Publisher · US

Colourpicture Publishers

Boston, Massachusetts · 1938–1969

A Boston printing house best known for its “Plastichrome” brand of glossy chrome-era postcards; Plastichrome catalogue numbers begin with the letter P.

A dominant mid-century contractor for roadside attractions, motels, diners and souvenir shops, competing directly with Dexter Press for the modern glossy-postcard market.

The firm went out of business in 1969.

A Colourpicture Plastichrome chrome postcard from the Postcard Origins collection: Hawaiian pineapple harvest scene — A Colourpicture “Plastichrome” chrome, c. 1963–1969 — “Luscious Golden Hawaiian Pineapple,” photo credited to United Air Lines, distributed by Max Basker & Sons, Honolulu.Scanned from the Postcard Origins collection

The Colourpicture house stamp box, a tiki motif, with catalogue number P68401 — Its corner mark: a tiki-motif *house* stamp box carrying the Colourpicture catalogue number (P68401). A publisher mark, not a paper brand — it names the printer, it doesn’t date the paper.From the collection

Dating this publisher’s cards

US. A printed ZIP code in the Boston imprint dates a card after 1963, and the company’s 1969 closure caps production. Colourpicture’s decorative corner mark is a publisher house “stamp box” — it identifies the printer and carries the P-catalogue number, but it is not a photographic-paper brand, so it does not date the paper.

Sources: Colourpicture operating span (1938–1969) and the Plastichrome brand / P catalogue prefix: standard deltiology publisher references, incl. The Digital Philatelist; ZIP-code introduction (1963): USPS history. See methodology.

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