The Risque Postcard 1906-1908
While both of these double entendre postcards would be considered risque around 1900, the photographs are quite different.
This first postcard of “Practice This Piece With Me” from 1907 implies making out during piano practice time.
The second postcard goes a bit further. Notice where his hand is.
Robert McCrum’s / Bamforth Co. 1906 card is much more racy than the I. & M. O company’s version.
Photographer Robert McCrum was in charge of the Bamforth Company’s New York office. The company’s headquarters were in Holmfirth, England, where an image like this might raise an eyebrow, but more likely looked upon as humorous rather than daring.
In the United States postal authorities could and did censor images and writing. Frequently, postal inspectors would prosecute individuals and companies for sending immoral or indecent material through the mails under the Comstock Act.
In this postcard series, I. & M. O. was copying slogans such as “Practice This Piece” and “Try This On Your Piano” with their own image similar to McCrum’s 1906 original.
Through modern eyes these postcards are tame compared with the provocative material produced today. 100 plus years ago, postcards like these did border on titillation and sexual stimulation.
Here are three other images from Robert McCrum.
Always astonishing to see what passed for off-color, or even funny, over a century ago. The handwritten comment on the last postcard — “Not very good looking but it tastes good” — could be taken as more risqué than the pictures themselves. I wonder if these folks ever reminisced in later year to their grandchildren about spending that day at the photographer’s studio.