Antique & Vintage Postcards

Her hair piled in an extraordinary tower of tight Flavian curls — a hairstyle so elaborate it required a detachable hairpiece to achieve in real life — the marble portrait bust of Julia, daughter of the Emperor Titus, stares serenely from the Capitoline Museums in this finely detailed real-photo postcard from Rome. Julia Titi (ca. 65–91 AD) was one of the most fashionable women of the early Roman Empire, and this iconic bust has been a must-see for visitors to the Musei Capitolini for centuries; the photograph captures the sculpture's extraordinary surface detail with the clarity only silver gelatin printing could provide. The card was produced on Alpa-Brom photographic paper stock — a mid-century Italian photographic paper brand — suggesting production in the 1930s–1950s, and is labeled simply "Cartolina postale" on the reverse with no publisher imprint. A wonderful object for collectors of classical antiquity ephemera, Italian museum cards, or Roman imperial history.