Many cards were printed as ‘one-offs' from different publishers, or without identifying the publisher at all. The following list is of D'Oyly Carte singers appearing as portraits, or in non-Gilbert & Sullivan roles. Some artists, especially the prettier girls are to be found on very many cards. Isabel Jay, Agnes Fraser and Ruth Vincent are shining examples.

Most names listed here are from the 1900 - 1914 period, but the list includes names right up to the 1980s.

Click on the names to see the portraits.

Notes

1. There are many cards of Adrienne Augarde, niece of Amy but not a Savoyard. At least one card of the glamorous Adrienne is captioned as ‘Amy’.

2. The cards of Charles Conyers are likely not to be of the D’Oyly Carte tenor 1884-90. He died in 1896.

3. The Gilbert & Sullivan George Grossmith had a son of the same name who appears in many postcards. He went into one-man entertainments, and is often seen in evening dress.

4. Beware, the Shakespearian actor Henry Herbert is not the D’Oyly Carte tenor.

5. Lena Leibrandt is also wrongly written as Liebrandt, Lebrandt and Lubrandt.

6. Also seen on a card with three of her sisters.

7. Several cards show Courtice Pounds in jester's costume. In these he is playing Touchstone in ‘As You Like It' or Feste in ‘Twelfth Night', not Jack Point.

8. This, the best known, card of J.G. Taylor shows him in The Only Way. A rarer card shows him closer to his Thespis and 1876-77 days.

* These cards may be of other artists with the same name as a Gilbert and Sullivan player.

General notes

Some of these artists appear in postcards on their own. Others can be found in play scenes, musical comedies and concert parties.

Some cards described as postcards are produced as autograph cards, and were not intended to be sent through the post. They have no printing on the reverse. This is more likely to be seen with modern cards, especially those produced after 1917 when the Post Office increased the postal rate from a halfpenny to a full penny, an increase of 100%!

Page modified 15 July 2020