Why collect postcards of Ceylon? Because not many people do and it can be a rewarding hobby.
Collecting old postcards is fun - it's fun to track them down, fascinating to study them, and an intriguing way to learn about the past.
The past? Yes, for postcard collecting to be rewarding, you need to focus on a period when picture postcards were a novelty. That means the period at the turn of the 20th century, early 1900 to about 1920.
The pictures on postcards that are a hundred years old are views of a different world.
To make your hobby even more interesting, focus on a particular country or topic.
I suggest collecting postcards of Ceylon as the country no longer exists with that name. It's been called Sri Lanka since 1972, and gained independence from Great Britain in 1948.
In addition, as Ceylon was a popular port of call for steamships plying between Britain and Australia, passengers staying there for a few days (or even weeks) eagerly sought out postcards to send to friends and family back home.
That's resulted in postcards of Ceylon turning up in many countries of Europe, in Australia, and even in the USA, so there are plenty of sources to find Ceylon postcards, even today.
Antique shops generally have a few old postcards tucked away in shoe boxes. Don't expect them to be sorted in any order. You'll just have to leaf through them all.
One problem with collecting something particular is that it is so easy to lose focus and get sidetracked. It's important when confronted with a shoebox stacked with old postcards to concentrate on what you want. You're collecting Ceylon so don't bother to buy cards of the Andamans or India however attractive they might be.
In most antique shops you should be able to pick up postcards for a couple of dollars or a pound or two, unless they are highly desirable, like a postcard of a topless native girl (they do exist) which would be more expensive.
Other sources of Ceylon postcards are specialist map and print dealers. You will also find vintage postcards of Ceylon at the bouquainistes, those dealers selling from boxes perched on the parapet walls of the Seine in Paris.
You should also be able to find them in antique shops in Sri Lanka, although it is unlikely you'll discover mint stock from the 1920s. Some might turn up in the libraries of tea plantation bungalows, forgotten by the many occupants over the years. A modern source, of course, are Internet sites.
The main attraction of collecting vintage postcards from Ceylon (rather than from, say, Singapore) is the amazing number of topics available. Postcards showing tea plantations and tea pluckers are popular, while postcards of railways are rare because of demand by "theme" collectors.
Ceylon's main port, Colombo, is a common view since that's where steamship passengers disembarked in the early 20th century. More sought after are old postcards of 19th century hotels, like the Galle Face and Mount Lavinia Hotels, and The Queen's Hotel in Kandy.
Village views are good to collect, especially if they are of villages that have grown into towns today. People doing odd things that we no longer see, like carrying water on a yoke, pulling a rickshaw, or driving a 1920s car are fun to have.
Equally collectible are postcards of religious sites and ancient ruins (Ceylon has a lot of those) to see how they have changed. Beach scenes are picturesque as beaches weren't the desirable holiday spots they are today.
Postcards of the period are usually printed in black and white. If they have been hand coloured they then become a unique work of art, different from any other postcard showing the same view. Especially attractive are the "Oilette" series of colour postcards published by Raphael Tuck & Sons in England in the 1920s.
How to store your postcards? Putting them in a firm transparent envelope and keeping them in a shoebox is better than sticking them in an album. When they are in a transparent envelope, you can see both sides of the card.
Sometimes the postage stamps or what is written on the back of a postcard is as interesting as the photograph. One card on sale recently was of the Galle Face Hotel on which someone had written in classic script: "This is the only thing free in this hotel."
The best way to display your best postcards is to frame them. Because a postcard is fairly small (about 5 ?" by 3 ?"), its impact will be lost if put in a frame about the same size. Better to choose a large frame and have a huge mount with large margins of a dark colour.
That way the viewer's eye is directed to the postcard and all its glory, and it will be the pride of your collection.
Royston Ellis, author of over 60 biographies, novels and travel guides, now lives in Sri Lanka having left England, where he began as a beat poet, in 1961, age 20, for a life of travel. His latest book, The Big Beat Scene, has just been published by Music Mentor Books. To collect postcards of Ceylon he recommends this site: http://ceylonpostcards.com
