Old postcards have turned into big business. Collecting them seems to be the third most popular hoarding hobby in the world, after stamps and coins. They are serious affairs, with their own markets, national and international fairs, online shops and exchanges – see their popularity on eBay and other dedicated websites. More importantly, with their own researchers and scholars.
[attach id=903090 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Promoting the International Eucharistic Congress held in Maltain 1913.[/attach]
Before 1985, Maltese postcards had been eagerly collected but hardly studied.
Graham Smeed in London and myself in Malta had, independently of each other, started working on a thorough and scientific inventory of early Maltese cards. When we discovered the overlap, we opted to cooperate rather than compete.
The result was Malta Picture Postcards, 1898-1906, the first ever book dedicated to these humble witnesses of the nation’s journey.
It was an inauspicious beginning, as the book had inadvertently fallen foul of a new law which banned the use of ‘Malta’ and ‘Maltese’ in the title of any publication without the government’s prior permission. Our book was a heinous...