Antique & Vintage Postcards

Five tiny silk ribbon bows — white, pink, blue, red, and purple — are stitched directly onto this charming Edwardian-era novelty card, each paired with a coded verse that lets a suitor signal his romantic intentions without a single spoken word. The white bow promises union, the pink bow suggests she's sometimes on his mind, the blue bow declares faithfulness, while the red bow (printed upside-down, perhaps deliberately coy) warns her love is dead, and the purple bow signals she belongs to another. The center reads boldly: From a "Beau" Who Loves You — a punning declaration that delighted the postcard-crazy public of the early 1900s. Postmarked Olympia, Washington, September 23, 1907, the reverse carries a gossipy pencil note from an unnamed writer asking Hattie whether someone named "Dorie" received her card yet and if she answered — a snapshot of small-town social intrigue still vivid after more than a century.