Lot #768: Vintage 1910 Romance Postcard - Steam Roller - Couple Kissing - "Detained on Slow Train" - "Bamforth & Co." - Blyth to Londesborough - Two 1¢ stamps

One Vintage 1910 Ontario Canada Romance Postcard, used, showing a young man and woman sitting on a huge mechanical Steam Roller with caption "Am Detained on a Slow Train". This blue and white coloured postcard indicates as publisher "Bamforth & Co., Publishers, Holmfirth, England, and New York. No. 6000. Copyright 1910 by Bamforth and Co." Postally used. Stamped with two Green One-Cent "King George V (Admiral)" Stamps. Although the Card is copyright 1910, it was Postmarked in April 1915 in both Blyth, Ontario (origin) and Londesborough, Ontario (destination). Addressed to "Miss Katie Bird (?), Londesboro, Ontario". Message in spidery hand in faint ink. ("...The boys just came home to start the seeding....Flo". This Bamforth & Co. card is a classic example of "Comic Romance," a genre dominated by this Yorkshire-based publisher. While the front uses a playful pun about travel, the message on the reverse provides a poignant look at rural Ontario life during the first spring of the Great War. Based in Holmfirth, England, the Publisher, Bamforth & Co., was known as "The King of Comics" and was the world leader in cinematic and comic postcards. Bamforth cards were staged in their English studios using professional models and props, then exported to their New York office for distribution across North America. In 1910, the steam roller was a symbol of modern road construction but also a target for jokes about speed. The journey of this card covers a tiny geographic area in Huron County, documenting the hyper-local nature of the rural postal web. The two villages of Blyth and Londesborough are only about 10 kilometers apart. In April 1915, sending a postcard was often faster and more reliable than attempting to coordinate by muddy roads during the spring "thaw." Despite being a domestic postcard (which usually required only 1 cent), this card bears two Green One-Cent "Admiral" stamps. This might suggest a "War Tax" had been applied (Canada introduced a 1-cent war tax on most mail in April 1915). In April, the "boys" returning home refers to the critical labor needed for the spring planting. In the context of 1915, "the boys" returning might also imply a temporary leave from military training or simply a return from winter work in the lumber camps to help with the family farm. Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}