Antique & Vintage Postcards

A lone figure in a top hat serenades the night beneath a gaslit stone archway — this atmospheric "Emel"-Karten No. 13, illustrated by the artist O. Peter, depicts the famous scene conjured by Franz Schubert's Ständchen ("Horch, horch, die Lerche…"), a setting of Shakespeare's serenade from Cymbeline translated by Friedrich Reil. What makes this a genuinely unusual philatelic and musical artifact is its format: the postcard unfolds to reveal a full printed sheet of the song's sheet music — three strophes in Allegretto time, complete with German text — published as "Molitor's Liederkarte Nr. 13" by the Lyra-Verlag, H. Molitor, Leipzig and Wien. The decorative back features a fine lithographed portrait of Schubert in a blue Art Nouveau frame with the "Emel Karten" publisher's mark, printed by lith. Kunstanstalt J. Schreier, Vienna. A charming crossroads of postcard collecting, music history, and Viennese Art Nouveau design.