There have
\nalways been people for whom collecting postcards is their number one hobby.
\nEmerged towards the end of the 19th century, postcards quickly
\nbecame an effective means of communication. Today it’s become a miniature art
\nobject, and a piece of our daily lives.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The first
\npostcards in Romania are dated back to the end of the 19th century. The
\nLaw on postcards, sanctioned under Decree no. 789 of March 31, 1873, provided the
\nlegal framework for sending these small greetings letters that people could
\nexchange when going on trips or visiting new places. Engineer Mihail Macri is a
\nphilatelist and deltiologist. He told us how this small paperboard object
\neventually took on more meaning in the lives of Romanians: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The first
\npostcards appeared in 1994. A number of three postcards were released to mark
\nthe exhibition in Bucharest. The following postcards were issued in 1895 in
\nWallachia and Moldavia. They were published in Constan\u021ba. One of them is known
\nto the public, but I am certain there were three of them, and they were all linked
\nto the inauguration of the bridge in Cernavod\u0103. The postcard has a red
\nbackground, I’ve seen it in the private holdings of a collector from Constan\u021ba.
\nBut other postcards were also issued in Timi\u0219oara or Arad, in cities in
\nTransylvania between 1892-1893. Some of them, which were edited in Vienna and
\nBudapest, have endured to this day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Originally
\nRomania ordered postcards from Western countries. Not before long, however,
\nthey started being printed in the country as well. Mihail Macri: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romanian didn’t
\nhave printing presses for postcards at the time. The first Romanian postcards
\nwere printed in Germany and Austria. Then, the Romanian publishing houses in
\nthe south, which would initially import postcards, started hiring illustrators,
\nas there was no shortage of themes. We had good photographers, and a wide
\nvariety of themes. The first postcards were lithographies, and the print-run depended
\non the limestone’s lifespan, which wouldn’t be very long. There are classic
\npostcards where you can notice huge differences in terms of quality – the image
\nstarts fading and you can no longer see the general details. The whole image
\nstarts to flow and certain parts of the image are faded. Then the limestone is
\nreplaced. The minimum print-run was 500 issues, sometimes on more pleasant
\ntopics. At different times the print-run would exceed 3,000, although this was
\na very costly business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
People today are
\naccustomed to the standard format of the postcard: an image on the front, while
\nthe back has a blank space where you can write a few words. The recipient is
\nwritten on the right, where you also need to place the stamp. Every object has
\nits history and evolution over the years, and postcards too have undergone
\nmultiple transformations. Mihail Macri with the details: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nThe original postcard contained the written
\ntext and a stamp, no image whatsoever. The recipient’s address was marked on
\nthe front and the text on the back. With the advancement of photography and
\nprinting technology in the 1880s, publishers had the idea of using lithography.
\nPhotography was still in its early days. With the use of this procedure,
\npostcards became illustrated. At first, the picture would be displayed on the
\nleft side on the front of the postcard, while the stamp sat on the right. The address
\nwas written below while the text itself was on the back. Prices would differ
\nextensively, from a postcard with two lines and a stamp, or sometimes the
\npostcard would be sold without a stamp for 2-3 bani. Others were more
\nexpensive, 1-2 lei. The difference was huge and not everyone afforded to be literate.
\nThe lithography covered most of the front, save a small corner on the right, at
\ntimes in the upper corner, at others at the bottom, and very rarely on the
\nleft, where you could write a few words. Other postcards had no textbox
\nwhatsoever. In 1907 the Universal Postal Union decided that the back of postcards
\nshould have separate areas for the text, the left, and for the stamp and the
\naddress, on the right. This format has been preserved to this day.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Who were the
\npeople usually sending postcards? Mihail Macri:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
More often than
\nnot people who knew how to write. In Transylvania, for instance, the priests used
\nto send postcards. The run was larger in this area for this reason. Yet the
\ncorrespondence was also active in large cities in Wallachia and Moldavia.
\nRomania’s foreign correspondence targeted France and Italy, where Romanians in
\nthe southern principalities would go. Romanians in Transylvania corresponded
\nwith Austria and Germany. Not everyone could write and not everyone had family
\nin Paris. These were usually wealthier people. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romanian
\npostcards continued to keep track of eastern tendencies and technical advancements
\nthat improved their quality. The advent of color photography also helped
\ninfluence the design of postcards, introducing an era of change.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by
\nV. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A short history of postcards in Romania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":169741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45601,45602,42873],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-lithography","tag-mihail-macri","tag-postcards"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n