Cloisters, Windsor Castle, England
This Valentine’s Series postcard has the original company logo allowing a date estimate of the early 1900s before the end of World War I. The logo was changed just before the 1920's to include a V in the background and the word “Famous” was deleted following the war. The card has a divided back moving the date from 1908 to 1920. A code number of 3297X (JK) can be found at the lower left corner.
Valentine & Sons original logo
John Valentine founded the lithographic printing firm of Valentine & Sons, sometimes seen as Valentine’s Co. Ltd., in Dundee, Scotland in 1825. The company incorporated photo prints and stereo-views produced by his son, James, who was an early pioneer in photography. By 1896 the company was printing postcards with black and white real photo images and also some hand colored collotype cards. This card appears to have a tinted photograph. While most of the cards published by the company had landscapes they also reproduced artist drawn illustration in the early 1900s.
A cloister is a covered walk running along the walls of buildings usually forming a quadrangle. The picture on the postcard shows only a part of the cloister at Windsor Castle. It serves to provide an architectural barrier that separates the enclosed area from the outside world and is often associated with a monastery especially if it is associated with a cathedral.
King Edward IV built the Cloisters at Windsor Castle between 1478 and 1481 they were later restored in 1871 by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1871. They are called the Horseshoe Cloisters and connect to other buildings that form Windsor Castle rather than being a complete wall around the entire Castle grounds. Today they are the home to the Chapel’s Lay Clerks.
For additional information, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloister
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Castle
https://www.rct.uk/collection/2140276/the-cloisters-windsor-castle
http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersv.html
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