Antique & Vintage Postcards

Five richly tinted vignettes on deep black ground compose this handsome souvenir multiview of Stratford-on-Avon — Shakespeare's hometown — showing the half-timbered splendor of Harvard House, Old Garrick Inn, and Tudor House; the Guild Chapel and Shakespeare's School; the narrow lane of Shakespeare's Birthplace; the swans-and-spire panorama of the Church and River Avon; and the ornate Victorian Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, destroyed by fire in 1926 and replaced by the current RSC building. That the Memorial Theatre appears intact dates this card to before 1926, and the J. Salmon, Sevenoaks publisher mark with catalog number *1602 and "Printed in Great Britain" is consistent with Edwardian or early Georgian production. The unused card is in clean unposted condition, with a penciled dealer price "V-300" in the corner — a modest investment for such a charming piece of literary topography.