Postcard of Princess Clementine of Belgium - how rare?

Received this today and wondering what you think? It's a postcard of Princess Clementine of Belgium, who married Victor Bonaparte in 1910 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Clémentine_of_Belgium).

Signed 'Clementine Napolene (?) --- de Belgique 1915'; Reverse 'In the name of the Belgian soldiers, my heartiest thanks for your generous gift'.

It looks genuine to me. My question revolves around it's rarity, since a google search brought up a similar postcard with an asking price of $850 (search 'clementine princess belgium postcard 1915')!!! I realise that the value of something is the amount someone is prepared to pay for it... but I paid nowhere near that!

Bit worried I should be wearing gloves to touch it .

 

Isn't she Elegant looking!!!! Nice find!!!!

 

Comparing the two, I'd guess it's a hand written inscription (as opposed to printed facsimile). That doesn't mean that it was signed by the Princess. More likely by some secretary.

According to that other site, she was fund raising in London. Guessing again, these were probably gifts handed out, possibly for some minimum donation level. It's very possible there weren't a lot of them.

 

Hi,
She has the long nose like the female side of my family.
greg

 

Lovely family. Just do a bit of reading about what her father was up to in the Belgium Congo.

Debora

 

Thanks . Here's a close up of the writing, showing the pen strokes are continuous (not printed, or at least not the same as the print of the card), so I'm with you in thinking it's hand-written. You could be right in that a secretary wrote it though... I need to do more investigation... but even given that it might be 'rare', surely the value on the other site is hugely inflated?

 

Yes... sadly... and from the little I've read, her father was very controlling with Clementine too and she only found happiness after he died. Plus her mother had a difficult temperament. What a family!

 

great photo.....oh...& nice to see you around !!!

 

Thanks! It's good to be back... I've just been chuckling at the 'funnies' thread...

-

I've found a couple of items online relating to Princess Clementine. This from 'A Book of Belgium's Gratitude' pub'd 1916:

Some differences, but overall the signature looks the same as the postcard to me:


Plus this extract from a newspaper called 'The Scotsman' dated Dec 1915:

...although I don't have any idea how many Scottish subscribers there might have been!

 

By the way, I can tell from the closeup of the signature that the photograph of her on that card was reproduced through a printing process. (Because the image is made up of a grid of dots or squares.) It's not a photo print. That to me indicates mass production for sure. But I haven't tried to research this at all.

 

but the siggy is legit..

 

Yes... I was speaking to the idea of how many of the cards were printed. I suppose the print run could have been anything, though. In any case, I think if it has monetary value it would probably be the signature that would add that.

 

Thanks Figtree... it kind of looks like newspaper print!

I'm guessing the value (if any) is in the signature. I can't find any signed items sold for Princess Clementine, but her father's signature (no photo) sold for around £60 on eBay, and his signed photograph is for sale at £200 on another website. I think these are more realistic. Not that I'm planning to sell just yet... it has been added to my own collection ;-).