Threshing and Harvesting

Very early real photo postcard posted at Winnipeg on December 14, 1904 and received on December 29 by the addressee, Mrs Ball, 4 Manor Street, Nottingham, England. There is no indication of the exact location but it is likely near to Winnipeg. The image is very clear and shows the machinery quite nicely. The card is on the usual early Canadian Velox back. 1904 is the year in which RPPC begin to appear in southern Manitoba. The earliest image that I can date on such a postcard in my collection is around the beginning of May 1904. This one would have been taken in September or October of that year. It's quite a good image for the 1904-06 period -- many of the cards from that era have condition problems, primarily fading and silvering.

This card was postmarked on August 24, 1927 at Fort William, Ont. (now part of Thunder Bay). It is addressed to Simeon Régnier, L'Acadie, Comté St-Jean, P. Q. and has a short message in French that is hard to read but is from Mr. Régnier's son. The numbering on the front of the card suggests that it was originally produced around 1908-10 by Valentine & Sons (no. 105,276) but in fact this particular printing of the card is likely a late reprint from the 1920s as it is identified on the reverse as having been published by Valentine Edy Co. of Winnipeg (one of the several North American Valentine subsidiaries that became independent of the Scottish parent company in the 1920s). It is noteworthy for showing a "Deering" plough (if that's what that is).

Number 16 in the monochrome Russell, Lang & Co. series. This was mailed October 21, 1906 in Winnipeg to Miss Mary Simpson, Burnbank Cottages, Langloan, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, from a J.L. c//o Mrs M. Rowden, 295 Isabel Str., Winnipeg, who wrote: "You will be thinking I have forgot you all together allways getting word from A. Getting along all right up here. Not as nice as Ontario. This is one of our harvesting scenes. Hoping this finds you all well."

Unrecorded C.S. Co. card no. 566. Unused.

Interesting farm implement advertising card, unused, with the following printed on the back: "Compliments of Gas Traction Company. First and Largest Builder in the World of Four-Cylinder Farm Tractors. Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A. Canadian Office: Winnipeg, Man."

Government Agent card, unused. Makes 20 that I now have.

Warwick Bros. & Rutter card no. 170, undivided back, with message: "Dear Dais, Just a veiw [sic] of the Canadian thresher men don't they look a busy set they [come?] about for a day hope you are quite well. Len." Addressed to Mrs S. Minter, Sweffling, Saxmundham.

A J. H. Clarke card, unused with the ink stamp of D. F. de Tremaudan, Manor, N.W.T., Canada on the reverse. The cancel is "Manor, Assa.", a late use as it is October 1905, a month after the creation of the Province of Saskatchewan.

Stedman no. 687, recorded by Smith. Not postally used.