Divided back, unused, Real Photo Postcard. AZO stamp box circa 1907 – 1918.

Price:  $6.00

A young woman posing in winter or late fall attire:  She wears a long checkered skirt that shows her side-buttoned boots just a little. The coat is of a large ribbed material and the hemline comes down past the knee, but it is longer in the back than the front. The front tapers up in the center, as in what we might think of as a reverse-v. Three large just-for-style buttons line up from the center of the hemline to a correspondingly angled change in the way the fabric lies; it’s ribbed vertically until the lower band of fabric that runs horizontally. The coat has wide lapels and perhaps either a velvet collar at the back or one of short-haired fur. She holds a very large dark fur muff. A white lacy blouse with loose-fitting stand-up collar shows above the lapels. Now the hat:  There must be a name for this style, but I’m not seeing a listing for it. It’s cloth, sort of a cross between a beret and mob cap; a wide band at the forehead instead of a ruffle. Tam o’ Shanter is perhaps another possible description, except we can’t see the top of the hat, so we don’t know if it has a pom-pom.

Behind the young woman is a photographer prop: a beautiful wicker chair or short bench. But describing the woman’s the expression and stance:  maybe she was just upset about something on this particular day, maybe impatient (the lean) but for me she has a look of having had more than one disappointment to deal with in life, having not yet quite gotten beyond them.