A QUIRKY collection of early 20th century postcards – and a colourful piece of social history charting holidaymaking in Wales – has been sold at auction.

Hinting at the racy undercurrent of Welsh seaside towns in the 1920s, the bold designs come from destinations such as Aberystwyth, Machynlleth, Tywyn and Dolgellau.

Depicting courting couples, flirtatious females and lecherous gentlemen, they were sent in the early 1900s and are surprisingly saucy, considering the social mores of the times.

With a postmark of 7 August 1922, another postcard shows a couple canoodling under a large red umbrella with the words ‘I’ve clicked at Aberystwyth’.

The cards, which could be described as ‘bawdy’, fetched £100 when they went under the hammer in auctioneers Rogers Jones and Co in Cardiff on Friday, 27 May.

Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said the postcards were a “fascinating insight into the liberal mood of holidaymakers at some of Wales’ most traditional seaside destinations”.

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