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| Princess Wilhelmina "hanging hair", portrait engraved by H. Raeder after a photo of H.R.F. Kameke. |
I've seen hundreds if not thousands of Princess Wilhelmina stationery cards and I only acquire these cards when they are of interest for my special collections. This particular card though is different, but I am still in doubt why... It probably has something to do with the enigmatic message on the reverse and the addressee.
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| Princess Wilhelmina Stationery 5c (G30) |
The card was sent from Utrecht on the 21st of September between 8-9 a.m. and arrived in Antwerp the same day between 6-8 p.m. Apart from the marvelous engraving of princess Wilhelmina, the Dutch coat of arms adorns the card.
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| Dutch coat of Arms and Utrecht departure postmark (Small Round) |
The message on the reverse is very simple: "
Amice, Please preserve this for me. H g." A very intriguing text but alas the answer part of the card has been lost, so we might never know why the sender wished to keep this card...
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| The message in Dutch: "Amice, Bewaar deze s.t.p. voor mij. H g." |
The card was addressed to Albertus Antonie Nijland (1868-1936), a Dutch astronomer who was known for his sightings of so-called variable stars. A crater on the moon has been named the Nijland Crater in honour of him:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijland_(crater)
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| A.A. Nijland |
