Vintage Tea Room Postcards

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[[File:Copper-Kettle-Tea-Room Los-Angeles-Postcard-Front-1.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Copper Kettle Tea Room, 23 Mercantile Place, Los Angeles, California, postcard front, circa 1909. The hand-lettered caption on the black and white photo that was the basis for this card reads "Copper Kettle Inn," but that is an error, because all advertising ephemera and references to the establishment in contemporary newspapers and magazines identify it as the Copper Kettle Tea Room. The Copper Kettle opened in 1908 under the proprietorship of two sisters, Smith college alumna Harriet Morris (1880 - 1961) and Barnard College alumna Mildred Morris, helped by their friend Beatrice Wigmore. In addition to tea and light lunches, The Copper Kettle sold Japanese and Chinese basketry and gift wares; by 1915 they were also marketing confections or candies that were sold along the Southern Pacific Railroad route. The building that housed The Copper Kettle -- and, in fact, every shop on both sides of the street, and the entirety of Mercantile Place itself -- was demolished in 1923 as part of a large urban high-rise building program.]]
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[[File:Copper-Kettle-Tea-Room Los-Angeles-Postcard-Front-1.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Copper Kettle Tea Room, 23 Mercantile Place, Los Angeles, California, postcard front, circa 1909. The Copper Kettle opened in 1908 under the proprietorship of two sisters, Smith college alumna Harriet Morris (1880 - 1961) and Barnard College alumna Mildred Morris, helped by their friend Beatrice Wigmore. ]]
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[[File:Mary-Louise-Tea-Room-Mah-Jong-Room-Los-Angeles-Postcard-Front.jpg|right |thumb |300px|The Mah Jong Room at the Mary Louise Tea Room complex opposite Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park) in Los Angeles, California, postcard front.]]
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The beginning of the tea room movement happened to coincide with the the postcard craze, which was in full flower from 1905 until World War One. Even after postcards waned a bit in popularity during the 1920s, many tea rooms kept on printing the, as they had learned that illustrated mailing cards were an inexpensive way to boost their business.
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[[File:New Tea Room Kolbs German Tavern New Orleans Louisiana Postcard Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|New Tea Room, Second Floor, Kolb's German Tavern, New Orleans, Louisiana; postcard front.]]
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[[File:Hotel Jefferson Tea Room Saint Louis MO Postcard Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Hotel Jefferson Tea Room Saint Louis, Missouri, postcard front. ]]
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Postcard stamps only cost one cent back then, so in some some tea rooms, when you sat down to order, a pre-stamped postcard showing the room in which you were seated accompanied the menu, and you were encouraged to write a message and mail it to a friend. Thus, today's postcard collectors find many tea room cards with messages on the back that read something like this:
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<blockquote>
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''Hello, Edith —''
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<br>
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''We found this wonderful'' <br>
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''little place on the way''  <br>
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''to the Falls — Maybe'' <br>
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''you can come along next'' <br>
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''time and we'll stop here'' <br>
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''to eat. The view is lovely'' <br>
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''and the food is great.''
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<br>
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''— Mabel''
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</blockquote>
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==Dating Tea Room Postcards==
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[[File:Mary-Louise-Tea-Room-Mah-Jong-Room-Los-Angeles-Postcard-Front.jpg|right |thumb |300px|The Mah Jong Room at the Mary Louise Tea Room complex opposite Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park) in Los Angeles, California. This flower-bedecked and East Asian accented room was reserved for parties of women who wanted to play the Chinese game of mah-jong, which requires four players. Other rooms within the Mary Louise Tea Rooms were Colonial American in decor. Note the woven rattan furnishings here, which are similar to those at the Copper Kettle Tea Room in Los Angeles, California, and at the Sun Parlor Tea Room at the Young Women's Christian Association in Dallas, Texas.]]
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[[File:New Tea Room Kolbs German Tavern New Orleans Louisiana Postcard Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|New Tea Room, Second Floor, Kolb's German Tavern, New Orleans, Louisiana; postcard front; because the word "German" in American restaurant terminology was a signifier for "beer," this tea room is apparently a woman-safe dining space situated above a tavern in which alcohol was served before the passage of the Volstead Act; the potted plants ark it as an upscale establishment, probably photographed before World War One.]]
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[[File:Hotel Jefferson Tea Room Saint Louis MO Postcard Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Hotel Jefferson Tea Room Saint Louis, Missouri, postcard front. The uniformed staff standing at attention behind the Chinese bamboo tables and chairs under a canopy of silk flowers in the form of dozens of blooming Chinese wistaria vines makes an unforgettable sight. The restaurant ware place settings are in the Red Willow pattern, which is derivative of traditional Chinese porcelain, but made on a sturdier semi-vitreous clay body for heavy-duty commercial use. There was a relatively large Chinese population in Saint Louis at the time, the decor in this tea room is Chinese, and although the waiters are in the distance, all three are men with black hair, leading me to think they are Chinese-Americans. What we seem to have then is a "theme" restaurant ... but the food would have been light American style luncheon fare -- open-face sandwiches, chicken, fish, fancy salads, pastries, and the like. Since this tea room was located in an upscale hotel, it would have been a place to entertain local friends if one had come to the city to visit but was not staying in someone's home.]]
