Gräfin Elsa Albrizzi

Quite unwittingly Calcutta Confusion had shared with the wide wide world a most curious postcard of Clive Street while talking about Livierato's cigarettes.

Part of what I was doing while curating the postcard exhibit was to research as far as possible each of the names that appear in the postcard, either as sender, receiver or passing reference.

I could not read what was written on the recto of this particular card (except that it was written some time in 1905), so I turned to the verso. I would be most grateful if someone were to help out with the deciphering, but I reckon you'd have to know Italian.

The verso reads:

‘Italy
via Brindisi
??
Grāfin Elsa Albrizzi
Venedig
Palazzo Albrizzi’

The stamp appears to be dated January 21, 1905.

Further research.

The Palazzo Albrizzi (I clearly didn't know what to look for when I was in Venice!) is situated in San Polo, Venice, not far from the Rialto. The trading family of Albrizzis, originally from Lombardy, rose to eminence in Venice in the 16th century when they aided the Venetian government in their naval battles against the Turks. The richly decorated “palace” was acquired some time in the latter half of the seventeenth century. The addressee, Elsa Albrizzi appears to be a descendant of that same noble family, ‘Gräfin’ being a German title of nobility roughly translatable as ‘Countess’.

Elsa Albrizzi was one of the pioneering women to take to motor-car driving and racing. The most prominent name from the period is that of Bertha Benz who founded an organisation to encourage female racing drivers, and some sources claim the two knew each other. Madame Labrousse and Miss Wemblyn are the other two names that can be traced from the turn of the century, but it is Camille du Gast who became the first to consistently race on French tracks. You can see a photograph of Elsa Albrizzi and the car on the Museo dell'Automobile "Bonfanti-VIMAR" website.

Elsa Albrizzi is regarded as the first woman to finish in the top ten of a motor race (See SpeedQueens), as she came “ninth in the 1899 Padua-Vicenza-Thiene-Bassano-Trevisio-Padua Trail, driving a Benz light car.”

I wonder what she made of this view of Clive Street and who it was that thought of sending it to her!