These postcards have been around the house for as far as I can remember; My mum received them after my great grandmother died. However, I never really paid them much notice until recently. I found them in a pile and considering how old they are I thought it was quite sad, so I retrieved them and decided to look at them properly for the first time.
Below are photos of each postcard, with the writing on them underneath each photo with notes (in brackets) by me to try and provide a little more information.
"Alegrías (a type of flamenco), 91"
"Bulerías (another type of flamenco), 88"
"Cidade Do Funchal, Madeira (a Portuguese archipelago), Florista, Portugal"
"Andalucía (Andalusia, a Spanish autonomous community), 96"
"Madrid (Spanish capital), 93"
"Andalucía, 33"
"Viana Do Castelo, Minhota, 14, Portugal"
"Grønland (Greenland, autonomous country within Kingdom of Denmark), Danmark (Denmark)"
There is a serious lack of
any information on this "Elsi Gumier" on the internet. When I tried to google them, all I could find was another blog post trying to find out who they are (
here) and people selling them on ebay and etsy. It seems as though the postcards date from the 1950's going by some of the listings that I found. Also, when I decided to research the origins of the name "Elsi" it seems as though it is mostly used in English, Spanish and German speaking countries (but it used in many others, as well) and the surname "Gumier" is of German origin. So by that evidence I'd presume she was German. However, most of her cards seem to be based on either Spain or Portugal in one way or another, which suggests that she is either Spanish or Portuguese, so ultimately I have no idea.
I have decided to take a couple more photos too, after noticing that Elsi uses two different signatures, and also to compare a possibly damaged/blue postcard with one that isn't blue.
(It took me ages to realise that their surname was actually "Gumier" as I misread it as "Yurnier".)
The background and skin tones are the most noticeable differences, with the card on the right being a lot more blue than the card on the left.
So if anybody out there knows more than I was able to find out about Elsi Gumier, please comment and let me know! Also, if they know if the blue is some sort of damage (I personally believe it is sunlight damage) let me know.
Before I finish this blog, I'm going to write a little about the picture frames that these postcards are in. When my mum received the postcards, they were already framed and she has never removed them from the frame. I actually did remove a postcard to see if I could learn anything about the frame, it is an "Elsinore" frame which was made in Denmark. When I tried to google this however all it did was find some expired ebay listings and a framing service of the same name in America... I have no idea if they're linked or not however. Any information about the frames would also be awesome, however, so if you know anything, again, please comment.
