Anglo-Irish family correspondence · Raphael Tuck Oilette · c.1931
A Garden Postcard to Synolda Cholmondeley Clarke — Shankill, County Dublin
Flora Pilkington · All in a Garden Fair · Raphael Tuck & Sons No. 3574
Catalogue details
Description
An original postally used Raphael Tuck Oilette addressed to Miss Synolda Cholmondeley Clarke at Clifton, Shankill, County Dublin, with a personal message, George V one-penny stamp, and a garden illustration attributed to Flora Pilkington. A probable connection with the future Lady Dillon makes this a distinctive piece of Irish family correspondence.
- Object
- Original illustrated and postally used postcard
- Publisher
- Raphael Tuck & Sons, London
- Series
- Oilette, All in a Garden Fair, No. 3574
- Illustration
- Flora Pilkington attribution (series catalogue)
- Postmark
- Probably early 1930s; exact date not yet confirmed
- Recipient
- Miss Synolda Cholmondeley Clarke, Clifton, Shankill, County Dublin
- Probable identification
- Elia Synolda Augusta Cholmondeley Clarke (1916–2005), later Lady Dillon; attribution pending corroboration with address and date
- Reverse
- Personal pencil correspondence; George V one-penny stamp and cancellation
- Physical extent
- One postcard, printed colour front and manuscript reverse
- Dimensions
- Measurements gladly provided on request
- Condition
- Please consult the photographs for condition. Additional photographs are available on request.
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Historical context & sources
An Irish name on an English garden postcard
The vivid garden printed on the front is not the full story. Its reverse carries a handwritten message addressed to Miss Synolda Cholmondeley Clarke at Clifton, Shankill, County Dublin. The card survives as personal correspondence, with its stamp, cancellation and pencil message intact. The address places the historical object in an Irish household rather than a generic English postcard collection.
A possible future Lady Dillon
Genealogical records identify Elia Synolda Augusta Cholmondeley Clarke (1916–2005), who later married Sir Robert William Charlier Dillon, 8th Baronet of Lismullen, County Meath. The correspondence may have been addressed to her. Because the postmark is not fully legible and Clifton has not been independently connected to this individual, the identification is presented as probable rather than conclusive.
The illustrated postcard
The picture is an idyllic garden scene of flowerbeds, clipped hedges, steps and white doves. It belongs to Raphael Tuck & Sons’ Oilette series All in a Garden Fair, No. 3574, with its design attributed to Flora Pilkington. The series was in circulation by the late 1920s; it is not an original watercolour.
