Maxicards, 1930-1939

Group of four cards; three are real photo postcards, one is a halftone print. 

Considered as novelties or specialties, maximum cards (also known as maxicards) have been a pursuit of stamp collectors since at least the 1920s. The creative collector tried to find a postcard that matched the image on a stamp as closely as possible and then placed the stamp on the face of the card. If the postmarking were done in the very town where the photograph was taken, or otherwise tied to the subject that the stamp commemorated, the maximum card was further enhanced. Such cards are fascinating because they bridge stamp and postcard collecting, the two most popular hobbies of their day. 

Márquez' photographs rarely appear as real photo postcards. The only examples found so far are sepia-toned real photos that were made into maximum cards. In the mid-1930s, a collector from Papantla, Veracruz, affixed postage stamps to Márquez' real photo postcards that are closely related to the stamps, which were then carefully postmarked.  

Sources: Text from Susan Toomey Frost’s presentation on Maxicards.  Also see https://www.postcrossing.com/blog/2012/03/19/postcard-formats-maxicards   Luis Márquez: Mexican Folklore ∓ History in 20th Century Art Postcards. https://susanfrost.org/postcards-of-luis-marquez