Lot #796: Vintage 1900s European Art Postcard - Young woman with Braided Hair - Sick Sister Message - "Weltpostverein" - Chromolithography

One Vintage 1900s European Art Postcard, used, showing young woman with braided hair in a white dress and hood. This coloured postcard does not indicate a publisher, but the right side in marked in French "Addresse" and the top is marked multilingually "Postkarte - Carte Postale - Weltpostverien - Union postale universelle - Post Card - Levelezo Lap - Korrespondenzkarte - Dopisnice - Karta Korrespondencyjna - Korrespondencni Listnik - Briefkaart - Post Card - Brefkort - Brevkort - Cartolina Postale - Tarjeta Postale." No Stamp. Never Postally Used. However, it does bear a sad ink message, reading in part: "Chere amie, Vous saurez que ma soeur elle est pas trop. Je crois quel ne passer pas la semaine...Si j'y vas pas il dependera de ma soeur quel sera plus mal. D'une amie, Rose Legault. " This card is a classic example of an "International Souvenir" from the late Golden Age (c. 1907–1914). The exhaustive list of languages and the reference to the "Weltpostverein" (Universal Postal Union) indicate that this card was designed specifically for global export, likely produced by a high-end printer in Germany or Austria-Hungary for the international tourist market using high-end Chromolithography or Tinted Collotype. The young woman in the white dress and hood is a quintessential subject of Edwardian Romanticism. The white dress and hood suggest a "Purity" or "Folk" aesthetic popular in European art at the turn of the century. Depending on the exact style of the braids and the embroidery of the hood, this could represent a stylized Alsatian, Dutch, or Alpine regional costume, which were highly fashionable "picturesque" subjects for postcard collectors. The multilingual header is the most significant diagnostic feature of this card. The "Weltpostverein" or Universal Postal Union was founded in 1874, and standardized postal rates and procedures between countries. Including this term on a card was a "guarantee" that it met the international size and layout regulations for global transit. The inclusion of languages like Levelező Lap (Hungarian), Dopisnice (Czech/Slovak), and Karta Korrespondencyjna (Polish) strongly suggests the card originated in Central Europe, likely within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Printers in cities like Vienna, Prague, or Leipzig were world leaders in the chromolithography used for "richly coloured" cards like this. The presence of a divided back (marked "Addresse" on the right) combined with the UPU header places the production firmly after 1907, when the international postal community finally reached a consensus on the divided back format. This suggests a date of late Golden Age (c. 1907–1914). The ink message from Rose Legault provides a stark, human contrast to the idealized Art on the front. Rose writes in French about a dying sister: "Chère amie, Vous saurez que ma sœur elle est pas trop [bien]. Je crois qu'elle ne passera pas la semaine... Si j'y vais pas, il dépendra de ma sœur qu'elle sera plus mal." (Dear friend, You should know that my sister is not doing too well. I believe she won't last the week... If I don't go, it will depend on my sister getting worse. This card documents the role of the postcard as the "instant message" of the 1900s—used here to convey urgent, heartbreaking news about a family health crisis before the widespread use of the telephone. Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}