To me, the first postcard illustration might be interpreted in a couple of different ways. "An der Quelle," or "At the Spring," depicts a nude female warrior and her trusty steed refreshing themselves at a natural cold-spring. No doubt they've been out keeping an eye on Germany's bitter enemies? At first glance I agree that she is most likely an Amazon, or auf deutsch, Amazone, with an 'e' at the end. If there was a spear visible in the painting, she might even be a Valkyrie, but I don't think so in this case. Germania in a toned-down, less flashy battle garb? hmm.. nein. The title, "Deutsch Meister," can be explained to mean "German Champion," and that fits pretty well here so I'll leave it at that.
"Well/so, we're about to give them a (good)-beating!" Lot's of vibrant action in this bold graphic, Feldherr-baton in hand, Kaiser Wilhelm leads his entire retinue and national war-train to do battle against the French. It's amazing how much information and fine detail the artist got into this small package. Whatever the exact printing technique was, they did a fine job scaling, prepping and reproducing the artwork. Holding all those tones open and keeping sharp details isn't always a walk in the park. A fine rendering of this ultra-nationalistic theme.
Thanks for posting these two excellent additions from your collection.
