ANTIQUE "BATHING BEAUTIES" POSTCARD COLLECTION (50 CARDS)

Author: Various
Title: ANTIQUE "BATHING BEAUTIES" POSTCARD COLLECTION (50 CARDS)
Publication: Everywhere: Everyone, 1901-1907

Description: In plastic protectors, four to a page, of a three ring bineder, missing its front cover. A fabulous collection of fifty primarily humorous postcard images of lovely (and often very sexy) women in period bathing suits in or near the water at the beach. Cards are both used (with cancelled stamps, postmarks and writing), or unused. Origins are British, French, German, Belgian, American.

They range from humorous caricatures of very large bathing "beauties" (both female but occasionally male), to photographs of groups of swimmers immersing themselves in healing waters, to a Raphael Tuck photographic image of fifty or so naked black boys frolicking in the ocean, entitled "Our Boys" ("Seaside" Postcard No. 1201). A number show unmistakeable "Come Hither!" facial and/or body expressions. The bathing suits are gorgeous and colorful, and so are the women poured into them. There's a woman with a crawfish or lobster attached to her derriere, several women, one whose arm in raised, stealthily approaching a bent over man ready to smack him on the rear, and one very strange one showing a perhaps lecherous little gnome of a man assiduously sewing (??) a tear in the rear end of a lovely lady's swimsuit, while she bemusedly and patiently waits till his, um, "work" is finished.

A carefully curated and fabulously entertaining collection of swimming-related images from a 120+ years ago! Very Good.

The printed postcard reads: Here's to the girl who's strictly in it,/Who doesn't lose her head for a minute;/Plays the game and knows the limit,/And still gets all the fun there's in it" BELOW
"Just a little more than the limit for me don't you think so."

Seller ID: 87514