1980s Charles Bell The Critics Art Postcard Art Unlimited Amsterdam Posted 1986 For Sale

This is a 1980s continental-size art postcard from Art Unlimited of Amsterdam, reproducing Charles Bell's photorealist painting "The Critics".

What makes it worth a look is the picture itself: two vintage wind-up toy birds nose to nose, a black crow in a blue jacket, plaid vest and red-banded straw boater with its key still wound, sizing up a yellow duck in a pink cloche hat. At postcard size Bell's painting still reads like a photograph until you look twice.

• One postcard, postally used, mailed in 1986

• Continental format, about 5.9 x 4.1 inches
• I have not put a rule to it; that is the standard size for this publisher
• Ships as a 4 oz parcel in a rigid mailer

Slight discolouration due to age at one back corner.

• Front: clean and glossy, colour dense, no fading and no scuffing
• Right edge, about two-thirds down: shallow ding roughly 1/4 inch through the white border; it does not reach the printed image
• Back: light grey handling smudges along the left edge
• Message side: handwritten birthday greeting in dark blue ink, strong and fully legible, no bleed-through to the front
• Address panel: addressed in ink. The addressee's name and street are covered with a black bar in my photographs for privacy; the city, state and ZIP are left as written. The card itself is unaltered and arrives exactly as it was mailed
• Corners: square, no rounding, no creases
• No tears, stains or water damage

Please see the photos and read the description for full details.

Printed along the left edge of the message side: "(C) Charles Bell 1982 / The Critics, collection Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York". Printed down the centre divider: "ART UNLIMITED (R) AMSTERDAM / OVERTOOM 31 AMSTERDAM", with the telephone number partly struck through by the cancel. The stamp is a 22c Flag Over Capitol, cancelled by a New York, NY machine postmark dated 1986 alongside the slogan die "INCLUDE YOUR APT # FOR BETTER SERVICE".

Charles Bell painted toys — wind-ups, marbles, gumball machines, pinball — at a scale that made them monumental, and "The Critics" is one of the bird pictures. There are two collectors for this card and they want different halves of it: one wants the Bell image, the other wants the 1986 New York cancel and the 22c Flag stamp on a card that actually travelled.

Please message me with any questions before buying — I'd rather answer one than have you guess.

Payment or contact is appreciated within three days so I can keep listings moving.

Thank you for looking — Pop's Games. Please take a look at my other listings.