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The earliest known postmark on a postcard published by Adolfo Biener is 1915. Apart from the marking, Biener's early cards are almost indistinguishable in subject matter and printing style from those of Alberto Valdeveallano. Archaeological sites, earthquake ruins and portraits predominate.
Idolo Indigena
en Quiriguá
La hija
del cacique
Monolito
de Quiriguá
Monolitos
de Quiriguá
Interior,
Mercado Central
Monolito
de Quiriguá
Vendedoras
Claustro Escuela
de Cristo, Antigua
Claustro Escuela
de Cristo, Antigua
Vendedora de
Frutas "Palin"
Ruinas del Templo de
San Francisco, Antigua
Unlike Valdeavellano, whose only use of color was in solid or rainbow tones, Biener in the 1920s began publishing a line of postcards printed by a full color lithographic process. The differences can be noted in the middle example above, as well as in the examples below. These color cards have white borders, and later ones have deckle, or uneven, edges to their white borders.
Carreta
típica
En el mercado
"San Francisco El Alto"
Mercado
en Palin
Interior
Iglesia, Chichicastenango
Mercado
en Atitlán
Orillas
Lago Atitlán
Rio Motagua
Mercado en
Chichicastenango
Indias de Atitlán
(Tejiendo)
Sololá
(al fondo Volcán Atitlán)
Like his counterpart in Mexico, German-born Hugo Brehme, Adolfo Biener offered photo processing and photographic equipment and supplies from the United States and Germany. For some 35 years Biener also published tourist postcards, along with booklets containing 12 postcards that could be detached and mailed individually. (Click on the image at above right for the names of the known booklets.)
Biener's real photo postcards generally have numbers and titles that were written on the negatives, which then were printed with white borders on Agfa, Gevaert, Azo or Kodak papers, and signed either by backstamps or blind-embossing.
Iglesia el "Calvario"
Guatemala, C.A.
Museo Nacional
Guatemala, C.A.
Facultad de Ingeniería
Guatemala, C.A.
Recolección
Antigua
Panorama
Guatemala, C.A.
Indígenas
de Sololá
Mercado
Atitlán
La Merced
Antigua
Rio Blanco
Livingston
Mt. Agua
Antigua
Volcán "Santa Maria"
1938
Escuela de Cristo
Antigua
Entrada al Hotel
Manchen, Antigua
Volcán "Santa Maria"
1933
Erupción del
Volcán "Santa Maria"
Palacio
Antigua
Estación
Palin
Pila en patio
La Merced, Antigua
Volcán de Fuego
Erupción de 1929
Frente La Merced
Antigua
In the 1930s, a series of over 200 photo postcards published by Adolfo Biener & Cia promoted Guatemala's coffee industry. Some of the cards are marked with the initials A.R.W., implying that someone other than Biener took the photographs, with Biener having the rights to publish them. The titles on the front are in Spanish, while the promotional line on the back, "Guatemala produces the best coffee in the world," is printed in Spanish, English and German.
El Templo Cerro del Carmen
Guatemala C.A.
Indígenas de Chiquimula en su traje regional
Cargadores de petates en el camino a Atitlán
Ixtia de Zutujil
The real photo postcard at top right was individually printed in a darkroom. The negative has been titled and numbered "Fabricando Tinajas. Guatemala. 40." Embossed in the lower right corner of the face of the postcard is "Adolfo Biener / Guatemala." The paper on which the negative was printed was manufactured by Azo from the mid-1920s until the 1940s.
To create the postcard at bottom right, an original black and white photo was colored by hand. The resulting "master" copy was then mass-produced mechanically by a chromo-lithographic process. The new title is "Indígena de Chinautla, quemando ollas." It is numbered "Foto-Biener Nr. 1162" and "Propiedad del Editor" is printed vertically down the center of the back. This example wasn't mailed, but others in the series were postmarked in the 1940s.
Músico indígena,
San Martín Chile Verde
Campanario,
iglesia en Atitlán
Indio típico de Chichicastenango
Marimba típica,
Chichicastenango
Dia de los Santos
Chichicastenango
Fuente colonial,
Chimaltenango
Patio de la iglesia,
Santiago Atitlán
Chichicastenango
Indias del pueblo
San Antonio Palopó
Cargador de
tinajas - Quiché
Indias
de Atitlán
Orillas
Lago de Atitlán
Reja, Mayan Inn,
Chichicastenango
Vendedoras
en la Feria
Hall del Aeropuerto
de la Aurora
India de Chinautla,
moldando tinajas
Indios
en sus oraciones
Indio orando en el interior de la iglesia
Fuente, Mayan Inn
Chichicastenango
Hospital de Quiriguá
Introduction | Emilio and Roberto Eichenberger | Alberto Valdeavellano |
| Adolfo Biener | G. Hurter | Joaquín Muñoz | Lionel Stein | Pablo Sittler | Byron Zadik & Co. | Modern Postcards
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