Antique & Vintage Postcards

Still water mirrors a mossy stone arch at Gomshall Mill in Surrey, where a narrow bridge leads past timber-framed outbuildings to a cluster of old farm structures in this softly rendered watercolour-style illustration signed "Jotter" — Walter Hayward Young's evocative depiction of a Surrey mill that had ground grain since at least the Domesday Book, making it one of England's oldest recorded mills. The golden-brown palette and loose brushwork are quintessentially Jotter: romantic without being saccharine, precise enough to satisfy the topographically curious tourist yet painterly enough to hang on a parlour wall. Published by G. Smith of Stroud Green Road, North London, in his "Puachrome Series" (a chromolithographic trade name) and printed in England, this card carries the early British divided-back instruction "This space may be used for communication in the British Isles ONLY (Post Office Regulation)" — placing it in the 1902–1906 era when the divided back was newly permitted. The card is unused and in excellent condition with strong, unfaded colour.