A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Satista Paper
A hybrid iron salt-based photo paper invented by the Platinotype Company in England, and which was first sold in the United States by the Willis Platinotype Company in 1913. This paper contained silver and a minimum amount of platinum, due to war shortages. Satista paper produced a cold black print and was often hand colored with watercolor. A sepia version called Satoid was also produced. Satista was not very popular and production was discontinued around 1917 after palladium paper was introduced.

Saturation
A measure of color purity. Highly saturated hues contain pure color. As hues move toward gray their saturation is lowered (desaturate). Grays have no saturation and are considered neutral.

Saucy Postcard
An English term for a type of risqué postcard in illustrated comic form. Saucy postcards contained no nudity but provided overtly sexual innuendoes. They were most often sold at seaside resorts from which they became better known as Saucy Seaside Cards, whether they depicted a beach scene or not. As their popularity grew in France they began to be printed with bilingual text. Thousands of these cards were confiscated under the Obscene Publications Act, and the conviction of artist Donald McGill in 1954 brought an end to their general production. While widely revived in the 1960’s and 70’s, their sales steadily declined as public taste shifted.

Saxony
A heavily industrial region of east central Germany. Saxony was incorporated into the German empire in 1871 where it remained a Kingdom until the end of World War One. It became a Free State of the Weimar Republic in 1919 until its collapse in 1933. It was dissolved in 1952 and broken down into smaller districts but it became a Federal Republic of Germany in 1990 after reunification. The printing houses of Saxony produced many postcards most notably from Leipzig and its capitol Dresden. Many postcards will make reference to their being printed in Saxony rather than Germany.

Scallop Edge
A die-cut tooth-like border with rounded points around the edges of a postcard. These decorative edges began being used by some publishers in the 1940’s, but they are more commonly seen on the photochromes of the late 1950’s and 60’s.

Scientific Perspective
A method of creating an illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane though the employment of mathematical principals. Attempts at creating perspective can be seen in early Western art, but it was entirely based on personal observation. Filippo Brunelleschi was the first to employ scientific perspective to his paintings of 1413, where the receding angles of objects converge at a single vanishing point. The mathematician, Leone Battista Alberti would be the first to publish these principals in 1435. Scientific perspective revolutionized the art of the renaissance, and its concept continued to grow with the contributions of many others. It was developed as a way of imposing a sought after order to the natural world rather than a true effort to determine how we see. This form of perspective is still used by some artists today though it has been in competition with non-Western paradigms since the mid-19th century.

Screen Cylinder
A printing cylinder used in rotogravure in which ink is held in tiny regular patterned cells on its surface. It is created by double exposing a photosensitive gelatin tissue to a line screen before the image. Once adhered to the cylinder, both the pattern and the image are etched into its surface. The line screen pattern forms a continuous raised grid across the cylinder, while the image areas are incised the space between theses lines down to varying depths to hold ink. Screen cylinders, invented by Ernst Rolffs in 1908, advanced rotogravure into the modern printing process we use today.

Screen Print (Silkscreen)
A printing process ustilizing cut stencils that are attached to a porous framed screen for support. Ink is pushed along the back of the stretched screen with a blade forcing it through to the other side and onto the flush printing surface. The stencil applied to the screen’s front causes the ink to print only where the stencil has been cut out. The screen texture causes the ink to spread out in a flat consistent manner producing even solid tones. The stencils can be made of various materials ranging from hand cut paper to photo sensitive emultions. Samuel Simon patented stencil printing that used screens made of silk (silkscreen) in England in 1907. This process was not commercially viable until a suitable rubber blade (squeegee) was developed in 1936.

Self Toning
A photo paper containing an excess of metal salts that are released during processing in the fixing stage to alter the photographs color.

Seliochrom
A trade name used for color halftone lithographic postcards produced by the Adolph Selige Publishing Company.

Seltona
A brand name for a self-toning printing out photo paper with a collodion based emulsion. Seltona paper was manufactured by Leto, a subsidiary if the Ilford Corp. Discontinued during the Second World War, Seltona became the last collodion paper to be manufactured.

