Postcards: Alphabet set of 27 by Ottilia Adelborg (artist, illustrator); unused.

Alphabet postcards by Swedish artist (illustrator) Ottilia Adelborg.  27 in total including 26 characters and a single card that displays not only all of the English letters but 3 more Swedish characters.  Every card in this set was produced in Sweden, and I think that these cards are richer—more vivid—than those later printed in the United States.  Although these cards do not come from the same printing, there are differences on the backside of the cards.  One card, Y, is a slightly shorter card.  All are in very good plus condition and have never been posted.  A set of these cards is not common (I dislike using the term rare), but could be used for teaching children the alphabet or decorating a room.  A beautiful set from an extraordinary illustrator.

In an academic paper written by JoAnn Conrad (2018), she writes that "Barbro Klein described Ottilia Adelborg (1855–1936) as a “reforming woman” who sought to rescue “inherited” Swedish crafts from oblivion by creating schools and museums. But Adelborg was also a prolific illustrator and author of children’s books, her stories based on reinterpretations of folk themes. In both cases, traditional forms were reproduced in modern media and deployed in the service of modernization—creating a modern citizenry whose identity was informed by these repackaged traditions. Adelborg was an important agent in this transformation, as well as a critical node in the connections between ideologues and practitioners: old and new."