Antique & Vintage Postcards

Four white Lipizzaner stallions perform their gravity-defying haute école movements inside the baroque splendor of Vienna's Winter Riding Hall — the oldest and most prestigious classical riding academy in the world, founded in 1572 — in this striking chrome-era multi-view card that captures the levade, the capriole on the longe, a rider at trot, and a formal entry parade, all bathed in the warm amber glow of the chandeliered arena. The card bears the German title "Wien–Spanische Hofreitschule" (Vienna Spanish Court Riding School) and was published with catalog number 335 FW, the reverse instructing senders to "Verwenden Sie das billige Grußporto!" (Use the inexpensive greeting postage rate!), a slogan used in Austrian postal campaigns of the 1950s–early 1960s. "Nachdruck verboten" (reproduction prohibited) appears along the spine. The Spanische Hofreitschule became a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage element in 2015, but these mid-century cards predate that recognition and document a storied era of the school's postwar revival after the famous General Patton rescue of the horses in 1945. The card is unused and in excellent condition.