“Edinburgh Castle, with its commanding position on the top of a volcanic rock provides a panoramic view of not only the city of Edinburgh but also the Highland Hills and Fife. The castle which is a superb natural fortress is still a military building and houses the Scottish Regalia. During the International Festival a spectacular show is held almost every evening featuring the colourful Military Tattoo. The show is held on the Castle Esplanade with the floodlit Castle making a romantic background.”

I just came across this one (in keeping with the last post.) …What’s a military tattoo? The original definition of a military tattoo (from Wikipedia) was a military drum performance but later came to mean a military display. The word tattoo in this sense is from the Dutch phrase doe den tap doe which means “turn off the tap” as in beer tap. It was during the Thirty Years War in The Low Countries (the Netherlands and Belgium) when Dutch forces were garrisoned with mercenary troops (mostly Scottish, English, German and Swiss) that drummers from the garrison were sent out to the towns to let the barkeepers know when to stop serving beer so the soldiers would go home.

This postcard’s photo was produced by the studio of well-known British photographer John Linde (1916-1997) one of the most successful postcard publishers in the world. He, along with his wife, Jutta, set up a studio in Ireland in 1956, and went on to sell about 50 million postcards per year before he retired in the 1970s to concentrate on landscape painting. His works have traveled the world in art exhibits, have been compiled into books, and have been the subject of at least one t.v. show. This photo was taken by David Noble, a British photographer who, along with German photographers Elmar Ludvig and Edmund Nägele, worked for Hinde in the late 1960s to early ’70s.

Divided back, chrome, unused postcard. Distributed by Levy Brothers. Photo by David Noble, John Hinde Studios. Printed in Ireland. Series or number 2SC 145. Circa late 1960s – early 1970s.

Price:  $3.00

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tattoo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinde_%28photographer%29

http://johnhindestudios.com/