A Boston printing house best known for its “Plastichrome” brand of glossy chrome-era postcards; Plastichrome catalogue numbers begin with the letter P.
The firm began in 1938 as a publisher of linen view cards and only added the chrome “Plastichrome” line in the 1950s — so its output splits into an earlier linen era and a later chrome era.
A dominant mid-century contractor for roadside attractions, motels, diners and souvenir shops, competing directly with Dexter Press for the modern glossy-postcard market.
The firm went out of business in 1969.
A Colourpicture “Plastichrome” chrome, c. 1963–1969 — “Luscious Golden Hawaiian Pineapple,” photo credited to United Air Lines, distributed by Max Basker & Sons, Honolulu.Scanned from the Postcard Origins collectionIts corner mark: a tiki-motif house stamp box carrying the Colourpicture catalogue number (P68401). A publisher mark, not a paper brand — it names the printer, it doesn’t date the paper.From the collection
A second Colourpicture card in the collection. The imprint by COLOURPICTURE · BOSTON, MASS. 02130 carries a ZIP, so this one is 1963 or later — and the firm closed in 1969.Scanned from the Postcard Origins collectionIts house stamp box, catalogue number P77654 — a higher P-number than our Hawaiian card’s P68401, so later in the sequence.From the collection
The other side of the company: an earlier, pre-Plastichrome Colourpicture card — a three-view of Atlanta, Georgia (Fulton County Court House, State Capitol, City Hall), postmarked 1951. Colourpicture printed it; R. & R. News Co. of Atlanta published it — the same printer-and-publisher split you see on the Teich cards. The same card’s stamp and cancel are documented on the stamps and postmarks pages.Scanned from the Postcard Origins collection
Its imprint: A “Colourpicture” Publication, Boston 15, Mass., U.S.A., serial K4523. The K — not a P — marks it as the earlier linen line rather than a Plastichrome chrome, and the pre-ZIP “Boston 15” address independently puts it before 1963. The serial itself does not decode to a year; the 1951 postmark does.Scanned from the Postcard Origins collection
Dating this publisher’s cards
US. Two quick clues sit in the imprint. First, the address style: a pre-ZIP postal zone such as “Boston 15, Mass.” dates a card before 1963, while a five-digit ZIP (“Boston, Mass. 02130”) means 1963 or later; the company closed in 1969. Second, the serial: Plastichrome catalogue numbers begin with the letter P, so a P-number marks a chrome card, while an earlier linen-era card carries a different prefix (the specimen below is K4523). Colourpicture’s decorative corner mark is a publisher house stamp box that names the printer — it is not a photographic-paper brand, so it does not date the paper. There is no serial-number-to-year decoder for Colourpicture; date these from the address style, the stamp, and the postmark.
Sources: Colourpicture operating span (1938–1969) and the Plastichrome brand / P catalogue prefix: standard deltiology publisher references, incl. The Digital Philatelist; ZIP-code introduction (1963): USPS history. See methodology.
Compiled and edited by Julien, a postcard dealer and collector in California — every card here is one from the collection.