Sepia
The inky secretions from cuttlefish used as a colorant. These melanin secretions produce a dark red-brown color when used in inks and paints. Sepia is not lightfast and has been replaced by more stable synthetic dyes of similar hue.

September Morn
Refers to any image based on the painting Matinee de Septembre, created by the French artist Paul Chabas. The compostion consisted of a 16 year old nude girl standing in shallow water with one hand touching her knee and the other hand holding her elbow but not quite covering her breasts. The painting was first exhibited at the 1912 Paris Salon and the following year sent to Braun & Co., an art dealer in New York. It was in their window that Anthony Comstock of the Society for the Suppression of Vice spotted the painting. Outraged he demanded its removal, which a clerk promptly did but it was soon put back by the manager. Comstock’s inability to have it permanently removed from public display became national news. This image quickly became an icon of popular culture being place on all sorts of items from candy wrappers to cigar box labels and postcards. Despite its popularity it also created controversy as Chicago’s Mayor banned any display of this image. Today the painting hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York City and postcard reproductions of it are still sold.

Sepia Delft
A brand name for a high contrast monochrome postcard printed by the Albertype Company. These cards were printed in a bright blue as well as in sepia.

Series
a number of related postcards that were printed and often sold together as a marketing ploy to increase sales, or as a method of cataloging. While some cards of a series were printed over time others were issued in packaged sets so they could not be broken up. Many publishers also produced cards in series so they could keep tract of their production and provide more local oriented sales catalogs of their large inventory to their customers. Many postcards will allude to these series on their backs with some being named while others were just numbered with the publishers code. Publishers would often use the same number for different cards but assign them to different series. This can be seen on many cards where the number is broken up or letters are added to it. Another use of the series was to confine identification numbers within a limited range. Many large publishers had agreements with one another not to print cards with identical numbers on them. This could be achieved with a general letter prefix or by repeating the same limited range of numbers again and again but with multiple prefixes.

Serigraph
Another name for screen printing. It is sometimes used in the description of fine art works in order to provide them with a higher status than that of commercial printing despite the fact that the actual technique is identical.

Sextochrome
A trade name for a type of lithographic postcard distributed by the American News Company that was made by usilizing six-color halftone plates in its printing. These cards are characterized by an extremely fine grain. They were printed in France.

Shadowgraph
A trade name for a type of hold to light postcard that revealed a risqu&eaqute; image. They were published by ETW Dennis and Sons of London during the 1950’s.

Sheet
A piece of paper to which an image can be printed on. Except for small jobbing platens, most presses use moderate to large size sheets of paper. To print small objects like postcards a printing plate is usually created with a number of different images on it. This allows many cards to be printed in one press run and cut down afterwards. All the cards on a sheet must be printed in the same quantity, which will influence the minimum order that may be required. The more cards that can be fit on a sheet coupled with long press runs results in faster production time and lower cost.

Sheet-fed
The method by which a printing press is fed paper a single sheet at a time from a rack, usually by mechanical grippers. The print quality and registration that results from sheet-feeding is better than what can be obtained from web-fed presses, but the process is not as economical to use.

Ship Cancel
A special postage cancellation mark on correspondence stamped by a Post Office aboard a ship. Ships have carried United States mail ever since 1845, and between 1897 and 1937 mail arriving from overseas was transferred to small mail boats when the ships stopped for inspection at quarantine stations. But all this mail was then carted off to a land based Post Office for processing. By an act of Congress of May 27th, 1908 the U.S. Navy was authorized to establish post offices aboard their vessels so seamen would always have a reliable method of sending mail home. A month latter the battleship U.S.S. Illinois sailed out with the Great White Fleet with the first Naval Post Office aboard capable of canceling letters and postcards. These cancels carry the name of the United States Ship they originated from on them. Most postcards with ship cancels are dated between 1908 and 1914.