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[[File:Almas-Tea-Room-New-Hampshire-Postcard-l500.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Alma's Tea Room, Intersection Route 3 and 38, Manchester, New Hampshire, postcard frontwhite border era. Seating capacity 250. Open the Year Around. Est. 1925. Alma M. Truesdale, Prop.]]
[[File:Almas-Tea-Room-New-Hampshire-Postcard-l500.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Alma's Tea Room, Intersection Route 3 and 38, Manchester, New Hampshire, postcard frontwhite border era. Seating capacity 250. Open the Year Around. Est. 1925. Alma M. Truesdale, Prop.]]
[[File:Day’s-Ice-Cream-Garden-Tea-Room-Ocean-Grove-NJ-Postcard-Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Day’s Ice Cream Garden Tea Room, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, postcard front, chrome era.]]
[[File:Day’s-Ice-Cream-Garden-Tea-Room-Ocean-Grove-NJ-Postcard-Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Day’s Ice Cream Garden Tea Room, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, postcard front, chrome era.]]
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[[File:Colonial-Tea-Room-Niagara-Falls-NY-linen-postcard-front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Colonial Tea Room, Niagara Falls, NY, postcard back]]
[[File:-Blue-Parrot-Tea-Room-Foyer-Postcard-Gettysburg-PA-Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Blue Parrot Tea Room Foyer, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, linen era.]]
[[File:-Blue-Parrot-Tea-Room-Foyer-Postcard-Gettysburg-PA-Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Blue Parrot Tea Room Foyer, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, linen era.]]
[[File:M-and-O-Tea-Room-Wishing-Well-Gatlinburg-TN-Blanche-Moffett-1949-Postcard-Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|M and O Tea Room and Wishing Well, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Blanche Moffett, proprietor 1949, postcard front, linen era.]]
[[File:M-and-O-Tea-Room-Wishing-Well-Gatlinburg-TN-Blanche-Moffett-1949-Postcard-Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|M and O Tea Room and Wishing Well, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Blanche Moffett, proprietor 1949, postcard front, linen era.]]
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[[File:Sun Parlor Tea Room YWCA Dallas TX Postcard Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The Sun Parlor Tea Room at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Dallas, Texas, circa 1920; postcard front, white border era. Note the open-weave rattan furnishings, which are similar to those found in the 1909 view of the Copper Kettle Tea Room in Los Angeles, [[California Tea Rooms|California]]. The presence of a bed in the middle of a tea room is unique to this photo; the implication is that it was placed there for the use of someone in the YWCA who was infirm but was still considered a member of the tea room's social set.]]
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[[File:Sun Parlor Tea Room YWCA Dallas TX Postcard Front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The Sun Parlor Tea Room at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Dallas, Texas, circa 1920; postcard front, white border era. ]]
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[[File:Crawfordsburn-Tea-Room-Northern-Ireland-1890s-Albumen-Print.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Crawfordsburn Tea Room, Crawfordsburn, Northern Ireland, 1890s, albumen print.]]
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[[File:Studio-Tea-Room-Camden-SC-exterior-postcard-front.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The Studio Tea Room in Camden, South Carolina, exterior, postcard front, circa 1920s. I wonder if the interior was as charming as the floral exterior.]]
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On this site you will find many, many interior and exterior views of quaint, old-fashioned tea rooms, as well as the backs of cards, some with messages and some simply indicating the name of the printer or additional information about the tea room. A few of them are photographic prints, but most take the form of postcards.
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==Tea Room Postcard Gallery Index==
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Dating postcards can be a little tricky. There are four basic ways to date a card, and before i turn you loose with the list of the tea room images archived here, i would like to introduce you to some postcard dating techniques:.
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Our Tea Room Postcard Gallery allows you to browse for vintage tea rooms alphabetically, first by State or Nation, then by tea room name. Any nation outside the USA is listed by a nation-name instead of a state-name. If a given nation accumulates more than 16 tea room postcards, i will break the nation into provinces, counties, or districts and move the images into those named pages.  
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===Dating Postcards by Era of Manufacture===
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===Tea Rooms of the United States===
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* '''Pioneer Era (1893-1898):''' These are the earliest known postcards. They do not contain images.
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Most of these images come from my own vintage tea room postcard collection, but some have been donated by fellow-collectors or come from online sources.  
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* '''Private Mailing Card Era (1898-1901):''' The phrase "Private Mailing Card" was required to be printed on any card that was not produced by the United States Post Office.
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* '''Undivided Back Era (1901-1907):''' These cards have the word Post Card on the back, but only the address was allowed on the back, hence any message had to be written in the image area or outside, in the border area.
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* '''Real Photo Postcards or RPPC (1900 to present day):''' These are direct photographic prints made in a darkroom on a fairly heavy grade of photo paper. The back often will be marked with the brand-name of the paper. Most Real Photo cards are black-and-white, according to the availability of film in the early 20th century, although a colour photo could be developed on the same kind of heavy paper. Like any photograph, RPPCs are subject to fading in the sun and paper curl due to humidity or lack thereof. They should be digitized and stored flat, away from light. Because they are hand-made in a darkroom, RPPCs were ideal for sales to small businesses that could afford to pay for thousands of cards. During the height of the RPPC era, from 1900 to about 1940, local or wandering photographers would take business exterior and interior views "on spec" and try to sell the proprietor on buying a hundred or so cards. Very often on an RPPC, the name of the locations was written in the negative and appears as white lettering on the print. Because they continued to be made in small batches for so long, and could be reprinted at will, the fact that a tea room postcard is an RPPC does not provide a solid clue to the actual date of the photograph.
