Lot #743: Vintage 1906 New York USA Postcard - "Grant's Tomb, Riverside Drive, New York" - Buggy - Front Message - USA 1¢ Green "Franklin" Stamp

One Vintage 1906 New York USA Postcard, used, showing a view of a handsome brick "Grant's Tomb, Riverside Drive, New York". Horse and Buggy visible at far right. This coloured postcard has no publisher given, and an undivided back indicating "This side is exclusively for the address" Includes One Green USA One-Cent "Benjamin Franklin" Stamp. Postmarked February 1906 at New York, N.Y., USA. No message on reverse (since forbidden), but uneven difficult to decipher message in German (!) on margin on front of Card. Signed "Ullmann", this card was addressed to "Master Sylvan Kuhn, New Haven, Ct." This postcard is a quintessential example of the Undivided Back Era (1901–1907), capturing one of America's most famous monuments at a time when postal regulations strictly dictated the "social etiquette" of the card. The General Grant National Memorial (dedicated in 1897) was a massive draw for New York tourism in the early 1900s. Modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the neoclassical granite and marble structure represented the peak of the "monumental" style. In 1906, Riverside Drive was one of the most fashionable promenades in the city, frequently featured in "souvenir" sets for its views of the Hudson River. While the tomb itself is granite, many early colored postcards used warm, brick-like tones in their lithography to highlight the surrounding architecture or the paved areas of Riverside Drive, giving the scene a "richly coloured" warmth typical of the era. The inscription "This side is exclusively for the address" is the defining characteristic of this 1906 mailing. Because this card was mailed in February 1906, it predates the 1907 regulation change that allowed for divided backs. Senders who wanted to write a message on these cards had to "cheat", like the sender of this postcard, by writing in the tiny margins on the front of the image. This was likely a mass-produced "stock" card sold at kiosks near the monument. Without a publisher’s mark, the "Made in Germany" origin is often implied by the quality of the ink and the cardstock’s resistance to aging. Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}