Silhouette Cards
Finance Minister, Etienne de Silhouette created an amusement for the 18th century French court by cutting out portraits in profile from black paper. Meanwhile the masses of people hurt by his tax policies took to wearing black, protesting they could not even afford to wear color. Their mimicry became known as dressing a la Silhouette. Profiles in black are still referred to as silhouettes. Eventually silhouettes were exchanged as tokens of friendship, then as a customary first exchange between lovers. This art form, the poor man’s portrait, was very popular until the 1840’s when photography came into fashion. Many such designs appear on postcards where the creative imagery still cut from a single piece of paper spread far beyond portraiture. This art form is still practiced.

Silk Cards
A type of novelty postcard in which silk is utilized in the creation of an image. The most common method employed was to cut shapes out of color silk fabric and glue them to specific parts of a card’s surface. Other postcards had their entire image woven in silk on stiffened muslin and then attached to a paper backing. A common variation was to have a smaller woven image attached to card stock with an embossed decorative border. This process was developed by weavers searching for new outlets for their goods in a depressed textile market. There were also many other printed and real photo postcards that had only a portion of their image embroidered with silk. All silk cards are considered novelties.

Silverette
A trade name used by Raphael Tuck & Sons for a lightly varnished black & white postcard. The glossy surface makes these printed cards look similar to photographs.

Sirie
A term sometimes found on the back of postcards printed in Germany. It can be in reference to the set (Bildersatz) the card belongs to or more often to the entire numbered group (Gruppe) the card is part of.

Sizing
A substance that is applied to paper during its manufacture to stiffen it and slow its absorbency rate. This helps to keep printing ink on the surface of the paper where it will achieve higher color density and appear brighter, and sharper. Sizing can be made from glue, gelatin, rosin, or starch. Alum is often added to make the sizing insoluable but it can also add to a paper’s acidity. Originally sizing was applied by hand to the papers surface or added to pulp while still in tubs. This coating eventually became just one more step in mechanized paper manufacturing. Unsized paper is known as waterleaf.

Sky-Tint
A trade name for a type of black & white halftone postcard printed by the Curt Teich Company where a light blue overprint is added to the sky. Most of these cards were printed in the United States during the 1920’s.

Sleeve
A transparent plastic covering that slips over a postcard for protection. Sleves can be hard or soft, and their archival qualities may differ depending on the type of plastic used.

Soft Corner
The corner of a postcard that no longer retains the rigid qualities of the original card stock it was printed on and often displays cracking of the inked surface. The primary cause of soft corners is excessive handling.

Soldier’s Mail
Letters or postcards that could be sent for free by military personnel in wartime. Soldiers only needed to write their name, rank, and unit on the back and the words Free or Soldier’s Mail in place of a stamp. State commissions issued specially printed postcards to be used exclusively as Soldier’s Mail.

Sold Out Card
A postcard with a normal postcard back but in place of a picture the words Sold Out is printed. They were placed at the bottom of postcard stacks to serve as a reminder to the retailer to call the jobber or distributor and reorder that specific card.

Solio Paper
A brand name for a printing out silver chloride photo paper introduced by Kodak in 1892. Toning was usually applied to the paper after washing, leaving a brown to purplish color behind. This paper could also be tinted in a variety of colors. Solio was a slow paper requiring contact printing with sunlight exposure. A heavier version with a preprinted postcard back was introduced in 1908. It was eventually replaced by Kodak’s studio proof paper in the 1920’s, but this too was discontinued in 1987 for the lack of quality gelatin suppliers.

Souvenir Album
A type of souvenir for tourists in which a series of views would be bound together in a small booklet. They were popular in the 1870’s up until the First World War. The early booklets were illustrated with hand drawn lithographs, some of which were made to resemble old engravings. They were often printed on long strips of paper, and then folded in accordion fashion into a cover. As halftone reproduction came into use in the 1890’s, these albums used this new technology almost exclusively to save on cost.

