Recently received as part of a trade with member 597596, this cover (actually just the front of the envelope) appears to have an interesting history.
As briefly mentioned on the trade thread, this cover was sent from New York Hudson Terminal Station aboard the German liner Wilhelm der Grosse in 1909.
The liner had quite a colourful history. Here is an edited (by me) version from Wikipedia:
The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was a German transatlantic ocean liner named after Wilhelm I, German Emperor, the first ruler of united Germany. Constructed in Stettin for the North German Lloyd (NDL), she entered service in 1897 and was the first liner to have four funnels.
The ship began a new era in ocean travel and the novelty of having four funnels was quickly associated with size, strength, speed and above all luxury. Quickly established on the Atlantic, she gained the Blue Riband for Germany, a notable prize for the quickest trip from Europe to America which had been previously dominated by the British. In 1900, she was involved in a fire in the port of New York which resulted in several deaths. She was also the victim of a naval ram in the French port of Cherbourg in 1906. With the advent of her sister ships, she was then converted to an all third class ship to take advantage of the lucrative immigrant market travelling to the United States.
Converted into an auxiliary cruiser during World War I, she was given orders to capture and destroy enemy ships within the first months of the war. Relatively successful, she destroyed several enemy ships before eventually being destroyed in the Battle of Río de Oro in August 1914, the first month of the war, by the British cruiser HMS Highflyer. Her wreck was rediscovered in 1952 and then dismantled.
This history is included on the cover's new page.
I believe the recipient was the watchmaker Patek Philippe Co. of Geneva.
Fun with google and a lazer printer.
Posted 09/06/2012 8:41 pm
