Deltiologist's dictionary.

The terms that come up at the bourse, in the newsletter, and on auction night.

A working glossary of the deltiology terms members and visitors most often need. Most appear in our postcard-history walkthrough.

Appliqué: A card with some form of cloth, metal, or other embellishment attached to it.
Art Deco: Artistic style of the 1920s, characterized by symmetrical designs and straight lines.
Art Nouveau: Turn-of-the-century style, characterized by flowing lines and flowery symbols.
Bas Relief: Cards with a heavily raised surface, giving a papier-mâché appearance.
Bourse: A place where dealers, collectors, and the general public get together to buy, sell, and trade. Our pre-meeting bourse runs 6:30 – 7:00 PM.
Chromes: Postcards of the Photochrome Era (1939 – present) — photo-like, glossy, and printed with very small dots. The Union Oils series of 1939 were the first.
Continentals: Modern-sized cards, approximately 4″ × 6″ or a little bigger, typical of the 1960s and later.
Deltiology: The study and collection of postcards. The word by which postcard collectors describe themselves.
Divided Back: A back split into two halves — message on the left, address on the right. The U.S. adopted it in 1907.
Early: A loose term for any card issued before divided backs were introduced in 1907.
Embossed: Cards with a raised surface — a small relief on the front.
Golden Age: 1898 – 1915: the era when sending, receiving, and collecting cards became fashionable. Postage was a single cent.
Hold-to-Light (HTL): Often night scenes, with cut-out areas that reveal light when held to a window or lamp.
Kaleidoscopes: Cards with a rotating wheel that reveals colors when turned.
Novelty: Any card that deviates from the norm — leather, oddly shaped, with attachments.
Oilette: A Raphael Tuck trade name for cards reproduced from original paintings.
Oversized: A general term for cards larger than the typical 4″ × 6″.
Postal Card: A card issued by the postal authority with postage pre-printed — distinguished from a privately printed postcard.
Real Photo (RPPC): A card produced by a photographic process on photographic paper. Many are one-of-a-kind. Commercially printed real-photos exist too, but are less desirable.
Standard Size: Approximately 3½″ × 5½″ — the long-standing American postcard format.
Undivided Back: A card whose back was used only for the address; the message had to be written on the picture side. U.S. cards used this format until 1907.
White Border: Cards with a white border around the picture, characteristic of American production from 1916 – 1930.