Era guide · 1915–1930

White Border era

When the war cut off German printing, American presses took over — and the look of the postcard changed. The signature of the era is the white frame left around the image, which saved ink across enormous print runs. Print quality is often visibly coarser than the golden-age German work it replaced: flatter color, simpler screens.

The front of a white-border postcard of the Samarkand Persian Garden, Santa Barbara, from the Postcard Origins collection, with a plain white frame around the image — The white border in the flesh: this view of the Samarkand Persian Garden carries the plain frame the era is named for. Printed by Curt Teich — its C.T. American Art imprint and Teich number A-91619 date the printing to 1922 — and published by Western Publishing & Novelty Co. of Los Angeles; postmarked at Pomona in 1924, its unusual corner-year dial shown on the postmarks page. The *same* hotel appears as a real photo card on our Artura stamp-box page: the full set is in our Samarkand postcard story. Scanned from the Postcard Origins collection

The white border is a strong but not absolute signal: borders appear occasionally in other eras, so read it together with the back layout (divided), the stock, and the printing. The era gives way around 1930 to a new textured card stock — if your bordered card also has a woven, fabric-like surface, it belongs to the linen era instead.

Postmarks, as always, outrank appearance: a legible cancel gives you a hard latest-possible date and often the exact day.

Compiled and edited by Julien, a postcard dealer and collector in California — every card here is one from the collection.

All eras Dating wizard