This vintage postcard features a “Bedouin Beauty” with wonderful smile. Everything she is wearing is interesting. Her traditional dress, the flowers in her hair, and her necklace are all intriguing. This postcard offers some sexual provocativeness which was typically seen in ethnographic postcards from this era. It seems that if women from other cultures, or non white ethnicities, were photographed for postcards, than some nudity was acceptable. Western photographers, postcard publishers, and postcard consumers all appear to have been “suffering” from ethnocentrism. The woman in this photo, as stated earlier, is a Bedouin. Bedouins are a group of nomadic Arab people. Historically, they have inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Iraq, and the Levant. This image was produced by the team of Rudolf Franz Lehnert (1878-1948) & Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878-1966). Lehnert was of German origin, while Landrock was from Bohemia. The pair met in Switzerland and decided to go into business together. Lehnert was the photographer and Landrock was the administrator. Landrock organized trips, managed the photo studio and photo production, and marketed the photographs and prints. They were photographers in Tunis and in Egypt, They also opened studios in Munich (Germany) and Leipzig (Germany). They produced many photographs from Egypt and Tunisia. Their first studio was in Tunis. They photographed monuments and sites in those countries, but were most known for their erotic images of Arab women, often posing in harem themes. The photographers seemed more concerned about producing erotic photographs rather than documenting everyday life in these Middle Eastern countries. Lehnert and Landrock were well acclaimed for their work and the duo have images in a number of museums, including Philadelphia’s Penn Museum an the Musee de l’elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland. SOLD
This vintage real photo postcard features five beautiful women wearing bathing suits and high stockings. This image was shot at an unidentified studio. The postcard is risque for it’s era. Four of the women have wonderful smiles. The bathing beauty at the end of the line appears to be keeping her smile in reserve. This vintage postcard is in very good condition.
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This vintage photograph features a pretty young woman in a risque pose and wearing risque clothing. She is wearing a hat, gloves, and is holding a purse. She seems to be going somewhere but she forgot to finish getting dressed. The previous owner of this photograph thought the photographer of the image may have been the Biederer studio. I have no supporting evidence confirming his hypotheses. The Biederer brothers were major figures in photography so their story is worth telling. The studio was operated by Jacpues Biederer (1887-1942) and his brother Charles Biederer (1892-1942) during the Art deco era. Their studio was in Paris, France. Their photographs of the 1920’s and 1930’s included artistic nudes and sexual fetish studies. Their topics included erotic corporal punishment, costumed role play and images of bondage. Their postcards were signed as “JB” “B” ,”Ostra”, or a question mark in a triangle. When Germany occupied France during World War ll, the Nazis sent the brothers to a concentration camp (Auschwitz-Birkenau). Their crime was their Judaism. Their punishment was death. This vintage photo measures about 3 3/8″ x 5 3/8″ and is in very good condition.
A young Moorish woman is the subject of this vintage ethnographic photogravure postcard. The Moors were Muslim people of the mixed Berber and Arabs inhabiting Northwest Africa. This postcard is from circa (1900-1909). It is from a series, “Scenes et Types (no. 1004)”. SOLD
This vintage real photo postcard features a pretty nude woman She is delicately reaching for a conch shell. This tastefully done image was published by well known photographer Alfred Noyer as part of a series (No. 4136). The celebrated photographer supervised a large photo studio in Paris. The Noyer Studio operated from 1910 until the 1940’s. Many of his early postcards were reproductions of artworks. He also produced illustrated patriotic postcards during World War I. With the onset of the 1920’s he began producing postcards of children and women. Many of the postcards he produced of women were nudes or risque images. Some of his postcards list his name while others are simply marked “AN”. This photo postcard is in very good condition (see scans). 
This vintage real photo postcard is another member of the Cabinet Card Gallery’s collection of international silent film stars. The beautiful actress featured on this postcard is Italian silent film star Pina Menichelli (1890-1984). She began her career in theater and in a number of small film roles. When she appeared in the lead role of “The Fire” (1916), she became elevated to stardom. For the next nine years, Menichelli appeared in many films and became a global star. She frequently appeared in roles where she played the role of a diva. She also showcased her, what wikipedia calls, her “decadent eroticism”. She retired in 1924 at the ripe old age of 34. Menichelli was born in Sicily to parents who were both touring theater actors. Her three siblings also became actors. She began acting as a child. Her theater travels took her to Argentina in 1908 and she married and relocated there. She returned to Italy in 1912 and acted in 35 films between 1913 and 1915. In 1918, one of her films was banned from theaters by Italian censors because Menichelli was “too fascinating” in the film. The IMDb website credits her with 62 film appearances between 1913 and 1925. A YouTube video biography of Miss Menichelli can be seen below. This postcard was published by Alberto Traldi of Milan, Italy. He was a publisher there beginning 1902, and according to one source, he ended his Milan business in 1918. This postcard was part of a series (no. 408). After World War II he returned to publishing postcards, including pin-up and cinema postcards. (SOLD)
