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Posted By: davidcycleback

Old real photo postcards were made by many folks, including small time photography
studios, big companies and even ameteur photographer's in their home basement. The
postcard stock itself was manufactured by big companies like Kodak. The names
on the PC backs -- Kodak, Velox, AZO, etc-- are names or brand names of major photo
paper manufactuers. Whether big or small, ametuer or famous, most photographers
and photo studios didn't make their own photo paper, but bought it from the big manufacturers.
So it's possible in 1920 for both a famous NYC Studio and a 16 year old Nebraska hobbyist
to be using the same undeveloped Velox real photo postcard stock, as they bought it
from the same Kodak catalog (Kodak made Velox brand photo paper).

Undeveloped real photo postcard paper is just that: photo paper. It has all the
photochemicals affixed to the front where the photo image will appear. Back in
the old days, the only difference between undeveloped 8x10 photo paper (to make your
8x10 photos) and undeveloped real photo postcard paper (ro make real photo postcards)
is the size and the printing on back. The undeveloped real photo postcard paper
is postcard size and has the stampbox/mailing printing on back. A photography
studio might tell the Kodak travelling salesman, "I'd like to order 10 boxes of
8x10 Velox paper, 5 boxes of 11x15 Velox paper and two boxes of Velox postcard paper."

So, all that stampbox/Velox/Kodak/Defence/triangles stuff on the back of real
photo postcards was put there by the manufacturer of the paper, not by the studio.