Antique & Vintage Postcards

On a sun-dappled cobblestone street in Funchal, two handlers in traditional Madeiran dress pose beside their extraordinary vehicle — a wicker passenger sleigh mounted on wooden runners, pulled by a pair of broad-shouldered oxen with painted horns, the whole contraption sheltered beneath a fringed crimson canopy: this is the famous carro de bois, or bullock car, the unique hillside transport of Madeira that delighted Edwardian cruise passengers and remained a tourist fixture well into the 20th century. The card is a beautifully hand-colored lithograph printed by Kutzner & Berger of Berlin (their Edwardian-era travel series), registered as B.P. 136. A penciled note on the reverse in an early hand reads simply "Bullock Car." The card was never mailed — the Union Postale Universelle divided back is blank — making it a pristine souvenir example, likely purchased aboard ship or at the Funchal market during a transatlantic port call, perhaps from one of the Hamburg-Amerika or other Blue Riband liners that regularly called at Madeira en route to the Americas.