This is a leather postcard, one of four that I picked up while vacationing in New England.  All four are addressed to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, Massachusetts, who received them around 1907.  My notes don’t say what I paid for them — they might have cost next to nothing, or I might have been persuaded to part with a few dollars each for them, just for the novelty’s sake.

Given the amount of effort that the artist put into the the building and the trees, you’d think that the clouds would be a little more detailed.  This is a leather postcard, one of four that I picked up in a shop while vacationing in New England.  All were sent to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, MA.  While the postmark on this card shows no year, it was probably manufactured and mailed in 1907 — an opinion I base on the other cards like this.

This is one of four leather postcards that I picked up on a vacation to New England.  Like the others, this one is addressed to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, Massachusetts.  Of the four, this one is the most rigid, especially around the edges — though by comparison with postcards made from the card stock of today, it is not rigid at all.  It was probably manufactured and mailed in 1907.

This card is the only one of the four that bears a mark from the manufacturer; it was made by the Hy-Sil Manufacturing Company of Boston, which was founded in 1903 by Eli Hyman and Morris Silverman and is still in business today.

This postcard is made of actual leather, which was apparently something of a novelty back in the day.  It’s still possible to find early postcards made out of things like wood and aluminum.

Pictured is the conference building in the Portsmouth Navy Yard where the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905, bringing an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

This is one of four leather postcards that I own that were addressed to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, Massachusetts, and which I picked up during a vacation in New England.  It is postmarked July 20, 1907, but was apparently manufactured prior to March of 1907, when postcards with divided backs became legal in the United States.

I love Captain Cool, center, and his squad of traffic goons in this RPPC from 1949. The back of the card doesn’t have any identifiable markings from the manufacturer, but someone was kind enough to make notes for me:

Unfortunately, the only German that I can translate from this is “Harley-Davidson”.

Lest you think that these aren’t enough cops to manage all of the traffic violators in Vienna, not to worry; their numbers would more than double by 1950:

This card has a little more detail on the back but, unfortunately, my limited ability to read German is further hindered by the antiquated handwriting:

All that I can really make out from this is that it is addressed to “my sweetheart” (I think) and that it is dated Vienna, 12 November 1950. If you can clarify this for me, I would appreciate it.