Antique & Vintage Postcards

Bathed in the warm amber glow of an Alpine sunset, the ancient twin-towered ruin of San Gian stands sentinel on its grassy hillock above the Upper Engadine valley — one of the most photographed Romanesque chapels in Switzerland, its crumbling bell tower silhouetted against snow-capped peaks beyond. Photographer W. Küpfer captured this exquisite hand-tinted real-photo view around 1912, when the Engadine was already a fashionable retreat for Central European elites. The sender filled virtually every millimeter of the card's reverse with dense German script addressed to Fräulein Anni Vogl at a Viennese Standhaus, passing along warm regards and news of mountain excursions — a delightful record of Austro-Hungarian leisure travel just before the world changed forever.