I’ve been spending my pennies again, this time on another example of a Too Late postmark on a postcard from April 1883 sent to a hotel in San Remo in Italy

The reverse shows an acknowledgement from Pitt and Scott, Shipping agents, of them being notified about two packages in transit from Menton in France.

Pitt and Scott were well known art shippers and packers in the nineteenth century, and I’m guessing that the addressee, a Mr J Gratton, was either a minor artist or an English art dealer working in the south of France in the 1880s.

Unfortunately I’ve been so far unable to trace Mr Gratton.

There are two other interesting points to note about the postcard.

Despite Mr Gratton having a contact address in San Remo in Italy, the postcard acknowledges receipt of packages sent from Mentone (today Menton) in France. San Remo’s a short train ride from Menton.

Even today it only takes about forty minutes on local trains with a change at Ventimiglia on the border between an Italian local train and a French TER local train heading along the coast.

The Italian Postal Service has never had much of a reputation for efficiency, and perhaps Mr Gratton felt that it would be quicker to send his packages from France via La Poste, or perhaps some specialist shipper.

The other interesting thing is the use of Mentone for Menton.

In Italian the French coastal town of Menton is known as Mentone.

Menton only, along with the rest of the mostly Italian speaking County of Nice became part of France in 1860 after Italian reunification. For reasons too complex to explain succinctly, Monaco was left behind as a principality ruled by the Dukes of Savoy, the former ruling family of the county of Nice.

The coastal TER commuter train runs through Monaco on its way from Ventimiglia in Italy on its way to Nice and points west, and offers a spectacular view of the coast, especially at sunrise and sunset.

Take it early in the morning, as we did a few years ago, it is busy with the maids, cleaners, and everyone else who works keeping Monaco running commuting from France as only the super rich can affor an apartment in Monaco.

Menton became very popular as a tourist resort for the upper classes of Europe in the nineteenth century due to its pleasant winter climate. Even though it changed hands in 1860, the Victorians continued to refer to it as Mentone. In fact the use of the name Mentone in English only really drops out of use with the second world war

And of course, the popularity of both San Remo and Mentone as Mediterranean resorts is why we have both a San Remo and a Mentone in Victoria…