Antique & Vintage Postcards

Glowing in burnt orange, scarlet, and verdigris green, this extraordinary embossed chromolithograph postcard reproduces the famous painted wall of the Casa degli Amorini Dorati (House of the Golden Cupids) at Pompeii — one of the best-preserved houses in the ancient city, its triclinium walls bearing a central panel depicting Diana surprised at her bath by Actaeon, flanked by theatrical masks and delicate painted vessels, all framed in the elaborate architectural trompe-l'œil paneling that defines the Third Pompeian Style. The embossing gives the card a tactile richness that makes the painted wall panels literally rise from the surface. Published as a "Carte Postale" (R&C publisher, catalog no. A 3051), this unused card dates to the early 1900s — the golden era of chromolithographic postcard production — and is in remarkable condition despite a torn lower-left corner. A must for collectors of classical antiquity ephemera and early embossed chromolithographs.