Gerbil House Ltd

Gerbil House Limited

 

ROSE RIGDEN ‘WILD ANIMAL’ POSTCARDS
Adrian de Bourbon and Geoff Brakspear

Rose Martin, and later under her married name Rose Rigden, designed many of the stamps of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe starting with the 1967 Nature Conservation issue up to the 1990 Second Definitive issue (the values between 15 and 30 cents). Under her married name she designed and produced a number of books of cartoons of the wildlife of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. She also drew a large number of postcards of cartoons depicting wildlife in the country.

These postcards were initially produced and printed in Zimbabwe. The series was known as
‘The Natural Selection’ and the postcards were numbered from 2001 upwards. At some stage Mrs Rigden transferred her copyright in the postcards to Gerbil House Ltd, which in turn later transferred to a New Zealand company Footloose Enterprises. Those two companies made reprints of the postcards, and in due course Footloose Enterprises created a new series entitled ‘The Wildside’, maintaining the catalogue number of the postcards. Postcards which bear the imprint of ‘The Wildside’ have a W added to the end of the number. Other organisations such as Zazzle and firstartamerica advertise the postcards on the Internet, but these are not listed as they do not show number of the postcard, and are clearly reprinted to order. These postcards are not listed.
This listing is restricted to the postcards published under the name ‘The Natural Selection’ and ‘The Wildside’. The listing below is far from complete. The illustration of some postcards have been copied from the Internet, but as no details of the reverse unknown at present that block in the listing remains blank. Members and users are requested to provide any further information to Adrian de Bourbon or Geoff Brakspear including details and scans of the front and reverse of any missing postcards.

 

Rigden Listing (Updated December 2025)