Staff at the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum are celebrating the “magnificent” bequest of a collection of an incredible 1179 postcards of the town.
The earliest cards are from the reign of Edward VII and the most recent from the 1990s. The collection is contained in five albums, of which one is entirely composed of postcards from the famous firm of Valentines.
Resident Duncan Black donated the cards, which have been described as “fantastic”.
A museum spokesman said, “In the four volumes not including Valentine cards, the postcards are organised in alphabetic order by publisher.
“A significant number of cards had been sent and therefore the collection contains many British stamps from throughout the century. The St Andrews postmark was in use for most of the cards with stamps in the collection. The remainder are cards that were never actually sent.”
While most of the earliest examples are black and white or sepia photographs, some are original paintings, while others are artificially coloured photos.
“Mr Black appears to have been particularly interested in series of cards and obviously purchased some of his collection from dealers,” the spokesman continued.
“Official series details and numbers are printed on cards together with details of what the cards depict.”
There are a number of items of particular interest.
“Several wartime cards from world war two contain short printed slogans to boost morale. Another series is of cartoon drawings of St Andrews by the famous Balmullo cartoonist Cynicus.”
Mr Black marked the price he paid for each card on the back but, because the cards are not dated and he did not note when they were purchased, experts say it is difficult to work out the value of the cards today.
“Most of the cards are of views of the town and of key landmarks such as the cathedral, the castle and the Old Course,” the spokesman said. “However, there are a number of humorous cards and also cards of famous people. There is a series of golfers such as Old Tom Morris linked with the town.
“Meanwhile, one particularly notable card shows the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) being granted the freedom of St Andrews. Mr Black paid £14 for this card, though we do not know when.”
Museum curator Jennifer Reid was “delighted” with the substantial addition to the museum’s postcard collection.
She said that, because it forms an individual collection, Mr Black’s bequest will remain as it is and not be merged with the other postcards held by the museum.
Anyone interested in the collection, or in finding out more about it, should contact Jennifer on 01334 477629.