Antique & Vintage Postcards

Edwardian high society strolls in brilliant Mediterranean sun along the Casino terraces of Monte Carlo in this crisp real-photographic postcard — parasols tilt and top hats bob as a fashionable crowd of men, women, and children promenades before the ornate Belle Époque arcade of the famous Salle Garnier wing, palm trees sway behind a row of wrought-iron lampposts, and the rocky heights of the Monaco corniche shimmer in the hazy distance. Monte Carlo in the decade before World War I was the playground of European royalty, Russian aristocracy, and the English upper class, its casino the most glamorous gambling establishment in the world; the street-level terraces depicted here were a daily theater of fashion and intrigue. Published in the celebrated "LL" series by Lévy et ses Fils (later Lévy & Neurdein), the dominant French real-photo postcard publisher of the era, this card bears the catalog number 86 and presents an unusually animated street-level crowd scene. The reverse is unused.