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* '''Divided Back Era (1907-1915):''' With the postcard craze in full swing, and collectors wanting un-defaced images, the USPO relented and allowed messages to be written on the left-hand side of the postcard back, as long as the address was written on the right-hand side. Some postcard fans ignored this rule and wrote straight across the back, and then put the card into an envelope to mail, in order to preserve it from cancellation mark smudges on the front side, which would ruin the image. Many view cards of this era were black and white photos that had been half-toned and overlaid with pastel colours of ink to give them the look of colour photography. The use of a loupe will help you distinguis an RPPC from a half-tone print.
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* '''Chromolitho Era (1905-1918):''' Chromolithography is a lamentedly lost technique for producing colour prints using fine-grained stones upon which the artist draws in grease pencil to create resists for colour ink lay. A good chromolitho or chromo, as they were called, might be comprised of as many as twelve colours of ink, in the form of tiny grains or dots, to craft the illusion of continuous tone blending. Rarely employed for view cards, chromolithography was used by artists to create topical cards. Topics included season's greetings, birthday wishes, and series of 6 or 12 cards on subject matter such as patriotism, cute animals, good luck, divination, and the like. For chromolitho cards about tea leaf reading, see the page on [[Fortune Telling Postcards by Fred C. Lounsbury]]
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* '''White Border Era (1915-1930):''' With colour printing of black-and-white photos becoming more common, a particular grade of smooth white index stock was selected, and most companies employed a white border around the edges of the image, for ease of trimming and to keep the presses cleaner. In other words, RPPCs and over-printed black-and-white or tinted images that had previously run as full bleeds, from edge to edge, now had white borders. As previously, these black and white photos were half-toned and overlaid with pastel colours of ink to give them the look of colour photography.
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* '''Linen Era (1930-1945):''' In 1930 a different kind of index stock was introduced, called Linen Finish or Linen, embossed with a pattern that resembled woven cloth. These postcards began as black-and-white photos but were artfully hand-retouched until the finished art was a work of radiant, harmonious colour. The outer borders were ivory in tone, to better set off the fabulous colouring jobs. 
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* '''Photo-Chrome Era (1939 to present day):''' Chrome-Coat or Chrome index stock paper is used for printing colour photographs without artful retouching. The mid-century modern colours are often garish. 'Nuff said.
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===Dating Postcards by Copyright, Postal Code, Publisher, or Series Number===
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Postcard collectors long ago began indexing and dating cards by the presence of copyright dates, postal codes on addresses, publisher names and addresses, or series numbers. I could go into a lot of detail about such arcane matters, but on the presumption that you are here for the tea rooms, not for postcard collecting minutiae, i will just say that i have specialized in roadside and main street linens from Curt Teich since the 1960s, my mother built her own postcard site back in the 1990s which i have kept online since her death in 2005 (you can find it at [https://luckymojo.com/cards.html Liselotte Erlanger Glozer's Postcards]), and only good sense and courtesy prevent me from noting which RPPC tea room cards have AZO stamp boxes and which are DEFENDER or AGFA, and whether or not they have stars, triangles, or diamonds in the corners or above and below ... because all of that dating code data is available online already, and you are here for the tea rooms, right?
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===Dating View Cards by Automobile Models and Signage===
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For those who know their car makes and models, dating exterior views of tea rooms and other small businesses is a cinch. I know enough to get the decade right; beyond that, i shall say no more. However, when it comes to signage, i am a demon, and i can often date an image by word-usage, logo-types, or techniques of sign-painting. Of course, as with autos, signs will only tell you the earliest date the image could have been photographed. Always remember that an old car or an old sign can be photographed years after having been created.
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===Dating Postcards by Back-of-Card Postmarks, Fontography, and Handwriting===
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The text on the back of a card — if it has any — will certainly provide a clue as to the decade, if not the year, of manufacture. Sho-card lettering, hand-inked deigns, and eccentric type mark the early era, after which we see regular serif type, followed by a mix of serif and sans-serif, and, finally, the domination of sans-serif. As for handwriting, that too changed over the decades, as methods of cursive writing were modified in the school systems. Of course, dating a person's handwriting by decade will only provide a clue as to when the writer was born, not when the card was written and mailed -- but although a "Grandma" signature in 1890s cursive will look different than a "Grandma" in 1940s cursive, postmarks can only give us a "date mailed," which is not the same as "date photographed." Despite this, a 1915 postmark on an otherwise undateable card at least gives us a clue as to the probable decade of manufacture. However, speaking as a postcard fanatic, i can tell you that back in the day when very few people were collecting linens and i could buy them for a nickel or a dime apiece, i sent hundreds, if not thousands, of them through the mail to my hippie friends. So if you find a linen on eBay with a note signed "cat" that was postmarked between 1964 and 1984, that was me, and i messed up your postmark dating system for you. Sorry 'bout that!
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==Tea Room Postcard Index==
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Read about [[Tea Room History]] here, and look for the places themselves alphabetically, by State or Nation in our Gallery.
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Please note that as we build this site, not every state will have a tea room. Watch us grow!
