VINTAGE POSTCARDS
The Sassolungo (3, 181m - 10,436 ft)
Italy
Photo by Fotografia Ghedina, Cortina d'Ampezzo. Circa 1930's.
The Mountain
The Sassolungo (3, 181m - 10,436 ft) which means literally "Long Stone", also known as Langkofel in German is a summit of the Alps, in the Dolomites (Trentino-Alto Adige). The Sassolungo is a complex mountain with high slopes and many secondary summits : Sasso Levante or Punta Grohmann (3,126 m -10,256 ft) ; Punta delle Cinque Dita or Fünffingerspitze (2,998 m - 9,8360 ft) ; Sasso Piatto or Plattkofel (2,958 m - 9,7080 ft) and Campanile Comici.Climbing
- 1869 - First climb by Paul Grohmann, Franz Innerkofler and Peter Salcher
- 1890 - First ascent of the Punta delle Cinque Dita by Robert Hans Schmitt and Johann Santner
- 1936 - North face by Gino Soldá and Augusto Bertoldi
- 1940 - North Pillar by E. Esposito and G. Butta
- 1940 - Ascension of Campanile Comici by Emilio Comici and Severino Casara
- 1959 - South Face of Torre Innerkofler by Dietrich Hasse and Sepp Schrott
Vintage postcards
Postcards became popular at the turn of the 20th century, especially for sending short messages to friends and relatives. They were collected right from the start, and are still sought after today by collectors of pop culture, photography, advertising, wartime memorabilia, local history, and many other categories.
Postcards were an international craze, published all over the world. The Detroit Publishing Co. and Teich & Co. were two of the major publishers in the U.S, and sometimes individuals printed their own postcards as well. Yvon were the most famous in France. Many individual or anonymous publishers did exist around the world and especially in Africa and Asia (Japan, Thailand, Nepal, China, Java) between 1920 and 1955. These photographer were mostly local notables, soldiers, official guides belonging to the colonial armies (british french, belgium...) who sometimes had rather sophisticated equipment and readily produced colored photograms or explorers, navigators, climbers (Vittorio Sella and the Archiduke of Abruzzi future king of Italy remains the most famous of them).
There are many types of collectible vintage postcards.
Hold-to-light postcards were made with tissue paper surrounded by two pieces of regular paper, so light would shine through. Fold-out postcards, popular in the 1950s, had multiple postcards attached in a long strip. Real photograph postcards (RPPCs) are photographs with a postcard backing.
Novelty postcards were made using wood, aluminum, copper, and cork. Silk postcards–often embroidered over a printed image–were wrapped around cardboard and sent in see-through glassine paper envelopes; they were especially popular during World War I.
In the 1930s and 1940s, postcards were printed on brightly colored paper designed to look like linen.
Most vintage postcard collectors focus on themes, like Christmas, Halloween, portraits of movie stars, European royalty and U.S. presidents, wartime imagery, and photos of natural disasters or natural wonders. Not to mention cards featuring colorful pictures by famous artists like Alphonse Mucha, Harrison Fisher, Ellen Clapsaddle, and Frances Brundage.
