Antique & Vintage Postcards

London's two great Thames-side icons share a single sweeping aerial view — the medieval White Tower and its surrounding curtain walls fill the foreground in warm ochre and cream tones, while Horace Jones's magnificent Victorian Gothic Tower Bridge rises in the background, its twin bascule towers reflected in the river mist, a pairing that has defined London's skyline for over a century. This "Valesque" series card from Valentine & Sons of Dundee and London uses their proprietary color lithographic process to render the scene with a richly painterly warmth that makes it feel more like an oil sketch than a photograph — a deliberate aesthetic choice that appealed to the interwar tourist market. The reverse carries a printed historical note explaining that the Tower "was first erected for William the Conqueror" and notes the Yeomen of the Guard — a brief, evocative text that doubled as a guide for the traveler who tucked this card into a pocket alongside their Baedeker. Card number H.9149 and the Valentine's globe trademark are clearly printed.