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===Tea Rooms of the United States===
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* [[Alabama Tea Rooms]]
* [[Alabama Tea Rooms]]
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===Tea Rooms of the British Commonwealth===
===Tea Rooms of the British Commonwealth===
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Tea leaf reading, as well as the custom of taking afternoon tea, developed in the British Commonwealth. Inhabitants of Anglophone nations are the primary users of [[The Museum of Fortune Telling Tea Cups and Saucers|fortune-telling tea cups]] and the primary frequenters of tea rooms.
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* [[Australia Tea Rooms]]
* [[Canada Tea Rooms]]
* [[Canada Tea Rooms]]
* [[England Tea Rooms]]
* [[England Tea Rooms]]
* [[Ireland Tea Rooms]]
* [[Ireland Tea Rooms]]
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* [[New Zealand Tea Rooms]]
* [[Scotland Tea Rooms]]
* [[Scotland Tea Rooms]]
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* [[Wales Tea Rooms]]
===Tea Rooms of Europe===
===Tea Rooms of Europe===
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Most European tea room postcards depict pre-World-War-One establishments, created for the convenience of British and American tourists. This is obvious in the fact that the term "Tea Room" often appears on signage, rather than an indigenous term like "Tee Stube")
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* [[Italy Tea Rooms]]
* [[Switzerland Tea Rooms]]
* [[Switzerland Tea Rooms]]
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==Tea Room Postcard History==
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[[Tea Room History|For more information, see Tea Room History]]
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The beginning of the tea room movement happened to coincide with the postcard craze, which was in full flower from 1905 until World War One. (If you are unfamiliar with the tea room movement, you can learn more about it in the page on [[Tea Room History]].)  Even after the postcard craze waned a bit during the 1920s, many tea rooms kept on printing postcards, as they had learned that illustrated mailing cards were an inexpensive way to boost their business.  Postcard stamps only cost one cent back then, so in some some tea rooms, when you sat down to order, a pre-stamped postcard showing the room in which you were seated accompanied the menu, and you were encouraged to write a message and mail it to a friend. Thus, today's postcard collectors find many tea room cards with messages on the back that read something like this:
 +
<blockquote>
 +
''Hello, Edith —''
 +
<br>
 +
''We found this wonderful'' <br>
 +
''little place on the way''  <br>
 +
''to the Falls — Maybe'' <br>
 +
''you can come along next'' <br>
 +
''time and we'll stop here'' <br>
 +
''to eat. The view is lovely'' <br>
 +
''and the food is great.''
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<br>
 +
''— Mabel''
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</blockquote>
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 +
==Dating Tea Room Postcards==
 +
 +
[[Dating Tea Room Postcards|For more information, see Dating Tea Room Postcards]]
 +
 +
On this site you will find many interior and exterior views of quaint, old-fashioned tea rooms, as well as the backs of cards, some with messages and some simply indicating the name of the printer or additional information about the tea room. A few of the images are photographic prints or contemporary online photos, but most take the form of postcards.
 +
 +
Postcards that depict a place are also known as view cards. Those that are about a topic, such as cute kittens or railroads are called topicals. Topicals can be view cards, and vice versa. A classic example of a view card that is also a topical is a postcard of a train station. It shows a view of the station, and might be collected by someone who collects view cards of specific towns, counties, states, or nations -- or it may be collected as part of the topic of railroading. Tea room postcards are mostly considered to be view cards, but some of them may overlap with popular collection topics such as clothing fashions, houseplants, food service, or street signage.
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Dating postcards can be a little tricky, but here are five basic ways that collectors can date a card:
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* By Era of Manufacture
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* By Copyright, Postal Code, Publisher, or Series Number
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* By Automobile Models, Clothing Fashions, and Signage
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* By Back-of-Card Postmarks, Fontography, and Handwriting
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* By Census, City Directory, Newspaper, and Magazine Research
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To learn about how these techniques are combined to date a postcard's publication ir was made or a photograph was taken, please visit our detailed page on [[Dating Tea Room Postcards]].
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==We Welcome Contributions==
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If you have a photo or scan of a vintage or contemporary tea room you want to share here, we welcome contributions!
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We seek interior scenes of tea room furnishings and decor and exterior tea room views with signage; we like to have the postcard backs as well as the fronts, but recognize that this is not always possible. Contemporary close-ups of plated food on a table will not be archived.
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Horizontal images must be a minimum of 600 pixels wide after trimming away backgrounds and should include the name, city, and state of the establishment, plus any other information you may have.
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Please post your image donations in the "Tea Room Image Donations" thread in my husband nagasiva's Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nagasiva/permalink/3341234822627379/
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Thank you!
<i><b>catherine yronwode</b><br>curator, historian, and docent
<i><b>catherine yronwode</b><br>curator, historian, and docent
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==See Also==
==See Also==
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* [[:Category:Tea Rooms|Tea Rooms]]
* [[Tea Room History]]
* [[Tea Room History]]
* [[Vintage Tea Room Postcards]]
* [[Vintage Tea Room Postcards]]
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* [[Vintage Tea Room Business Cards]]
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* [[Vintage Tea Room Matchbook Covers]]
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* [[Dating Tea Room Postcards]]
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[[Category:Tea Rooms]]

