Antique & Vintage Postcards

Dark with Baroque grandeur, the Presence Chamber at Windsor Castle peers out from this rare early F. Frith & Co. photographic postcard — the royal throne canopy commanding the center, flanked by carved Stuart-era chairs and rope-guarded furniture, while enormous history paintings crowd every inch of gilded wall and the fireplace surround gleams with marble statuary, a room built to make ambassadors feel appropriately small. Published by F. Frith & Co. Ltd. of Reigate under their "Frith's Series" imprint and printed in Saxony, this black-and-white interior card captures Windsor's State Apartments as the Edwardian public first came to know them through photography. Never mailed, with only a faint penciled notation on the reverse reading "…y 26th/[1]1" — possibly a collector's acquisition date of some day in 1911 — the card is otherwise pristine for its age.