Saucy Postcards: The Bamforth Collection

The Yorkshire-based publisher Bamforth & Co started producing ‘saucy’ postcards in 1910. These cheeky designs became synonymous with the English seaside resorts where they were sold, but were exported all over the world.

After WW2, Bamforth artists began to satirise the classic comic archetypes that still resonate today – henpecked husbands, naughty nurses and randy milkmen. Contemporary concerns ranging from the contraceptive pill to the Space Race also received the irreverent Bamforth treatment.

Saucy Postcards: The Bamforth Collection celebrates the golden age of these comic gems, with a selection of more than 250 cards originally published from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. The book’s introduction reveals the story behind the company, and the battles with the postcard censorship committees that resulted in almost 150 prosecutions.