This vintage real photo postcard features stage actress Miss Nina Cadiz and her mandolin. I am actually not sure that her string instrument is a mandolin and hopefully a musically informed visitor to the cabinet card gallery will correctly identify it. This postcard was mailed from England in 1906. The message on the postcard wishes the addressee a “very happy New Year”. The postmark is December 31, 1906 which may indicate the writer was a bit of a procrastinator. The postcard was published by Stewart & Woolf who were located in London. The postcard was part of a series (116) and is numbered #50. A portrait of Miss Cadiz can be found in Britain’s National Portrait Gallery. The image can be seen below. Note that the photography studio that produced the portrait is Elliott & Fry, a name that should be familiar to frequent Cabinet Card Gallery visitors. Click on category Photographer: Elliott & Fry to view more of their photographs.
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 
Reblogged this on Rogues & Vagabonds.
That is indeed a mandolin, of the bowlback variety. She is even posed finger-strumming a G chord, which is one of the first chords most players learn. In 1906, there was a strong movement or fashionable-fad among young people, especially young women, to take up the mandolin. Nice photo!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin#Bowlback