Antique & Vintage Postcards

Draped in the bold red-and-black Wallace tartan and embossed with a shimmering sprig of lily-of-the-valley, this colorful clan-themed card from Valentine's of Dundee frames a lively painted view of Edinburgh's Princes Street — one of Europe's great urban thoroughfares — with the Gothic spire of the Scott Monument and the pillared Royal Scottish Academy gleaming in afternoon light, red double-decker buses threading past shoppers in 1940s dress. The Wallace clan crest shield sits proudly upper-left, its quarterings rendered in crisp heraldic detail. The card belongs to Valentine's celebrated "Art Colour" series, printed in Great Britain, and its reverse carries a Tennyson quotation — "Ring out the thousand wars of old, / Ring in the thousand years of peace" — a sentiment poignant in the post-war years when such cards were most popular. The back is unused and pristine, the stamp box noting "1d STAMP" postal rate. A charming piece of Scottish tourist ephemera with strong clan-collector crossover appeal.