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AN Paris Postcards: The Walery Showgirls
This collection includes some of AN's most desired postcards: the hand-tinted showgirls of the Casino de Paris, Moulin Rouge, and Follies Bergère. They are published during the 1910s, and identify many of the featured dancers at the clubs. Initially these collector items are shot by Paris-Plaisirs, but soon after they are shot by Walery. Costumes are extravagant, and drapery, extensions, and especially hats; exposures include armpits, legs, bare-breasted and topless, and belly-button displays, but no g-strings, buttocks, or full nudity. This is an adequate, but not complete, reference set, named and numbered as per the face of the postcard, normalized to 1600 pixels uncompressed jpg in long axis. These numbers range from 1 to 115, with additional numbers assigned by the editor for postcards we have been unable to assign a number to; these are all below 200. These numbers intersperse with numbers of the AN sets shot by Julian Mandel sets and have been culled into this separate yet homogenous collection. P This assembly draws upon countless sources, multiple reproductions of the same original scan, attempts to improve color or contrast, repair tears, and do cosmetic surgery. Some dancers have had their identity erased, others censured, perhaps now some are AI enhanced. Policy is authenticity, and permissive to well-done modifications, no matter how done, if only to be useful to the embodiment of this art form. Perhaps someone who has the whole set can arrange to scan them at high resolution and contribute them to Wikipedia.
118 uncompressed JPG files
ABOUT THE VINTAGE COLLECTIONS
The goal of these special collections of erotic Postcards is to organize them by publisher and sequence, whereby they gain meaning and provide insight into the models and erotic themes of the early 20th Century. Toward this goal the Postcards have been a) sorted by publisher, b) numbered with the numbers on the postcards, c) normalized to 1600 pixels in the longer dimension, and d) saved as uncompressed files.
As these older sets become reunited together, they reacquire their lost narrative, and the subtle changes of pose bring to life the models and ideas of an era, one more coherent than viewing random Postcards.
The envelope of these collections includes beauty, glamour, romance, pastoral and allegorical themes, fashion, stage and burlesque stars, the boudoir, lingerie and hose, hair styles and hats, the bath, and topless and full female nudity. Lesbian contact and kissing are rare. To whatever extent more explicit publishing existed, it was not to be found among the Parisian publishers who put their logo marks on postcards.
Our goal is to accumulate collections at a standardized naming and size, and with filenames that correspond to numbers on the face of the postcard. The quality of images varies widely and throughout we attempt to present our best representative image of each postcard. Frequently we have the option of several choices, sometimes the scans are from separate postcards, sometimes the same JPG appears repeatedly, identifiable by a unique pattern of white dirt, tares, and water or mold damage. Sometimes this JPG has had its dirt and scratches removed, contrast enhanced, then recompressed. Our selection is based on these criteria: sharpness, dynamic range, file size including compression (and recompression) damage and data loss, missing edges, overprints, and squareness of the postcard in the frame.
Frequently we encounter the same image in what appear to be a more native scan as well as an improved version. This can be a hard choice because the improved version is almost always more immediately useful, however to whatever extent it has been cleaned and brought up, these corrections add a generation of compression to the saved image. In these situations, we tend to provide the usually thinner closer-to-source file, because might you want to alter it, you can adjust its brightness and contrast as you best determine. But sometimes we do keep more than one interpretations of the same scan, because a researcher might find the processed file more useful. Sometimes we keep scans from different physical postcards of the same image, especially when this can of delta can be revealing about the medium. We are not trying to pump up set counts, we desire to provide you with opportunities This is not about storage issues!
There is also no preference made as to postcards which are displayed out past their edges and those which have been cropped to their edges; we understand while borders are part of certain periods of style and have meaning, that many a digital creative type has cropped the borders off because they believe the image displays better on the screen. This collection takes no sides in this issue: Sharpness remains a goal in this choice, we also observe that pictures we present without borders vs pictures with borders have slightly more pixels in the image area. We agree that physical pictures that are intact have more value to collectors that postcards with the edges cut off. Publishing (web or print) avoids extra white frame. Again, our goal is to share reference collections.
We do sometimes keep tint variations (e.g., a green tint vs a sepia), but remain uncertain if and when tinting occurs in the original postcard or is a subsequent artistic contribution. We do retain variations of hand-tinted color postcards, because they are often uniquely different and provide instant insight about the process. We also include hand-painted and non-painted examples when available, not knowing if the B&W scan is of a B&W postcard or a B&W scan of a color postcard. We know that AI can tint-paint antique postcards, alter the deshabille of their coverings, and perhaps cast them as 3D performers.
When convenient we provide reverse sides, but that is more for the purpose of showing the back generically. Postcard scholars know that backsides can contribute to dating. Backsides are preferably named with their corresponding front side number, suffixed with a “-B” at the end of the filename before the extension. Depending upon how a sort works, backsides might appear either before or after their front. Generic backsides sink to the bottom of the list.
We tend to retain cards which have original overprinting, often cute French phrases of romance, as well as any corresponding cards which do not.
Obvious duplicates are an oversight and culling is ongoing, as is presuming numbers to cards that are otherwise missing them but appear to belong to a series. These cards have an “XXXX” as their card number. Cards which have had numbers and/or marks removed and which can be attributed with confidence are named and numbered. Cards which belong to a studio and are originally unnumbered are numbered “YYYY” with the possibility of future assignment or organization. The more cards in a set, the more the puzzle pieces fit in.
Cards with stamps are usually left with the stamp displayed because the cancellations are evidence that a postcard existed at a certain date! Postcards where the stamp has been digitally removed are also included. We hope to continue to expand these sets as more postcards become available to us and inferior examples are replaced with superior ones.
We remind you that our goals here include providing useful research collections to those who study our past, including historians, social scientists, and students of fashion and erotica. All postcards are normalized to 1600 pixels in their longer dimension and delivered as uncompressed JPGs. The integrity of the image prior to this normalization varies. The choice of 1600 pixels assumes 5.33” card scanned at 300 dpi. Given the lenses, photographic and other printing methods, ink and paper, it is unlikely the cards have half that resolution, so this is an adequate size for quality scans, especially where we want to enable insight via windows into the past.
Postcard science aside, we hope that those of you who seek to discover the erotic elements of arousal, romance, and love can find insights, memes, and knowledge in these studios and series. Perhaps over time a community of the World can upgrade these collections with high resolution scans, fill in the blank spots, and enjoy beauty, eros, and history.
Edge Interactive Publishing Inc.
New York
