Antique & Vintage Postcards

Elevated above the magnificent Stadtplatz of Schärding, a gem of Baroque town planning on the Inn River at the Austro-Bavarian border, the camera captures one of Upper Austria's most photogenic market squares in its full interwar splendor — a long parade of pastel-gabled burgher houses with distinctive stepped and rounded Baroque façades stretching into the distance, a ornate tiered fountain anchoring a formal garden parterre in the foreground, and a handful of period automobiles parked casually along the broad paved expanse. "Apotheke" is legible on the first arcade building at left, and "Franz Feichtinger" signage appears at the lower right — real commercial life threading through the architectural pageant. This real-photo postcard, hand-annotated "Schärding, Stadtplatz" with catalogue number "D 114" in the right margin, was likely produced as a professional documentation or commercial card in the late 1930s. The reverse carries a postcard sent from Schärding on 24/5 (May 24th), postmarked with an Austrian "Österreich" 12-Groschen stamp, addressed to a young person named Igzi Fanecka at Hinterbühl bei Wien — and the writer, who signs with affectionate kisses as "Anni / Sani," fills every inch with warm family news about missing grandmothers, rainy Regensburg, and holidays in the countryside.