Revision as of 01:56, 28 October 2020

Copper Kettle Tea Room, 23 Mercantile Place, Los Angeles, California, postcard front, circa 1909. The Copper Kettle opened in 1908 under the proprietorship of two sisters, Smith college alumna Harriet Morris (1880 - 1961) and Barnard College alumna Mildred Morris, helped by their friend Beatrice Wigmore.
The Mah Jong Room at the Mary Louise Tea Room complex opposite Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park) in Los Angeles, California, postcard front.
New Tea Room, Second Floor, Kolb's German Tavern, New Orleans, Louisiana; postcard front.
Hotel Jefferson Tea Room Saint Louis, Missouri, postcard front.
Alma's Tea Room, Intersection Route 3 and 38, Manchester, New Hampshire, postcard frontwhite border era. Seating capacity 250. Open the Year Around. Est. 1925. Alma M. Truesdale, Prop.
Day’s Ice Cream Garden Tea Room, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, postcard front, chrome era.
Colonial Tea Room, Niagara Falls, NY, postcard back
Blue Parrot Tea Room Foyer, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, linen era.
M and O Tea Room and Wishing Well, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Blanche Moffett, proprietor 1949, postcard front, linen era.
The Sun Parlor Tea Room at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Dallas, Texas, circa 1920; postcard front, white border era.
The Studio Tea Room in Camden, South Carolina, exterior, postcard front, circa 1920s. I wonder if the interior was as charming as the floral exterior.

