The Dandie Dinmont Terriers on Picture Post Cards

I do have a large collection of Dandie Postcards, but surprisingly few really nice colour art type cards. Two very well known and attractive art cards on the breed coma from the hand of Arthur Wardle. Wardle worked for the London publisher Fred Mansell who produced postcards of outstanding quality, which today are some of the most collectable and sought-after of canine postcards.

Mansell was also an enterprising an innovative business man. He was one of the first publishers to sell licensees of his copyrighted cards in Europe. He also pioneered something we take for granted today - corporate identity.

He and his agents sold the idea of overprinting some of the wardle postcards with the company name or slogan / trade mark. These overprinted cards are quite rare and I was delighted to be able to add the Dutch dog food overprint from 'Diana' to my collection.

It is always a mystery just what happened to so many of Wardle's original paintings used for his cigarette cards and postcards. Some years ago, when on a trip to New York, I visited the American Kennel Club (AKC)) on Madison Avenue and had a guided tour of the offices by the then Library Director, Roberta Vesley.

In one of the corridors, just off the main reception area, there it was, in all its glory - Wardle's original oil painting of the two Dandie heads, produced for Mansell all those years ago. Wonderful!

A dip into my Film Star collection yielded two Dandie cards: Lilian Harvey on a United Artists German publicity card (5116/4); and Marta Toren on a Universal publicity card (AX/288).

A final mention in this section must go to the artist Maud West Watson, who worked exclusively for the publishers, Raphael Tuck & Sons. She produced a total of five Dandie cards for Tuck, all of them in my opinion quite ordinary and still very easy to find today for just a few pounds each. They form the ideal basis for a Dandie collection.