Four elegantly dressed Edwardian-era guests lean in around a candlelit card table — the tension of a spoiled hand crackling between them in this richly atmospheric sepia-toned illustration titled A Mis-Deal. The mustachioed gentleman with arms folded conveys cool displeasure while a woman in white reaches toward the scattered cards; a chandelier glows overhead and potted palms frame the scene in classic Gilded Age parlor style. Mailed in December 1910 from Port Jervis, New York, the card traveled to Mrs. W.H. Mac Innes at 11 Wilkes Ave., Middletown — the sender (signing as what appears to be "Lew") mentions hoping to get to the bottom of a patron situation and closes with warmth: "with love." A vivid social snapshot of the postcard golden age, when comic card games were as fashionable a subject as the parlor games themselves.