Contents

Tea Room Postcard Gallery Index

Our Tea Room Postcard Gallery allows you to browse for vintage tea rooms alphabetically, first by State or Nation, then by tea room name. Any nation outside the USA is listed by a nation-name instead of a state-name. If a given nation accumulates more than 16 tea room postcards, i will break the nation into provinces, counties, or districts and move the images into those named pages.

Tea Rooms of the United States

Most of these images come from my own vintage tea room postcard collection, but some have been donated by fellow-collectors or come from online sources.

Tea Rooms of the British Commonwealth

Tea leaf reading, as well as the custom of taking afternoon tea, developed in the British Commonwealth. Inhabitants of Anglophone nations are the primary users of fortune-telling tea cups and the primary frequenters of tea rooms.

Tea Rooms of Europe

Most European tea room postcards depict pre-World-War-One establishments, created for the convenience of British and American tourists. This is obvious in the fact that the term "Tea Room" often appears on signage, rather than an indigenous term like "Tee Stube")

Tea Room Postcard History

For more information, see Tea Room History

The beginning of the tea room movement happened to coincide with the postcard craze, which was in full flower from 1905 until World War One. (If you are unfamiliar with the tea room movement, you can learn more about it in the page on Tea Room History.) Even after the postcard craze waned a bit during the 1920s, many tea rooms kept on printing postcards, as they had learned that illustrated mailing cards were an inexpensive way to boost their business. Postcard stamps only cost one cent back then, so in some some tea rooms, when you sat down to order, a pre-stamped postcard showing the room in which you were seated accompanied the menu, and you were encouraged to write a message and mail it to a friend. Thus, today's postcard collectors find many tea room cards with messages on the back that read something like this:

Hello, Edith —
We found this wonderful
little place on the way
to the Falls — Maybe
you can come along next
time and we'll stop here
to eat. The view is lovely
and the food is great.
— Mabel

Dating Tea Room Postcards

For more information, see Dating Tea Room Postcards

On this site you will find many interior and exterior views of quaint, old-fashioned tea rooms, as well as the backs of cards, some with messages and some simply indicating the name of the printer or additional information about the tea room. A few of the images are photographic prints or contemporary online photos, but most take the form of postcards.

Postcards that depict a place are also known as view cards. Those that are about a topic, such as cute kittens or railroads are called topicals. Topicals can be view cards, and vice versa. A classic example of a view card that is also a topical is a postcard of a train station. It shows a view of the station, and might be collected by someone who collects view cards of specific towns, counties, states, or nations -- or it may be collected as part of the topic of railroading. Tea room postcards are mostly considered to be view cards, but some of them may overlap with popular collection topics such as clothing fashions, houseplants, food service, or street signage.

Dating postcards can be a little tricky, but here are five basic ways that collectors can date a card:

  • By Era of Manufacture
  • By Copyright, Postal Code, Publisher, or Series Number
  • By Automobile Models, Clothing Fashions, and Signage
  • By Back-of-Card Postmarks, Fontography, and Handwriting
  • By Census, City Directory, Newspaper, and Magazine Research

To learn about how these techniques are combined to date a postcard's publication ir was made or a photograph was taken, please visit our detailed page on Dating Tea Room Postcards.

We Welcome Contributions

If you have a photo or scan of a vintage or contemporary tea room you want to share here, we welcome contributions!

We seek interior scenes of tea room furnishings and decor and exterior tea room views with signage; we like to have the postcard backs as well as the fronts, but recognize that this is not always possible. Contemporary close-ups of plated food on a table will not be archived.

Horizontal images must be a minimum of 600 pixels wide after trimming away backgrounds and should include the name, city, and state of the establishment, plus any other information you may have.

Please post your image donations in the "Tea Room Image Donations" thread in my husband nagasiva's Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nagasiva/permalink/3341234822627379/

Thank you!

catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room

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