Souvenir Card
One type of postcard that was privately printed prior to the effective date, July 1, 1898, of the Private Mailing Card Act of May 19, 1898. An image or montage of a tourist attraction was usually placed on the front to be shared with a space for writing. Correspondence could only be placed on the front, as the back was entirely reserved for the address and stamp. It required two cents to mail, which was double the rate of a government issued postal. Because of loose size requirements many of these cards were made too large to be used when the private mailing card act took effect. To solve this problem some publishers trimmed their cards down often removing their own name. Much care was placed into the design of these cards for they were marketed towards the collector in addition to correspond with.

Special Colored
A trade name for a type of lithographic postcard distributed by the American News Company that was made from four-color continuous tone plates. These cards are characterized by a crisp sharp image in black overprinted with colors in lighter tones. Special Colored cards were printed in France.

Spectral Sensitivity
The ability to perceive specific wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Different species have different classes of light sensitive cones in their eyes. Primates have three classes of cones in their retinas allowing them to perceive the red, green, and blue wavelengths of the spectrum. While there continues to be scientific debate over how humans are able to perceive additional colors beyond these three, the theory of trichromatic vision developed by Thomas Young in 1802 dominated the printing industry of the 19th century. As multi-colored chromolithographs were scaled down to a more economical three color printing process, a pallet of RGB colors was usually chosen following this theory. The same colors were often used in the hand coloring of postcards. As spectral theories evolved further in the 20th century a shift was made by printers toward the CYM hues.

Spectrachrome
A trade name for an early photochrome process used on postcards published by Wesco. They are characterized by a soft dull finish.

Spotting
See Foxing

Spot Color
A single color printed from a plate that is not created through color separation. Spot colors can be used on their own, usually for items requiring a very limited pallet, or added to the four CYMK separated plates in process printing when a specific hard to opticaly create color is needed. Fluorescent and metallic inks are always printed as spot colors because they cannot be optically created through halftone printing.

Squeaker
A novelty postcard containing a device between two sandwiched layers of card stock that makes a squeaking sound when squeezed. A small hole is placed on the card’sback for the expulsion of air. These cards were marketed toward children and often depict animals.

Standard Size
In 1878 the member countries of the Universal Postal Union agreed that the postals mailed between them should be set at a standard size of 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches to be eligible for the postal rate. It is the same standard that is used today.

Steeldrucktone
A trade name for a type of postcard distributed by the American News Company that were printed in gravure with deep brown hues.

Steel Engraving
An intaglio printing method in which an engraving is made on a steel plate. Iron had been used for etching and engraving since its inception, but its susceptibility to corrosion kept it out of general use in favor of copper. In 1797 Jacob Perkins patented a method of softening steel for engraving upon it, and then hardening it afterwards for printing. Because of its durability steel engraving became a competitive printing medium until the method of electroplating copper was invented. Engravings on steel are still primarily used for the printing of stamps, money, and certificates, where high press runs are needed. The deep relief of the surface allows it to be wiped completely clean without plate tone residue. This not only speeds up printing but creates identical sharp crisp images that are more difficult to forge. This process is not well liked among illustrators because of the clean sterile look that’ produced, though a number of postcards were printed this way.

Steeplechasing
The English tradition of jump racing horses is a long one that grew ever more popular over the 19th century. In 1875 this informal affair received its first closed corse, an important step in the establishment of rules and equestrian promotion. With American’s love of horses it did not take long for steeplechasing to become popular in the United States. But cards of horses in the U.S. were usually relegated to Western themes, and those cards depicting steeplechasing are mostly English in origin. Many of these cards are artist drawn because of the difficulty of capturing horses in action.

When George C. Tilyou opened an amusement park at Brooklyn’s Coney Island in 1897, his first major attraction was a ride of mechanical horses. This ride became naturally known as the Steeplechase, and the amusement area was named Steeplechase Park. As other such rides opened across the Country they assumed the Steeplechase name.

Steindruck
A term found on German postcards meaning lithography.

Stereotype
A flexible printing plate created by making a plaster or paper mold of type or a wood engraving in a thick flat letterpress form, then casting it into a thin metal sheet. Stereotyping is the primary method used to wrap a plate around the cylinder of rotary presses.

