Vintage 1935 Linen Era Postcard

Curteich Postcard #5A-H146 = 1935

hybrid TINTED HALFTONE

 

POSTCARD TOPIC

 

Neil House and A.I.U. Tower

(American Insurance Union)

Columbus, Ohio

 

The third Neil House was built in 1922. The hotel graced Columbus’ Downtown

up until the final hotel’s demolition in 1981.

 

Printed & Published by

 

 “C.T. Art Colortone”

Made Only by Curt Teich & Co., Inc.

Curt Otto Teich immigrated to the United States from Lobenstein, Germany, in 1896 and founded the Curt Teich Company of Chicago, which operated from 1898 to 1978 as the world's largest printer of view and advertising postcards.

In 1931 a new printing process was developed known as Tinted Halftone. Curteich named their Tinted Halftone postcards “C.T. Art-Colortone”. An H was added if the card was printed using the Art Colortone Method also called linen cards.

 

Distributed by

 

W.E. Ayres

1049 Livingston Ave.

Columbus, Ohio

In 1910, William E. Ayres (1887-1961) opened a store to sell retail notions and fancy goods. He also published and distributed linen postcards.

The store remained in business until the 1950’s.

 

Condition

 

Fair

USED and POSTED

Picture side in good condition with only one small stain upper right.

Corners & edges in good condition.

Some small smudges and stains on back side.

No tears, creases, pinholes, smears, or mold.

 

Description

 

Standard Size: 5 ½ X 3 ½ / 14cm X 8.9cm

Print Date: Curteich Postcard #5A-H146 = 1935

Postcard Era: Linen Era (1930-1945)

Printing Type: hybrid TINTED HALFTONE

 

Printing Type

 

Printing in color was found by creating a

hybrid TINTED HALFTONE

that would use a single photographic halftone in the same way as the linear key drawing that held the dots of a chromolithograph together, but here the color pallet would be reduced to a few hand drawn tints. Since these color plates were created by hand, there were many variations to how these postcards look

 

Linen Era (1930-1945)

New American printing processes allowed printing on postcards with a high rag content. The rag content also gave these postcards a textured "feel". They were also cheaper to produce and allowed the use of bright dyes for image coloring. They were printed as hand drawn tinted halftones. The majority of linen postcard production ended around 1939.