rly days of the picture postcard 1900 to 1912, the photographers were quite unscrupulous and would sell plates/negatives to any publisher who would pay for them. It is quite common to see the same picture plus or minus bodies/artefacts issued by different people. Although there were British Post Card publishers, the bulk of the post cards were printed in Saxony, (part of the German Empire since 1871, but retaining its original identity). As I stated elsewhere there was no colour photography at this time and all pre 1930 postcards in colour were hand coloured/tinted and this would account for the different colouration of these two cards, also it would depend who published the card as to the title theron and any collector will tell you the mangling of names and misprinting of names on cards is common place. However pictures of Railway Stations sell better than pictures of hotels or public buildings. The original photo would have had all the figures in the Stevenson Place card on, but publishers often rid the photo of boys and men and in some cases vehicular traffic in an effort to make the picture more appealing to buyers. At this time as well there was a collecting bug just getting underway. As a matter of interest have either of these cards dated postmarks or publishers names on them? Postmarks can be misleading, I have seen cards issued in 1903 (before that date you could only put the address on the back, which is why there was a white space along the base of the card for the message), which have been kept in a shop that did not sell many, still being sold into the 20s and 30s with a postmark for that era and often the scene had changed very noticeably. What I have noticed is that some first class cards have been included in the forum and whilst possibly 20 years ago these two cards would have been 30p for Stevenson Place and £3.00 for Midland Station (it's a station card!!!!) now Stevenson Place is probably at £5 to £8.00 (or £15.00 rare spelling) and Midland Station ...well name your own price (it's a station you see!!!!). And those in the know seeing this card would seek to correct the dealer and mention politely and helpfully to the him.. ...er excuse me I would like to point out that.......the rest of the conversation is too 21st century for the ears of the genteel people who are the BHF
Bob
