The Cabinet of Curiosities

An assortment of odd and intriguing postcards highlighting but a small cross-section of the diverse subject matter captured by the artists and photographers of past ages, as well as some of the history captured within the messages.


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Un Taureau vivant possédant 2 têtes, 3 bouches et 3 langues, c.1910

Printed monochrome postcard produced in France about c.1910 and showing a two-headed bull with three mouths and three tongues. The publisher isn't stated.


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Ogden's Great Petrifying Well, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, c.1910

Sepia real photographic postcard showing a view of sundry items in the process of being petrified by Ogden's Great Petrifying Well at Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. Published by John Ogden, Orchard Road, Matlock Bath, not numbered, photo by Percy Rowbottom, registered 7 July 1909.


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Saisissante Réception, des Lilliputiens Marguerita, Deniso et Mab, c.1910

A printed monochrome postcard showing a view of a reception with the noted Lilliputians 'Princess Marguerita' or Marguerite, aged 20 and 65cms tall and weighing 7kgs, the 'Prince Deniso' or Denison, at the time the smallest adult person on earth, and the 'Noble Adrien Mab'. Publisher not stated, No 9, c.1910.


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Two Canadian Exaggeration Postcards, 1910

A pair of sepia real photographic postcards published by The Canadian Post Card Co of Toronto. In the first three cars, led by a Buick, chase a giant rabbit and is captioned 'When we go after anything we get it'. The second shows a group of men hauling their enormous geese off to market. Such cards were very popular in Canada and the United States in the first few decades of the 20th century.


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South African Native Witch Doctor, c.1905-10

A hand tinted printed postcard showing a "South-African Native Witch Doctor", though the image is taken from a photo by S.C. Turner and was taken near the Victoria Falls in Rhodesia. Published by Braune & Levy, Johannesburg, No 1405, c.1905-10.


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Chief Mayombe & Two Wives, Kinshasa, Belgian Congo, c.1910

A sepia real photographic postcard showing a view of Chief Mayombe with his two wives at Kinshasa in the Belgian Congo. The card was published by Thomas Lewis of Stratford Road, Birmingham as part of his Lewis Series, No PC 27, c.1910.


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Une Belle Capture, Au Service d'Hygiène, St-Louis, Senegal, c.1910

A printed sepia postcard showing a view of a group of rat catchers dispaying their haul outside the Bureau d'Hygiène at Saint-Louis in Senegal. Publisher not stated, No 220, c.1910.


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The Guzrat Hunt, c.1910

A printed monochrome postcard showing a trio of Gujarati nitpickers in India. Publisher not stated and not numbered, though the card was printed in Saxony.


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The Commercial Press Factory Destroyed by the Japanese, Shanghai, c.1932

A printed colour postcard showing a view of the destruction caused to the library and printing works of the Commercial Press at Shanghai in China by the Imperial Japanese Army during the 28 January Incident in 1932. Published by The Commercial Press (商务印书馆有限公司), Shanghai, not numbered, presumably in 1932 or thereabouts.


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Salla Terrena im Waldsteinpallais, Prag, 1915, Sent to Ludwig Berwald

Printed colour postcard, published by Minerva, Vinohrady, Praha, No 388, showing an illustrated view by Jaroslav Šetelík of the Salla Terrena in the Wallenstein Palace in Prague, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The card was sent by Hedwig Adler to the German Jewish mathematician and geometrist Dr Ludwig Berwald at Villa Landheim, Grünwald bei München, Bayern and with a purple "Überpruft" postmark. Hedwig and Ludwig were married seven months after this card was sent. A few years later he became a Professor at the German University in Prague. They were both deported by the SS to the Łódź Ghetto on 22nd October 1941. The Berwalds were two of 55 people who were forced to live in an incomplete one storey schoolhouse at 48 Maryśinska Street in one-room, approximately 20ft or 6m square, and with no beds. Hedwig, eight years older than her husband, died 27 March 1942 of blocked arteries; Ludwig followed 23 days later of intestinal catarrh and heart failure.


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A Postcard of the Palais de Justice, Bruxelles, purchased by Lise Meitner in 1948

A monochrome real photographic postcard showing a view of the Palais de Justice in Brussels, Belgium, published by J.C., not numbered. The card is postally unused, but with the partial message, "Lieber Jutz" dated 2 October 1948 and with the address of Mr Justinian Frisch, Bragevägen 12, Stockholm. Frisch, a German Jew, was the brother-in-law of the notable nuclear physicist Lise Meitner and Bragevägen 12 was where Lise Meitner, along with Justinian, or Jutz, and Lise's sister Auguste, or Gusti, all lived. Lise had helped them to escape from Austria in early 1939. Lise Meitner was attending the 8th Solvay Conference at the Institut International de Physique Solvay in Brussels from the 27th of September to the 2nd of October 1948, along with Erwin Schrödinger, Neils Bohr, Robert Oppenheimer and others. It is interesting that she chose a postcard of the Palais de Justice to send to Jutz. On the eve of the liberation of Brussels, the retreating German forces started a fire in an attempt to destroy the building, as well as the legal records it contained. As a result, the cupola collapsed and part of the building was heavily damaged. The explosion of a V-1 rocket in the Rue des Minimes two months later caused additional damage. The photo in the postcard shows the building pre-war. Restoration started in 1947 and was mostly completed by the time Lise Meitner was there in 1948. The handwriting on the postcard is that of Lise Meitner. It seems that she never completed the message or posted it to Jutz. I often wonder why she never finished the message, and why it was never sent, but the fact remains that if Lise had posted the card to Stockholm then it may not have survived, and it certainly wouldn't have ended up in my hands.


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Arturo García Bustos - La Carta de la ONU, 1949

Printed monochrome postcard showing a linocut illustration by the Mexican artist Arturo García Bustos, a student of Frida Kahlo and one of the Los Fridos, entitled La Carta de la ONU, and showing a fascist soldier with snakes around his head intimidating a line of peasants waiting to vote. The soldier has the Charter of the United Nations stuck through his bayonet. To the back are the words Ganaremos la Paz si Luchamos por Ella, We Win Peace by Uniting For It. Published by the Taller de Gráfica Popular, not numbered, printed in Mexico, 1949.


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Joy Division on the cover of the New Musical Express in 1979

Printed monochrome and red postcard showing a reproduction of the front cover of the New Musical Express for the 11th August 1979, featuring a photo by Pennie Smith of Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner (Barney) of Joy Division. Published by IPC Magazines Ltd, 1991, NME Classics.