J. Salmon Limited

The company was founded in 1880 when Joseph Salmon, who had been a bookseller in London, acquired a stationer’s shop with a general printing business at 85 High Street, Sevenoaks in Kent. He continued the business in its existing form until, in 1898, his son, also Joseph Salmon, took over when his father retired.

By 1890, Joseph had become interested in the potential of printing and publishing pictorial post cards and produced a collection of twelve black and white post cards of Sevenoaks and district. This was followed, by a small collection of coloured post cards of local scenes. Such was the success of these early cards that in a very few years the range had been widened to include comic cards. Around 1912 Joseph Salmon also started to publish post cards featuring the work of Alfred Robert Quinton, a famous association that was to last until the artist’s death in 1934.

Also at this time Salmon published a small series of local view pictorial calendars with coloured illustrations of English scenes, towns and regions. The earliest calendars were in a turnover style although, as techniques developed, both turnover and panel style calendars were produced in increasing numbers.

By the end of the First World War, the business had outgrown its original site and a new factory was built in Sevenoaks. Between the wars the company continued to develop its product ranges under the control of Norman and Eric Salmon.

After the Second World War post cards remained as a core product and, from the 1960s, the range of Salmon calendars steadily developed. Derek Salmon joined the company in 1948 and continued to play an active role in the business until the early 1990s.

The company has remained in the ownership of the Salmon family and today is run by Charles and Harry Salmon, the fifth generation of the family to be involved in the business.

In 2009 the company celebrated 100 years of calendar publication by which time it was publishing over 250 separate titles.

The company took the decision to cease printing production in late 2017 and finally withdrew from publishing in the early part of 2018 and is now concentrating on licensing imagery from its archive.