11.00 USD
A charming image, and what a cute feathered cap :) The diamond pattern identifies this young lady as a Harlequin, that perennial mischief maker, rather than as Pierrette. Probably her costume was red, or orange, and white too, rather than black and white as a Pierrette's would probably have been.
You really can't ask for more 1920's style than she creates with this simple costume, while still maintaining a little of the 1910-ish decorum.
Her hair looks as if it was done up in the swaithed fashion, sometimes called a "nervous" bob, a style popular with young ladies who wanted the "thoroughly modern" look, but weren't quite ready to shed their tresses and so artfully swept their long hair around their heads to imitate the bob.
The dropped waist of her costume can't really be dropped any further, and of course she sports the bar strap shoes with the Louis heels, a flapper favorite. She's only missing the long strand of beads which would have got in the way of her ruff anyway :) Very cute!
This RPPC was made by Wilhelm Ballizany of Kleve (still spelled Cleve at that time). There are many references to his work as a printer and photographer, but no personal history we've been able to locate.
Cleve is a port city on the Rhine river near Germany's border with the Netherlands. At the time our photo was taken it was quite a beautiful, bustling, town, but in the 1940s during WWII, its location was one of strategic importance and consequently allied bombing raids so completely destroyed the place that our Harlequinette would probably not recognize it today.
This is the thing about RPPCs that so draws us in. We glimpse through the little window a moment in a stranger's life and then begin to wonder about them. Curiosity sooner or later turns into research, which opens the door to history. Sometimes when an image is evocative enough, the stories just unfold in our imaginations like raspberry soda over the rim of the glass when you drop in too much vanilla ice cream. We love RPPCs!
A nice card with an unfortunately evident thumb crease about a third of the way up along the left edge. Please examine our high res scans for detail.
The item you are considering for purchase is, unless otherwise noted, a vintage postcard of approximately 5 and 1/2, by 3 and 1/2 inches. Postage is for fully-insured, first class shipping in a secure photo mailer (to avoid any damage to your purchase in the mails), and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will not charge for 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 increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more. We do not charge for insurance or shipping materials, and as of the date of this listing are still charging below our overall cost on shipping.
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!