Sepia Levy collotype of the inner courtyard of Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire — an elaborately carved well in the center foreground, steep slate roofs with pointed dormers rising around it, a Late Gothic entrance doorway with Renaissance ornament, round towers at the corners. Chaumont occupies a bluff above the Loire between Blois and Amboise and has one of the most storied ownership histories of any Loire château: built in the 15th century, it passed through the hands of Catherine de Medici (who used it to coerce Diane de Poitiers into leaving Chenonceau), then to the Prince de Broglie, then to Madame de Staël, and eventually to the Say sugar fortune. The LL imprint — Lévy et Neurdein Réunis — was France's preeminent topographical postcard publisher at the turn of the century, producing definitive views of every château in the Loire valley.

• Caption: Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire — La Cour Intérieure / The inner yard
• Card no.: 40
• Publisher: Levy et Neurdein Réunis (LL), 44 R. Letellier, Paris
• Status: Unposted