was sold to American Greetings.








As you will have noticed, I haven’t been able to trace quite a few of the companies that made these lovely cards – so if you have any hints please do let me know. Happy Advent, everyone!
Everything looks nicer in candlelight. 🙂
That it does!
… RE-posted @trefology
Thank you so much 🕯
I agree. Hope you’re keeping warm 💕
Thank you for all of your posts. They’re inspirational, fascinating, and informational. Also, they’re just fun to read!
Thank you so very much, It means a lot, especially from you. I enjoy your blog immensely 💐
So warm! So glowy!
I love vintage things. These cards are really lovely.
Thank you 😊🕯
Herat-warming images of candles, and perfect as it’s just turned really cold here. Hard to pick a fave as they’re all special, but I like “Warm Wishes” and the one with the piano.
Thank you 🕯, try and keep warm x
I hope everyone had a lovely Advent – I’m missing it already … I confess I’m a candle-phile … wondering if I could start a world candle-light day once a year (with proper regard for health & safety of course haha ! Thanx for the beautiful & informative post Wibi !
Thank you 😊