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Thursday Postcard Hunt: Maps

“Maps” is this week’s theme for Thursday Postcard Hunt.

Postcard from Ireland

Robert Dighton’s ‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature MAP of IRELAND. 
It”s a portrait of Lady Hibernia Bull’, wife of John Bull. She is shown here in sedentary pose, facing westward, against a sky background and above a small harbour scene. Hibernia’s head, with a smiling and potato-wielding baby in her shawl behind, forms the historic province of Ulster; Leinster is formed by the rest of her shamrock-embroidered shawl; her dress drapes over Munster but with shoes shaped by the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas, while the western province of Connacht is rendered as the perennial Irish motif of the harp. The harp has held a centuries-old association with Irish culture, along with its common use in heraldry in various Irish coats of arms since medieval times, and to this day constitutes the Irish state’s official emblem.

Postcard from USA

USA – Pictorial Map of New York: Manhattan–
Aerial view of downtown Manhattan full of rich historical imagery conceived & designed by renowned artist Arthur Zaidenberg in 1938. It was probably a special commission to promote & celebrate the New York World’s Fair which opened the following year.

Postcard from Guernsey

Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel near the French coast, and is a self-governing British Crown dependency. It’s known for beach resorts like Cobo Bay and the scenery of its coastal cliffs. Castle Cornet, a 13th-century harbor fortification in the capital of St. Peter Port, now contains history and military museums. Hauteville House is the lavish former home of French writer, Victor Hugo. 
The island’s name, “Guernsey”, like that of neighbouring “Jersey”, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of each word, “-ey”, is the Old Norse for “island”, while the original root, “guern(s)”, is of uncertain origin and meaning, possibly deriving from either a personal name such as Grani or Warinn, or from gron, meaning pine tree.

Postcard from Germany

The Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) are a low mountain range in the east of Germany. It lies in the south of the German State Saxonia and is certainly one of most beautiful and most traditional regions.
Altogether the mountains extend on a length of 150 km (90 miles) and width of 40 km (25 miles).

6 comments

  2. Very different styles on these postcards! The first one is stunning, but I probably would send the others to my friends, when travelling to those places!

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  3. I love the Irish one, I missed the baby and potatoes. Countries personified were a favourite theme of 18th century caricaturists. Great cards and now I know about German Christmas pyramid houses having gone down that internet worm hole and had an brief unseasonal ‘want one’ thought.

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  4. Lisa’s comment made me laugh – I rather like the Irish one. It’s quite creative. I also went down that pyramidhaus rabbithole…

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