The People of Gibraltar

1905 - V.B. Cumbo - Catalan Bay . . or Commercial Square?

V.B.Cumbo - later Cumbo and Montegreiffo - was one of the larger local publishers of souvenir photo-booklets and tinted collotype view-cards depicting Gibraltar. The company probably produced most of its postcards during the early 20th century although they continued to be sold long after that.

In the 1900s 38 views of Gibraltar - many of them shown in the examples below - were published in an attractive red leather bound book. The address of the company is given as 19 Church Street which means that they were almost next door to Beanland Malin ( see LINK ) who were also an important local postcard publisher and almost certainly a direct competitor.

Curiously in the early days of the century pictures rarely occupied the entire space available on the front of the card thus allowing the sender to make whatever comments he or she felt appropriate.

The sender of this card was obviously taken by the presence of exotic characters wandering around Gibraltar ( 1903 )

This card has been wrongly labelled. It shows a scene in Commercial Square rather than Catalan Bay. The sender, who seems to be the same person who wrote the previous one, had obviously visited Catalan Bay - but still failed to notice the mistake ( 1903 )

The following is a selection of Cumbo's best sellers. They were sold both tinted and in black and white. The photographers are unknown to me.