This charming group of early 20th-century English pictures the original artwork for reproduction on postcards. The subjects are diverse: natural history birds from George Rankin (1864–1937); Art Deco bathing girls from Charles Thomas Howard (1865–1942); and cute child cartoons from Phyllis Purser (1893–1990). But the images share a colourful, optimistic aesthetic that translated perfectly to the postcard medium.

The opening decades of the 20th century was a world without the internet, instant messaging or widespread access to telephones. Advances in colour printing, however, enabled mass communication by print like never before. By the 1920s commercial art became a bona fide profession, and with it the professional figure of the graphic artist. The success of these artists relied on their ability to reach the largest audience and to produce a popular image.

Postcards were a fast form of communication, and sending and collecting of postcards became a national craze. Unbelievably, in 1913, more than 900 million postcards were posted in Britain. Postcard art, therefore, has a significant place in the history of cultural interaction. Our examples exemplify prevailing fashions of the day: tastes for nostalgia, patriotism and family, along with leisure and recreation, and new opportunities for women in Britain after World War I.