"Marco" postcard, sent from Brussels, Belgium to San Francisco, California in 1929, depicting a venerable "Flemish lacemakerwoman" (Hallaert Sœurs?), shawled, bespectacled, and wearing a most interesting hat. She looks incredibly crafty, with clever fingers. Just look at how many bobbins she has employed all at once...!
Notice that little pink oval logo under the photograph? Postcards sold under the trademarked name "Marco" are the invention of a man with a fascinating story: Marco Marcovici. From the turn of the century until the late 1920s, he ran a Belgian collotype studio (simple mass-produced color photos), producing images of local color, you might say, in the form of scenic postcards ("carte illustrée"), like this portrait here.
Marcovici is something of a tragic figure. In the post-WWI reconstruction period, his commercial photography capitalized on the wrecked landscapes of battlefield tourism, and he ultimately "committed suicide by ingesting poison."
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