Set: Bliss

The nineteen postcards shown chronologically on this page were sent by San Francisco postcard collector Marthe Bliss between 5/26/1902 and 3/28/1905, a span of about three years in the early years of the Golden Age of postcards. Six cards were sent to Maria Correa de Mello in Lisbon, eleven to Mme. I. des Villers in Brussels, and two to Albert Nothomb in Liège (see Set: Nothomb). Most of the cards contain only an abbreviated date in the form dd.mm.yy and the signature "M. Bliss" in lieu of a message, but a few contain brief messages in French or Portugese. The messages imply that the cards were part of a postcard exchange between collectors.

I bought these postcards from three different vendors, in most cases with the backs unseen. It was a great joy to discover that identical Sutro Baths cards Mitchell 135 and Mitchell 135 were written on the same day (12/01/1902); mailed to different countries, they returned to San Francisco and reunited in my collection in 2021, more than 118 years later.

Mitchell, private mailing card dated 5/26/1902.
Detroit 5862, private mailing card postmarked 7/02/1902; another example is shown below.
Unknown publisher 61, postmarked 7/02/1902 (same day as preceding).
Mitchell 160, postmarked 7/26/1902.

Detroit 5275, private mailing card postmarked 8/15/1902.
Goeggel & Weidner 12, postmarked 9/05/1902.
Mitchell 135 and
Mitchell 135, both written 12/01/1902 and postmarked 12/02/1902.

Detroit 5862, private mailing card postmarked 1/16/1903; another example is shown above.
Detroit 6120, postmarked 1/22/1903.
Weidner 129, postmarked 1/02/1904.
Weidner 139, postmarked 1/13/1904.