Antique & Vintage Postcards

A great white cargo vessel cuts through Amsterdam's busy IJ harbour in this vivid chrome-era color aerial photograph — cranes bristling the distant skyline, barges and ferries clustering the quays — postmarked from Germany in September 1964 and sent airmail to Victor, New York, by Harry and Ella, who had just crossed from Holland into Germany at Cologne and were excitedly planning a four-hour Rhine River cruise the following day. The Amsterdam city coat of arms — three bold red X's on a black shield — anchors the lower left corner in heraldic style, while a blue Deutsche Bundespost 40-pfennig stamp bearing the portrait of German President Heinrich Lübke franks the card, sent via Luftpost, making this a charming artifact of mid-century American tourism in postwar Europe. The card itself was printed by Rembrandt-Vitacolor of Amsterdam, one of the leading Dutch postcard publishers of the era.