Going To Market, Puerto  Rico

This is an old postcard of Puerto Rico. It is classified as  Borderless, Undivided Back, Hand Painted. This type of postcard was made sometime between 1907 and 1915. Notice that the back of the postcard had no space for the sender to write anything other than the address. This was by Postal Laws back then. There is a small band on the bottom (or side) of the card in the front, for the sender to write a few words. In 1915, the U.S. Post Office changed the rules, and allowed divided backs which were already common in Europe. The divided back allowed the for the address on one side and writing a message on the other side.

 Back then, most postcards  were made in Germany or England and were lithographs of a photograph or drawing. They were later hand painted or tinted to provide color to the images. 

This postcard was from Germany and  this one is distributed by A.D. Besselman & Co., N.Y. # 1227