A French postcard is a small,
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...
-sized piece of cardstock featuring a photograph of a nude or semi-nude woman. Such erotic cards were produced in great volume, primarily in France, in the late 19th and early 20th century. The term was adopted in the United States, where such cards were not legally made. The cards were sold as postcards, but the primary purpose was not for sending by mail, as they would have been banned from delivery. The cards sometimes even depicted naked lesbians. French street vendors, tobacco shops and a variety of other vendors bought the photographs for resale to tourists.
French postcard images
A number of photographers and studios produced French postcards, with some of them featuring particularly popular models.
File:JA-Serie-040 French postcard-number2.JPG, Jean Agélou
Model: Fernande
French-postcard-no-series Two-women Pseudo-classical kithara.jpg, Pseudo- classical scene with kithara
Naples, Italy - Old vintage erotic postcard.JPG, Image of the Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It i ...
with Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of s ...
on left
File:Les Nymphes Samusent by Alexandre-Jacques Chantron.jpg, Alexandre Jacques Chantron
File:Nudo di donna - Formato Gabinetto - fotografia Pantano, Napoli.jpg, "Formato Gabinetto"
Pantano, Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
File:Zoro PC3.jpg, Zoro Garden Nudist Colony
San Diego, California
File:Five Nude Women.jpg, E. Le Delay
"Five nude women in dance"
File:Postcard of French Woman.jpg, "Postcard of French woman", non-nude
in style of French postcards
File:Nu-Femme assise posant au pied d'un buste-années 20.JPG, Postcard, Seated woman with a herma, 1920s
Orientalist images
Many photographers and studios specialized in images with an
Orientalist theme.
File:Algérie. Jeunes Femmes Mauresques. Photochrome originale d'époque. Circa 1890. 18 x 24 cm.jpg, Adia
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ( ar, جهاز أبوظبي للاستثمار, ADIA) is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (in the United Arab Emirates) founded for the purpose of investing funds on behalf of the Gover ...
Algerian Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or se ...
girls
File:ES - 14 - Esclave marocaine servant ses maitres.jpg, Aqua-Photo L.V.S.
Moroccan slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
serving her master
File:Behar - 322 - Jeune fille arabe.jpg, Behar
Behar, BeHar, Be-har, or B'har ( — Hebrew language, Hebrew for "on the mount," the fifth word, and the Incipit, first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 32nd weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Judaism, Jewish cycle of Tor ...
Arab girl
File:J. Boussuge - Esclave.jpg, J. Boussuge
Moroccan slave from Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
File:Combier - 007.jpg, Combier (CIM)
File:CAP - 6300 - La Sieste.jpg, Compagnie des Arts Photomécaniques
"The siesta
A ''siesta'' (from Spanish, pronounced and meaning "nap") is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. Such a period of sleep is a common tradition in some countries, particularly those in warm-weather zones. Th ...
"
File:P. Cousin et Cie - 514T - Bedouine.jpg, P. Cousin et Cie
"Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
"
File:Prostitutes in Algérie - 1910 ca. - Roger-Viollet Alinari.jpg, Roger-Viollet/Alinari
Two prostitutes in an Algerian brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...
File:Fille egyptienne a la fontaine 2.jpg, Ephtimios
Egyptian girl at the fountain
File:J. Garrigues - Jeune bedouine.jpg, J. Garrigues
Young Bedouin girl
File:Jean Geiser - 156 - Jeune bedouine.jpg, Jean Gieser
Young Bedouin girl
File:Idéale PS - 4 - Mauresque.jpg, Collection idéale PS
"Moorish"
File:720 - Types d'Orient.jpg, Lehnert & Landrock
"Oriental Type - slave"
File:Levy & Fils - 6267 - Mauresque B.jpg, Levy & Fils
"Moorish"
File:Jeune algérienne, 1920.jpg, Frères Neurdein
Young Algerian woman
File:Regence - 67 - La belle Zinah.jpg, Regence
"Beautiful Zinah" - Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
File:SIP - Jeune fille arabe 2.jpg, Société Industrielle de Photographie (S.I.P.)
Young Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
girl
File:Raphael Tuck & Sons - An egyptian beauty.jpg, Raphael Tuck & Sons
Raphael Tuck & Sons was a business started by Raphael Tuck and his wife in Bishopsgate in the City of London in October 1866,Picture Postcards and Their Publishers, by Anthony Byatt, page 288 selling pictures and greeting cards, and eventually se ...
Egyptian beauty
File:Viala - 74 - Jeune femme au massage.jpg, F. Viala
"Young woman at Moroccan massage"
File:JA-Serie-39 French-postcard.jpg, Pseudo-Oriental theme
Jean Agélou
Model: Fernande
References
Further reading
* ''French Postcards: An Album of Vintage Erotica'', Martin Stevens.
Universe Books/Rizzoli, 2007,
* P. Hammond ''French undressing: naughty postcards from 1900 to 1920''. London: Jupiter, 1976.
* W. Oulette, B. Jones ''Erotic postcards''. New York: Excalibur, 1977.
{{Nudity
Postcards
Pornography