Antique & Vintage Postcards

Mist and majesty in a single frame — this early 1901 black-and-white photographic view sweeps across the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne), its glacial waters mirroring a dramatic amphitheater of snow-capped Alps rising in tiers toward the clouds. One of Switzerland's most celebrated panoramas, photographed from an elevated vantage that emphasizes the lake's serpentine reach deep into the mountains, this undivided-back card was mailed from the summit station at Rigi-Kulm and traveled across the Atlantic to reach a Mrs. Cherry at 449 Luckhardt Street in Columbus, Ohio — arriving August 13, 1901 at 8:30 AM, the Columbus receiving postmark stamped directly across the image face. The Swiss sender franked the card at Rigi-Kulm station with a green 5-centime Helvetia Sitting stamp, clearly tied by the circular Rigi-Kulm datestamp (1.VIII.07 — note: postmark reads 1901 on Columbus side). Published by Gebrüder Wehrli of Kilchberg/Zürich, a leading Swiss photographic postcard house of the era.