This wonderful vintage real photo postcard captures actor Mr. Charles Garry and actress Dora Barton (1880-1966) in a dramatic scene from the play “Ivanhoe”. Ivanhoe was a dramatization by William Palmer of Walter Scott’s novel.Dora Barton plays Rebecca while Charles Garry plays the role of Isaac of York. Both actors later had film careers. This photograph does an incredible job of capturing the performers emotions. The photographer of this image was well known for his talent and family ties. Alexander Percy Guttenberg (1870-?) came from a family that produced a number of photographers. His father, Marcus Guttenberg (1828-1891) began as a daguerreotypist in Hungary, Prussia, Poland and Germany before starting a photography business in England (1851). One source reports that he established 24 studios in England but settled in the Manchester area. Percy, like his father, was also very successful. In fact, there are fourteen of his photographs in England’s National Portrait Gallery. Percy was famous for his work photographing actors and actresses. The image above was photographed at his Queen’s Theater studio in Manchester as part of a “Revival Series”. The postcard has been mailed and is postmarked in Sunderland in the year 1909. Sunderland is in the northeast of England.
I’m most intrigued by the message on the back of this postcard. “Von Hans” = from Hans, German, but the rest seems to be written in code. By changing the places words are separated from each other, I see “day night” for instance. Can anyone else interpret the secret message?
“Don’t forget Monday night band of hope.” Von Hans.
Still a mystery though.
The Band of Hope was a temperance organization founded in Leeds, England in 1855. It still exists today–now known as Hope UK, it educates children and adolescents on the dangers of drug and alcohol addiction–you can find out more about this organization’s history and activities on Wikipedia. Thanks to Mike Brubaker’s decoding of the message from “Hans”, it seems a good possibility that Hans and “Miss H. Parkin” had made plans to attend a temperance meeting, and he was reminding her of it, using a “code” unfamiliar to possible prying eyes. Interesting!
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