A Handsome Man, Post WWI

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE Hand-Tinted Handsome Fellow circa 1920s/30s

Move over girls! Handsome Jack has arrived!

We see many hand-tinted couples romance cards, but not so many hand-tinted men all on their own, so we're always pleased when one comes our way.

It's probably worth mentioning that, although men appearing in the earliest picture postcards were often bearded or wearing elaborate mustaches, those in picture postcards of the late teens, and into the thirties, were generally clean shaven, very neat and tidy. The features of most of the male models of this period were less apt to be those of a "Marlboro Man," and more along the lines of the Japanese "bishonen," or "pretty male," to the degree that we have sometimes wondered if a well-dressed man in some of these 20's period cards might not be, in fact, a pretty woman in male attire. Yet, although that must have happened on occasion, the pretty boy look reflected a change in taste and style, one that emphasized a cultured, polished appearance, rather than one that was more rugged and robust.  This preference for a "sensitive" guy might even suggest a marked increase in picture postcard images aimed at a larger, more independent, female postcard buying audience following World War I.