18.00 USD
In the earliest days of the postcard in the U.S. (which began in 1873), all postcards were produced on cards printed by the U.S. government. Private printers would purchase these bonafide U.S. blanks from the government and print pictures on them, then sell the cards to their customers.
In 1898, as the popularity of the postcard grew, the U.S. government elected to end its monopoly on the printing of these cards, and, with definite restrictions, allowed private printers to produce their own. It was out of this experiment in independent card production, that the "Private Mailing Card," or PMC, was born. One major restriction on this private printing was in the format of the cards themselves, which were slightly smaller than the earlier, government issued cards. The private mailing cards were 3 and 1/4 by 5 and 1/2 inches in size. These cards were only printed between the years 1898 and 1901, and here we have a really fine example.
Anna Held, (1872-1918), was born in Poland, the daughter of a Jewish glove maker. She is one of our favorites. She was so lovely, and a real heroic, rags to riches story. When her family fled the anti Jewish pogroms, and emigrated to Paris, Anna found work in the garment factories. Soon, however, as she sang beautifully, she began singing in Jewish theaters in Paris. Her popularity grew, and after her father's death she traveled to London, performing there as well. In the mid 1890s she met Florence Ziegfeld, traveled with him to New York, where she is credited with giving him the idea for the famous Ziegfeld Follies. Ziegfeld's genius for publicity helped skyrocket Miss Held to fame and fortune, and she remained his common law wife for a dozen years, until he began a series of affairs with other actresses. Though she had emigrated to France from Poland, the French people loved her, and considered her very French indeed. They never forgave Ziegfeld his cavalier treatment of her.
During WWI, she often traveled to the front lines in Europe, performing for allied soldiers under sometimes very dangerous circumstances, and was thought quite the war heroine. In 1918, she died of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells.
A beautiful gelatin silver print of a photograph of Miss Held taken by Leopold Reutlinger of Paris, on this PMC, with a small crease in upper right corner. Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!
