BEFORE the advent of the Twitter status and the Facebook profile, holiday-makers would fill  friends and relatives with envy with a simple picture postcard. 

 

Using a pen and a postage stamp – remember those? -  intrepid travellers would, on arrival at their destination, choose a picture of a place they hadn't visited yet, write about how lovely the hotel was, and pray the postcard reached the intended recipient before their return flight landed.

 

The heyday of picture postcards was the early 20th century, when they served not only as a tool for communication but as a memento for travellers who, more likely than not, did not own their own camera. 

 

And seven albums of postcards from that period were sold at Moore Allen & Innocent's antiques auction in Cirencester on Friday, July 1 for a whopping £480. 

 

They included topographical scenes, humour, maritime, trams, golf courses, Welsh landscapes and images by Louis Wain, the English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphised cats and kittens playing sport, attending dances and tea parties, or wearing top hats and carrying umbrellas.

 

Of course, the way many Englishmen got to see the world in those days – whether they wanted to or not – was by joining the army, and a set of four First World War medals made the top price of the day, selling for £1,000.

The four medal group had been awarded to colour sergeant Major W T Eagle, London Regiment, and comprised of the Meritous Service medal, a Territorial Force Efficiency medal, Territorial war medal and 1914-18 war medal.

 

What made the lot really special was the pieces of personal history that accompanied the medals –  four photographs of the recipient, one as a young boy, two as a serving soldier and one as a retired civilian, wearing medals, a group photograph of the regimental unit, a soldier's pay book, and typed letter of appreciation signed by "Captain William G......, 29th London Regiment".

 

Auctioneer Philip Allwood said: “There is a healthy collectors market for medals, and owners seeking to sell medals should remember that related ephemera and photographs will really appeal to those collectors, and add real value at auction.”

 

Between the wars, the German company Rollei started to manufacture light, compact cameras with superior optics and durable mechanics that made travel photography – for those who could afford the camera and the travel fare – a reality.

 

And a Rolleiflex Compur Rapid, together with an equally-desirable Rectaflex, of Italian design, were snapped up for £560. 

 

Today, the world is a smaller place. The determined traveller can hop on a plane and find themselves taking photographs of big cats in South Africa or mountain gorillas in Rwanda within 24 hours. 

 

And a veritable safari in glass form – a suite of glassware attributed to Rowland Ward comprising jug, six brandy balloons and six tumblers, each etched with wild animals  including elephants, rhinoceroses, buffalos, lions and giraffes – sold for £420. 

 

Rowland Ward was, of course, most famous for his taxidermy, and when the subjects of his work were shot it wasn't generally pictures that were coming back to England, but pelts.