Felicitas Titus - Old Beijing: Postcards from the Imperial City

Appendix

POSTCARD VERSOS

After the invention of photography in 1838, cameras soon came to China with the Westerners. Photography shops were opened in all treaty ports by both Westerners and Chinese. Between 1870 and 1889, the first image cards appeared in Europe. The postcard became a quick and inexpensive means of communication, and, as souvenirs, postcards became hugely popular almost immediately. People wrote cards to each other and started to collect them and fill albums, to such an extent that the period from 1898 to 1919 is referred to as the Golden Age of Postcards. The earliest postcards of China date back to the beginning of this period, 1898.

The Weltpostverein, German for Universal Postal UnionUnion Postale Universelle in Frenchwas founded in 1874 in Bern, Switzerland, to coordinate the delivery of mail between member states. Twenty-two countries joined immediately, and the mailing of postcards was backed by the union. The names of member states appear in different languages in the upper left hand corner of the back of a card on a number of Beijing cards, Russia using its own script, for instance.

UNDIVIDED AND DIVIDED BACKS, WITH OR WITHOUT PUBLISHERS NAMESSTAMPS AND CANCELLATIONS
The so-called undivided back postcard has three lines on the verso of the card for the address and no space for a message. This type of card prevailed before 1907. Senders wishing to add a personal message had to scribble something on the image side of the card by default. A category of cards with a white border for a message at the bottom of the image side did exist during this early postcard era, and England permitted the divided back card as early as in 1902, with France following in 1904, Germany in 1905, and the United States Postal Service in 1907. The year 1907 has become the standard date for divided back postcards and is thus an important date for dating postcards. The first cards after 1907 were divided unevenly, favoring the address portion. Some postcards have the publisher, the printer, or the photography shop name on the back. In the early period of the postcard, most cards in China were printed by the British or were printed overseas in Germany, where printing techniques were highly developed.

Stamps on postcards tell the era they belong to, while cancellations can tell their own story. For example, a letter sent from China by a British national bore a Hong Kong stamp with the letters B.P.O.., which stood for British Post Office. Other nationals in China built their own post offices in the treaty ports or mailed their letters from their embassy or consulate with stamps from their own countries, some stamps being overprinted. Peking on the cancellation was used during the imperial era until the Chinese nationalists proclaimed a national government in 1911, moving the capital to Nanjing and renaming the city Peiping (Beiping), as can be seen on cancellations. A general Chinese post office was created in the 1920s.

Postcards document political and social change. They are themselves history.

Peking view card, undivided back. Imperial Post Office stamp with dragon (engraved in London). Cancellation illegible, passed through Shanghai B.P.O. (British Post Office).
Postal Union members listing: O. Ludwig, Peking

Peking view card, early divided back. Hongkong 4 stamp used by B.P.O. (British post offices in China). Card mailed from Tianjin (cancellation), passed through Shanghai B.P.O.
Postal Union members listing: C.H. 592 copyright

Beijing view card, Rice Sower stamp, Republic Post Office. Cancellation Peipingas Peking was renamed when the Republican capital moved to Nanjingdated 1920.
Camera Craft. Peking card made in U.S.A.