Lot #729: Vintage 1900s Ontario Postcard - "Near Kenora, Lake of the Woods, Ontario" - "Gilded Age" Cottages - "Valentine and Sons" - Printed in UK

One Vintage 1900s Ontario Canada Postcard, unused, showing lakefront boats and cottages "Near Kenora, Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada". This richly coloured postcard was issued by "Valentine and Sons Publishing Co. Montreal and Toronto" ("Famous Throughout the World") and was printed in Great Britain using high quality European inks and methods. This postcard is a quintessential example of Valentine & Sons' premium output. By the 1920s, the company had fully established its "Famous Throughout the World" branding, leaning on its Scottish roots to provide the high-end lithography that Canadian domestic presses were still striving to match. Kenora (formerly Rat Portage) was renamed "Ke-No-Ra" in 1905 by using the first two letters the neighbouring towns of "KEewatin", "NOrman", as well as "RAt Portage". In the early 1900s, Kenora was transitioning into a premiere summer destination. The view of "lakefront boats and cottages" from this period captures the transition from working waterfronts to recreational ones, with the classic wooden launches and the "Gilded Age" style of cottage architecture that defined the early 20th-century summer experience on Lake of the Woods. Because this card was "Printed in Great Britain" by Valentine & Sons, it utilized a sophisticated multi-stage lithographic process. Valentine & Sons was famous for their "colour-toning." They would take a black-and-white photograph and overlay it with multiple lithographic tints. The result is that specific, saturated look where the water often appears a deep, unrealistic blue and the foliage a vibrant, "perpetual summer" green. The headquarters of "Montreal and Toronto" on the reverse marks this as a card specifically intended for the Canadian market, though the physical "methods" (the ink and plates) remained British. Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}