One of the most enduring of the major Ontario-based postcard producers was Rumsey & Co. Ltd. of Toronto. In 1909, William Frederick Rumsey (1878-1936), took over the stationery business of his late father William and decided to focus the business on postcards. Unlike many other similar companies, Rumsey & Co. continued in the postcard business well beyond the First World War.
The printer for this postcard was the C. G. Roeder Company of Leipzig in the province of Saxony, Germany. This firm was founded in 1847 to reproduce sheet music. They began printing postcards in the mid 1890’s and by 1900 they had become a major producer, eventually manufacturing 120 million cards per year. They worked primarily in tinted collotype cards but also in chromolithography.
One of the interesting things about cards printed by the Roeder printing company is that they all have a job number written on them. It is possible therefore to date these cards simply using this job number. On postcards printed before 1911, the number was printed on the lower right of the address side of the card. By the end of 1910, the number had reached 255,000 so at the beginning of 1911, they starting counting over again. The number was then written in the stamp box which can make it difficult determining the number if there is a stamp there.
The number on this card of the Baptist Church published by Rumsey & Co. is 236002 indicating that it was printed by the Roeder Company in 1910. There is one of the Lutheran Church in the same series, one looking up Woodstock Street south to the centre of town, and one looking north from the centre of town numbered 236003 (not yet in the Collection)..