Antique & Vintage Postcards

In the crypt beneath the Garrison Church of Potsdam, on a black-and-white marble floor, Napoleon stands alone before the sarcophagus of Frederick the Great — hat removed, head bowed, his marshals and officers arrayed silently behind him — in one of the most haunting scenes of the Napoleonic era. Painted by Ponce-Camus and preserved at the Musée de Versailles, this sepia photomechanical card captures the moment in October 1806 when Napoleon, freshly triumphant at Jena, made a pilgrimage to the tomb of the military genius he most admired. "If he were alive, we would not be here today," Napoleon reportedly told his generals. The word FRIEDRICH II is legible on the stone sarcophagus in the painting's gloom, and lanterns cast dramatic shadows across the vaulted crypt. The LL-series divided back is clean and unwritten; the Lévy et Neurdein Réunis imprint appears on the reverse spine.