Tuck’s Postcards of Tavistock Local History


By Roderick Martin, Tavistock Local History Society


I am sure most enthusiasts for purchasing collectables on eBay will have seen these fine art postcards of Tavistock and the surrounding area illustrated by Henry Wimbush and published by Raphael Tuck & Sons. There are six local scenes in the no. 7077 series: ‘Tavistock’, ‘Abbey Bridge and Weir’, ‘The Parish Church’, ‘Lydford Gorge’, ‘Brentor Church’ and ‘The River Tavy’. As a result of the past popularity of the cards they are fairly common, and normally sell only for a few pounds, if at all.


Raphael Tuck was born in East Prussia in 1821. He came with his wife and seven children to London in 1865 where he set up a business selling and framing pictures and chromolithographs. In 1870 his three sons, Adolph, Herman and Gustave, joined him in the business. The family company quickly moved into fine art printing, and later produced Christmas


“..Royal


Warrant by Appointment ...”


and New Year cards. In


1892 the oldest son, Adolph Tuck, succeeded his father as managing director. By the end of the nineteenth century the company was a major publisher of cards, scrapbook scraps, prints, paper dolls, books and calendars. The company were awarded a Royal Warrant by Appointment to Queen Victoria in 1893, a distinction they retained with other monarchs until the early 1950s.


With the


popularity of postcards in the early 1900s a new commercial avenue opened and by 1904 the company had by shrewd marketing techniques,


28 Wimbush at his easel


such as ‘postcard competitions with cash prizes’


and ‘limited


edition issues’, gained a major market share. Unfortunately, in


The River Tavy


Tavistock


Henry Wimbush


“..original pictures lost in bombing raid...”


December 1940, all of their postcard plates and many original pictures were lost when the company’s premises were destroyed in a bombing raid. The Tuck business survived as an independent company until 1962 when it was bought out by Purnell and Sons.


of Tucks postcards was the ‘Oilette’


produced between 1904 and 1908.


One of the early series series


contributor to this series of fine art drawings was Henry Wimbush, a prolific water-colour artist and illustrator who toured the country to find inspiration from suitable landscape scenes. Henry Bowser Wimbush, born


A major


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