President - West Essex Philatelic Society www.wepsonline.org 03 Feb 2009 08:18:33pm
I was just looking through some postcards that I purchase a while ago and came across this postcard from Switzerland which features the Axenstrasse road, the town of Fluelen and the Bristenstock Mt.:
The interesting thing is the message on the back.
It says:
"Owing to the present situation of affairs over here our plans had to be changed. We leave this morning for Italy instead of Germany. We have no idea when or from where we sail".
The date of the postmark is August 5, 1914. Germans declared war against Russia on 1 August and on France 3 August. This card was postmarked two days after that.
Chas Deantyne(?) must have gotten caught touring Europe right as the war broke out.
Bob
(Message edited by parkinlot on February 03, 2009)
A Google search of "Charles Deantyne" turned up a social item from a 1902 or 1903 edition of the Altamont Enterprise. But the name is "Dearstyne," not "Deantyne." If you look carefully at the signature you can make out what certainly could be and probably is an "...nst..." rather than "...nt..."
It may be a start. The name is the same (I think), the time frame is reasonable, and New York State is common to both the newspaper and the postcard. Nice item by the way! The best kind of postal history, to my mind anyway.
beautiful handwriting. I have a couple of German cards that have wonderful stories on them. Unfortunately I have some serious problems with the harddrive of my desktop computer right now, else I could have posted the scans I made of them... I hope to be able to do so later.
It IS an interesting card, and one that offers insights into the politics of the day. The writer sends this from neutral Switzerland to neutral America. He's heading to neutral Italy, rather than to belligerent Germany. Italy was then allied more closely to the Central Powers, although she entered the war on the Allied Powers' side, although not much to their benefit.
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re: Swiss postcard
Ningpo
In early 2013, the Discussion Board was revamped. Many of the images did not make it from the original posts to the new DB. Where possible, members have "resupplied" the original images. In this case, look at AMSD's post of March 6, 2013 wherein those images have been republished.
Bobby
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
President - West Essex Philatelic Society www.wepsonline.org 23 Apr 2020 10:34:27am
re: Swiss postcard
While sorting through an old box of postcards I actually found 2 followup postcards from the sender in Italy. Both of them have the same image on the front of the card. In one card the message seems unfinished and is not dated and the postmark is illegible. The other looks like it is postmarked on August 8, 1914 and they are in Milan and will be sailing from Genoa.