The postcard is in the shape of a horizontal rectangle with a reproduction of A. Osterman's artwork on the front. Wedding guests are gathered in the square in the Jewish town. In the centre, there is a newly married couple standing. A woman in a white dress and a veil, and a man in a bekishe and a fur hat are depicted on the postcard. Beside the newly married couple, there are two women holding lit candles. On the left side, a band is playing music. The newly married couple is greeted by an older woman holding a braided loaf of bread in her left hand. In the background, men are dismantling the wedding canopy. In the background, buildings surround the square. The artist's mark, "A. Osterman", is imprinted in the bottom left corner .
Below the reproduction, the text is printed in Yiddish and Polish: "Return from the Wedding", separated by musical notation and the words of a Yiddish wedding song: "To the happiness of the newly married couple". On the reverse side, at the top edge, there is an imprint of "Postcard" in seven languages: Polish, German, English, French, Hungarian, Russian, and Ukrainian (the last two written in cyrillic script). In the lower left corner, the publishing address is listed: "A[wit] S[zubert] Kraków" and the year of publication: "1908". Awit Szubert was a painter and photographer from Oświęcim. He studied at the School of Drawing and Painting in Kraków. He furthered his studies in Rome, and he delved into the secrets of photography in Vienna. He was one of the first photographers to capture images of the Tatra Mountains, Pieniny, and the interior of the Wieliczka salt mine. He operated his own photography studio from 1864, initially in Oświęcim, then in Kraków and Szczawnica (https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awit_Szubert, accessed on 26 February 2021).
The postcard was donated to the District Museum in Leszno in 1993 by Zdzisław Moliński from Leszno, who received it as part of a package of 20 postcards from the early 20th century. All of them featured reproductions of Jewish-themed artwork. The postcards were given to him by Zdzisław Sosnowski from Lasocice near Leszno, a house painter, collector, history enthusiast, and admirer of General Władysław Sikorski, with the intention of donating them to the newly established Judaica Department.
Dariusz Czwojdrak
