Summary

Blank colour postcard featuring a reproduction of work by Giovanni Fattori "Carabinieri e lavandaie" (Carabiniere and laundresses) created in 1880. It is part of a series of Carabinieri postcards printed by Stab. L. Salmone in Rome, circa 1990. It depicts two Carabinieri watching women wash their laundry. It was brought to Australia by an Italian migrant.

The Arma dei Carabinieri (Carabinieri) was created by King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy, with the aim of providing the Kingdom of Sardinia with a police corps in 1814. After the unification of Italy the Carabinieri were appointed the First Force of the a newly founded Italian Army in 1861. In 2000 they became a separate branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The Carabinieri undertake both civilian police work and military work.

The uniform depicted on the postcard is the initial uniform of the Carabinieri which consisted of dark blue pants and jacket with silver braid around the collar and cuffs, edges trimmed in scarlet and epaulettes in silver. The mounted division had white fringes and, the infantry had light blue. Their headgear was a distinctive hat with two points popularly called the lucerna. The Carabinieri still use a version of this historic uniform today for ceremonies.

Physical Description

Rectangular postcard, printed in colour and featuring a reproduction of work by Giovanni Fattori: "Carabinieri e lavandaie (1880)". The picture depicts two men in military costume, overlooking a group of women, who are presumably washing clothes in a river. The women all have scarves on their heads and are kneeling on some rocks or some kind of area in the centre of the water. The reverse side of the postcard is cream in colour with some print and markings in grey ink.

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