Giovanna’s precious gift

A big collection of 1920s Italian postcards was donated to Ivo Blom, EFSP collaborator and expert in Italian silent film, by his good friend Giovanna. The cards were, at the time, collected by two Sicilian women, Enrichetta, the sister of Giovanna's grandfather, and Margherita, the daughter of a sister of her grandfather. Many of the written postcards were sent to the two ladies in 1923, from various locations. In Canicatti, where Enrichetta lived, there was also a big card shop, from which many of the unused cards stem. Her grandmother gave the postcards to Giovanna in the early 1970s. While the collection contains several Italian stage and screen stars like Lyda Borelli, Francesca Bertini, Pina Menichelli, Leda Gys and Vera Vergani, there are more so-called fantasy cards in the collection. On these postcards, unknown women express all kinds of emotions, either chastity and devotion, or seduction. In two cases, the same model, in one case a lesser-known Italian actress called Lydia Johnson, expresses both emotional antipoles on different cards. As several sets or series around a certain motif contain six cards, we expect this to concur with the original size of the sets. The many blue cards within the collection were made according to a simple photomechanical tinting process, derived from cyanotypes.


Italian postcard by Bromografica, Milano, in the series Danza: L'illusione. Photo: Luxor. The collection contains four cards in this series. The other cards are titled 'L'amore', 'Le stelle', and 'Il fuoco'.


Italian postcard by Bromografica, Milano. Photo: Flou. Caption: Passione! Amore! tutta la mia vita... (Passion! Love! all my life...). This card is part of a series on women lying on the ground.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 507. Photo: Badodi, Milano. Lyda Borelli.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 200. Francesca Bertini.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna. Pina Menichelli in Tigre reale / The Royal Tigress (Giovanni Pastrone, 1916).


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 267. Vera Vergani.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna. Caption: Cala la sera, il sole tutto indora ma la vita è un pianto, una chimera! (Evening falls, the sun gilds everything, but life is a plaint, a mirage!). Lydia Johnson as a nun. In the collection are five cards of this series in which Johnson appears both as a nun and a femme fatale.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna. Caption: Oh! Qual potere ha la donna col suo sguardo ipnotizza anche une belva (Oh, what power a woman has. With her gaze she can even hypnotize a beast). Lydia Johnson did a series of postcards with a ferocious-looking tiger, in which women are compared to wild animals, with the same power, magnetic eyes, and huge roars when hurt. We own six cards from this series.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna. Caption: Non v'è che la forza Divina per placare l'ira del mare! (Only Divine intervention may calm the anger of the sea!). Postcard in a series on Storm at Sea, always with an elegantly dressed woman embracing a huge cross near the sea, photographed in a studio setting. We possess six cards of the series.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, no. 710. Blueprint. In the early 20th century, a 'gigolette' was a promiscuous young woman of the Parisian slums, often the girlfriend of the 'apache', the Parisian underworld bandit. This series of blue-toned cards by Fotocelere was actually very large - we have 19 cards of them. Within these series, we owe 5 cards entitled 'La Gigolette', while, curiously enough, with the same model, another one is called 'Mater Dolorosa', uniting the opposites.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Berlin, no. 418/8. While most cards of Fotocelere were issued in Turin, Italy, another part was printed in Germany.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Berlin, no. 260/6. Photo: Superfoto. Caption: Eppur non mi dispiace!... (And still she doesn't dislike me! / And still you don't dislike her - both options are possible). We have six cards in this series.


Italian postcard by Bromografica, Milano, no. 1094. Photo: Luxor. Postcard in a series of women lying on a fur. This one is entitled 'Felice' (Happy). Other cards were entitled 'Sdegnosa' (Disdainful), 'Timorosa' (Timid), 'Sognante' (Dreamy), and 'Ansiosa' (Anxious).


Italian postcard by Bromografica, Milano, no. 1017. Photo: Luxor. Caption: 'Il desiderio che si accende' (The desire that ignites). Other cards had the captions: 'L'anima che scruta' (The soul that scrutinises), 'Il pensiero che invita' (The thought that invites), and 'Il cuore che chiama' (The heart that calls).


Italian postcard by Bromografica, Milano, no. 26. Photo: Flou. This card is called 'Seduzione' (Seduction). The photographer often used special lighting effects, increasing the aesthetic attraction.


Italian postcard by Bromografica, Milano. Photo: Flou. Opposite to his series 'Seduzione' (Seduction), Flou also made a series of photos called 'La Fede (Faith), with a Pre-Raphaelite-like, devout young woman embracing a cross. There are six cards from this series in the collection


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence). Caption: Quanto dolore per pochi attimi di gioia! (How much sorrow for just a few moments of happiness!). B.F.F. made a series of postcards of an aetherial young girl, draped in a large semi-transparent veil, as if a young Madonna. In the collection are six different cards from this series.

Giovanna, many thanks for your donation! We will take good care of this precious collection of your family. Text: Ivo Blom.