Lot #822: Two Vintage UK Staffordshire Postcards - "Old Tower, Shenstone" - "New Road, Shenstone" - Lilywhite (1932) Ltd. (Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire)

Two Vintage UK Shenstone Staffordshire Postcards: (1) First, one Vintage UK postcard, used, showing a Church with caption "Old Tower, Shenstone" indicating publisher as "Publishers, Lilywhite (1932) Ltd., Sowerby Bridge". No Stamp. No Postmark. Never Postally Used. However, copious tourist notes in blue ink, e.g. "The Old Tower is all that survives of the Old Church". (2) Second, one Vintage UK postcard, used, showing a street with cottages with caption "New Road, Shenstone" indicating publisher as "Publishers, Lilywhite (1932) Ltd., Sowerby Bridge". No Stamp. No Postmark. Never Postally Used. However, message in blue ink, dated "April 26th, 1936" from "Kitty" e.g. "..found the church on the hill, and the Old Tower very interesting, especially as it is called St. John the Baptist Church". Based in Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, Lilywhite (1932) Ltd. was a premier producer of Real Photo Postcards (RPPC) during the interwar years. The "(1932) Ltd." suffix indicates these were produced after a corporate reorganization, placing them firmly in the mid-1930s. As "Real Photo" cards, these are silver-gelatin prints rather than lithographs. This provides the "Deep Focus" clarity required to read the texture of the stone on the Old Tower or the thatch and brick of the New Road cottages. These two cards perfectly illustrate the "Dual Heritage" of a historic English village—the ancient ruin and the developing residential streetscape of Shenstone, Staffordshire. As the tourist notes state, this tower is the last remnant of the 13th-century church. When the "new" St. John the Baptist church was built on the hill in 1852, the old nave was demolished, leaving the tower as a Stabilized Ruin. Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}