Help With The German Signature On The Old Letter

SWH, Marie makes the most sense. Hangenalken are flowers for on the balcony.

Peter

scotzm - Yours is a perfect transliteration except for Siegburgerstr. in the address, which should read Sülzburgstrasse, and the signature Marie Sievonski, which should indeed read Max Sieronski (compare https://billiongraves.com/grave/Max...ki/12232034# ). Note the Sütterlin letters for "a", e.g. in Hochachtungsvoll just above the signature or both the letters "r" and "a" in erhalten at the very end of line 9.

The text line by line in Sütterlin script reads:

Köln - Lindenthal
Sülzburgstrasse 243

Ihre Hängenelken
sind in einem tatellosen
Zustande angekommen.
Bin mit der Sendung
sehr zufrieden und hoffe
einen schönen Balkon
damit zu erhalten.
Ich danke für die reelle
Bedienung und werde Sie
bei Gelegenheit weiter
empfehlen.
Hochachtungsvoll
Max Sieronski

The word tatellosen is a misspelling of tadellosen.

Here is an attempt of mine at a translation:

Cologne - Lindenthal
Sülzburgstrasse 243

Your Hängenelken (= decorative plants for balconies and window sills, see http://www.zeno.org/Bildpostkarten/...+und+Fenster ) have arrived safely in perfect condition. I am very satisfied with the shipment
and hope to obtain a nice balcony decorated with them.
Thank you for proper handling and will recommend you to prospective customers when opportunity arises.
Yours faithfully,
Max Sieronski

That was fun. An interesting way to learn that Nelken = Carnations.

I see from the dictionary that Nelken can also mean Cloves or Pinks.

Thanks everyone for sharing and solving this!

"Siegburgerstr. in the address, which should read Sülzburgstrasse"
I agree... it shows that I am an amateur and very much in the learning phase. I took a shortcut and thought I had found the correct street as there is a Siegburgerstrasse in Cologne. Maybe I should have gone to the Lindenthan District first and found Sülzburgstrasse... eventually.
As for Max/Marie... if it is Max then HE has gone off-script for the very last word (Sieronski/ Sievonski) as it does not match the rest of the letter. If Max, then he has used Sütterlin for his first name and then a different script for his last name. I had expected the signature to be consistent as Sieronski looks that way an perhaps the first name does look a bit like Marie if in the same script as the last name.
For anyone interested in Sütterlin signatures, there is a handy site where you can type in letters and get the results in Sütterlin. Sometimes trial and error will get you a signature or perhaps a few words also. Anything more complicated will require a decent knowledge of German.
http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Eng...our_name.htm

Hello scotzm

You are right about the mixture of Sütterlin for the writer´s first name and modern script for his surname.

Such changes from Sütterlin to modern script are far from unusual especially in people´s names in addresses.

Also, consider the way he wrote Köln - Lindenthal making it look as Cöln - Hindenthal and have a look at the Sütterlin letter "d" here which does not reappear in tadellosen.

I myself do not speak German and have to depend on my German dictionary for a lot of basic vocabulary and collocations as well as on my German grammar book for forms and syntax but practice makes perfect as they say. But I am still far from perfect. See another attempt of mine at http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=71972 .

Regards,

Florian

Thank you florian. Great link!

"Cöln" used to be a standard spelling.

The local stamps from Cologne in the 1880s/1890s used a mixture of "Köln" and "Cöln" on different issues.

Thanks a lot bookbndrbob, Florian, scotzm, SWH and others for your help and contributions. I have almost forgot about this thread, because name "Max" was so clearly readable after SWH has posted a table with letters.

I can't believe that this simple letter attracted so many opinions... possibly is something hypnotic in that unusual handwriting... which was the thing which initially attracted me to try to find out more about the writer.