Stereoscopy (Stereograph)
A technique of capturing a 3-dimensional view by placing two photo images next to each other on a card, usually 3 1/2 by 7 inches, each taken at a slightly different perspective. When the 2-dimensional cards are viewed at the proper distance, each eye will perceive only one individual image each and create the illusion of three dimensions. Special devices to hold the stereoviews close to the face were often used but were not a necessity. Sir Charles Wheatstone invented this process in 1838. Stereoviews became very popular but by the 1924 only one company was still producing them in quantity. The last stereoviews were made in the 1950’s. These companies amassed large inventories of photographs and some also sold these images for use in publishing postcards.

Stevengraph
An image manufactured from woven silk by Thomas Stevens of Coventry, England. The first Stevengraphs were bookmarks produced in 1876, followed by pictures in 1879, portraits in 1886, and then postcards in 1904. Production ceased after a German air raid destroyed the factory and inventory in 1940. Other weavers copied this process.

Stock Card
A generic postcard with blank space left on it for future printing. Adding text could be done on a small jobbing platen or hand press, which did not require a large press run. This allowed some retailers to print up small orders for cards on request.

Strikethrough
When all or more likely a portion of a postcards title is printed over to render it unreadable. Sometimes additional text is printed in its place. The striking of words can be done to correct a previous mistake in printing or denote a change of place name allowing continued use of the card. Sometimes place names are intentionally changed so the same view may misrepresent additional locations and increase sales. Strikes were made either by the origional printer or by a retailer with a hand press.

Streamline Moderne
Though often associated with Art Deco, Streamline design was a style that came into its own right in the 1930’s. It derives from the scientific principal that curves of certain proportions will provide the least resistance to currents of air or water. Though conceivably useful on cars and planes, streamlining was also placed on radios, refrigerators, and other household items. More than a science it came to represent faith in the progress of science and the future. Its diversified use on so many products was a reflection of increasing modernist attitudes.

Style Moderne
One of the original terms used to describe the design style that is now known as Art Deco. The term Art Deco was not used until the 1960’s after the style was already out of fashion.

Subtractive Color (Subtractive Primaries)
The theory by which the creation of any color can be made by subtracting varying proportions of one or more of the primary subtractive colors, cyan, magenta, or yellow, (CMY) from white light. It is the principle that governs the mixing of all colorants and is used in offset printing. We see color because different objects absorb and reflect the visual spectrum differently. The primary subtractive colors act like filters that absorb their complementary colors of red, green, and blue which compose white light. An object that absorbs (subtracts) one complementary color reflects the combination of the other two back. The amount of cyan used in printing will proportionally determine the amount of red seen for if all red light is subtracted from white light the remaining green and blue light reflected back to the eye will combine to form cyan. In other words an ink that subtracts red will appear as cyan. Likewise magenta absorbs green, reflecting blue and red, which combine to form magenta. Yellow absorbs blue, reflecting green and red, which combined to form yellow. An object that absorbs two complementary colors will reflect the single remaining complementary, red or green or blue back unchanged. When all three complementary colors are combined all primaries are absorbed resulting in black. And if no colors were absorbed they would reflect back as white light.

Substrate
The base material onto which an image will be printed. It can consist of wood, metal, rubber, or stone, depending on the technique employed. Substrate can sometimes be used synonymously with the term plate.

Swastika
One of many variations of a sun mandala. It is an ancient symbol used around the world especially in the Hindu and Native American cultures. It can sometimes be seen decorating pots or blankets on postcards depicting these cultures, but it found its way onto most early cards as a symbol of good luck. The swastika in these depictions may face either left or right. At the same time this symbol was also beginning to be associated with Aryan identity. Some publishers placed swastikas on the back of their cards but it is unclear whether they used it as a lucky sign or to show pride in their ancestry. It was addopted as an official symbol of Germany’s Nazi Party in 1920. Because of this many now only associate the swastika with Nazism forgetting its deeper meaning. The Nazis used the swastika as part of decorative graphics on many postcards.