Risqué Postcards of Britain
What started as a simple license of postcard printing for private publishers quickly became a huge and popular industry. It happened in 1894 when the British Royal Mail allowed private enterprises to print their own picture postcards.
One of the major developments was the introduction of the so-called “saucy postcards” of Britain. These were not directly erotic in nature, unlike the famous Julian Mandel postcards of the 1920′s, but were cleverly constructed with racy images and texts with double entendres. Many contained cartoons, some were even political in nature–often politically incorrect–but all had an element of naughty fun. It’s no wonder these were extremely popular among people who thought that the government should not be their moral guardians; at its peak, the industry sold over 16 million of these postcards a year.
Calamity struck with the rise to power of the conservative government in the 1950′s. Being conservatives, they were very concerned about keeping British adults safe from moral depravity. They began a crackdown on the saucy postcard industry.
The principal target of this governmental witch hunt was Donald McGill, a Scotsman who was considered the most important designer of these postcards. His postcards sold by the thousands, and he made clever political jokes at the expense of the ruling party. The government sued him for his efforts, and for a decade, the saucy postcard industry came to a halt. It was not until the 1960′s that the industry came back to life.
Although the saucy postcards came to be considered an art form, they teetered more on the raunchy side, and soon the cleverness and political satire deteriorated. Old style saucy postcards are major collectible items today, especially those created by a firm called Bamforths, which was from a town in Yorkshire. During the heyday of the saucy postcards, this firm created some of the most popular cartoons.
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