Our first Brighton print features a wonderfully bold postmark from the 60s with a confident claim.
I have to admit that when I first saw the top-ten tagline, I chuckled with delight.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Brighton whenever I visit and I know it’s a fantastic place to live. It just doesn’t seem to me to fit into that category of top European resorts that the postmark seems to be claiming, the sort you imagine the world’s jet-set would want to spend their summers in.
Think, though, that this Brighton postmark first appeared on letters and cards in 1965 and ran until 1967. Very many of the European resorts that we know now were either non-existent or else mere sleepy villages in the mid-sixties and have only been developed in the years since, so there was certainly a lot less competition for a place in Europe’s premier league at that time.
Deliberately hazy
Then there’s the vagueness of the claim. Top ten for what? Mild as Brighton’s climate might be, ‘in Europe’s top ten’ can’t be referring to the average daytime temperature in July… or hours of unbroken sunshine.
In its own postmark of the same year, nearby Eastbourne claims to be Britain’s Sunniest Mainland Resort for the years 1961-1964, so the Brighton marketing department wouldn’t have wanted to go up against that. Hence the vaguer claim, perhaps based on its centuries of history and royal patronage.
Eastbourne postmark 1965 – hard to compete against
Given that Brighton was quite well developed as a resort by 1780, and the railway link to London opened in 1841, it may even have been in Europe’s top five resorts at some time or other. Who knows, then, quite what (or when) the local grandees had in mind when they commissioned this classic postmark.
I’m so glad they did, though.
Simple and resonant
Something I also love about this particular Brighton postmark print, in addition to the gloriously extravagant claim of the message, is the look of the whole thing.
Firstly there’s the simplicity of the drawing, which really manages – with a certain dynamic and bracing feel given by the yacht – to sum up the seaside so economically and elegantly, while at the same time being very forthright and visible.
It’s also quite intimate, making you think of those times on the beach when you lie on the shingle, cushion your head on a towel, then make a cosy little nest out of the breeze and look seawards, perhaps framing a view with your hands…
That British feeling when you’re hunkered down on the beach, close to the pebbles and out of the wind…
Next there’s the special typeface that seems to have been designed – or at least adapted – for the place names. The thickness of the Brighton & Hove lettering goes well with the bold lines of the drawing and gives lots of opportunity for the uneven, printed look of the typeface to come through.
This ink-stamp quality is a big reason I think these postmarks are so great to look at. There aren’t many postmarks with such bold lettering and that’s one of the reasons I find this one so satisfying and why it’s our first Brighton print. To top it all off there’s a cheeky little sun to dot the i of Brighton – which inspired us for the logo of The Inky Postmark!
