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Postcard 1910s Linen Court House Stockton California Japanese New Year
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Pre-linen · 1910

Postcard 1910s Linen Court House Stockton California Japanese New Year

Stockton, California, USA1910Pre-linenExcellent

A domed Beaux-Arts courthouse rises above a boulevard lined with feathery date palms in this richly hand-colored linen-era card from Stockton, California — the image so crisply rendered you can almost hear horse hooves on the brick street below. The San Joaquin County Courthouse, completed in 1890 and demolished in 1962, was one of the grandest civic monuments in the Central Valley, its ornate cupola flying the Stars and Stripes with unmistakable pride. What makes this card extraordinary is its reverse: a full Japanese New Year greeting (恭賀新年, Kinga Shinnen) printed in elegant brushstroke type alongside a verse wishing health and ten-thousand blessings upon the recipient's household — evidence of the thriving Japanese-American community in the Stockton Delta region who used mainstream souvenir cards as vehicles for their own cultural traditions. Published by Souvenir Publishing Co. of San Francisco, the card was never mailed and retains its bright colors.

$24.95
Excellent
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PC-05357 · Souvenir Publishing Co., San Francisco
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