The BV first featured Barry Cuff’s collection in The Gardener with 10,000 postcards in April 2022. In the first of a new series, the local postcard collector – and The BV’s allotment columnist – shares a selection of images from his archive. This month Barry has picked the French photography and publishing firm Levy & Sons LL.
French company Levy and Sons first produced postcards for the Paris Exhibition of 1900, and by 1901 they were selling postcard views of Paris, Boulogne and other French channel ports.
In 1904 the company sent photographers to England, where they photographed views of the South Coast and London. In Dorset they covered Swanage, Corfe Castle, Wareham, Wimborne, Weymouth and Portland. All the cards were numbered, and the postcards were ready for sale in 1905.
