Collecting Postcards By Publisher

Q/ Am I the only postcard collector who is leaning more towards collecting by publisher rather than by topic?

For the TTL (Through The Linens) part of the pile (I actively despise the term 'accumulation'), I am enjoying seeing the evolution of the technology, talent, and subjects of each publisher more than I enjoy, say, "here are 53 bridges, here are 12 dams, here are 145 churches, et al".

The occasional exception - I've been collating all of the imagery I have of the Flatiron Building, for example - is just one more good excuse to go rummaging thru the pile.

Q/ Does the availability of publisher-specific databases & checklists makes it more satisfying, or less, to collect by publisher?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

In my collecting interests, I go by any design and get the different variations by any given publisher. Sometimes, different publishers published a similar design used by another publisher, if the photographer (for Real Photos particularly and some of the litho cards) was a free lance type.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I've always thought that the serious collecting of postcards is actually to collect them by publisher. Furthermore, most of them are precisely numbered.
I even started classifying publishing houses and their productions, something like initial catalog.

I'm dying to watch their logos.

I would suggest starting in this thread a list of the US publishers.
Actually, I met difficulties exactly with the US cards.
Sometimes, there are three different companies marked on the back: Publisher, Producer, Distributor without specifying who is who.

Anyway, to begin with:

Herbert C. Kahn Studios, based in Yonkers, New York.

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Manhattan Post Card Pub. Co., based in Manhattan, obviously.

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I suppose it depends on what you collect. My collecting interests are much narrower than those of the SOM (Sage of Manhattan), being largely limited to Edwardian actresses/beauties, France and a few seaside comic, I keep cards by subject. Within that, I sort cards by publisher or, for the French ones, by département/town. If I had a lot of comic cards, I'd sort by artist.