A vintage image of an outing in a charabanc, an early motor coach which rattled across the country on sightseeing excursions at a top speed of 15mph. Modestly priced at £8, it is offered by dealer Clive Baker, organiser of the annual Festival of Cards.
Junction 24 is an exhibition hall at the Sedgemoor Auction Centre in North Petherton.
Postcard and ephemera dealer Clive Baker is the organiser for the fair – running next on Thursday and Friday, March 16-17 – staged by the Postcard Traders Association, which also holds two events in Woking, Surrey.
The festival is completely sold out with 64 dealers from across the UK fielding 160 tables of postcards, books, cigarette cards and ephemera, “including a dealer from the US and one from Germany”, said Baker.
Dealers here as well as Baker include This way Books which specialises in topography, Paul Lynch who offers trade and cigarette cards and Bill Kirkland, whose stock is of art postcards.
“We’re expecting plenty of demand for topographical cards but selling well now are comic cards, plus political and military”, added Baker. “Good quality art cards by Alphonse Mucha, Louis Wain and Raphael Kirchner lead the way.”
Like so many dealers, Baker, who is based in Kent, started as a collector, went into dealing to sell off surplus cards and then “eight years ago I went full-time and now it’s taken over my life”.
