Lot #735: Vintage 1910 Ontario Postcard - "King Edward Hotel, Toronto" (8-story) - "Valentine & Sons" - Printed in UK - 1¢ Green "Edward VII" stamp

One Vintage 1910 Ontario Canada Postcard, used, showing "King Edward Hotel, Toronto 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. Includes One Green 1903 One-Cent "King Edward VII Coronation Robe" Stamp. Postmarked and dated September 1910. Postmarked twice: both on September 8, 1910 in Toronto (origin from where sent) and again on September 9, 1910 in Duart, Ontario (destination to where sent). Although stamped, cancelled, sent and delivered, there is no message except the address "Louis Roebler, Duart, Ont". This postcard is a remarkable artifact of Toronto's "Golden Age" of hospitality, capturing the King Edward Hotel (the "King Eddy") at the peak of its early prestige. Opened in 1903 on King Street East, the hotel was designed by architect E.J. Lennox—the same man behind Toronto’s Old City Hall—and was the undisputed center of the city’s high society. By 1910, the "King Eddy" was the height of luxury, boasting fireproof construction and lavish interiors. This card shows the original eight-story structure before the 18-story tower was added in the early 1920s. Because this was printed in Great Britain by Valentine & Sons, it captures the warm red brick and terracotta details of the hotel with the deep, saturated blues in the sky that define their European-inked series. The card was mailed in Toronto on September 8th and arrived in Duart (a small farming community in Chatham-Kent) on September 9th. This 24-hour turnaround across nearly 300 kilometers illustrates the incredible efficiency of the railway mail service in early 20th-century Ontario. The most striking feature of this card is the dual postmarking and the lack of a message. However, in the 1900s and 1910s, it was quite common for people to send "view cards" with only an address. Often, the card itself was the message—a way of saying "I am here" or "I am thinking of you" without needing words. For collectors, these are often called "Address-only" cards. The use of the Green 1-Cent King Edward VII stamp in September 1910 is particularly poignant, as it shows the hotel named after the King using a stamp featuring the King, just four months after his death. Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}