Postcard Paris, Tour Saint-Jacques, Neurdein Frères ND Phot ca. 1920

French postcard from the early nineteen-twenties showing a black-and-white phototype of the Tour Saint-Jacques in Paris. The image shows the free-standing late Gothic tower rising above the Haussmannian rooftops of the fourth arrondissement, surrounded by the greenery of the eponymous square. Beneath the image, the bilingual caption reads "PARIS. — La Tour Saint-Jacques. — St James tower". Published by Neurdein Frères under the ND Phot imprint, at the time when the firm operated as "Anciens Etablissements Neurdein et Cie", with printing by Imprimerie Crété at Corbeil and an office at 52 avenue de Breteuil in Paris. The verso is unwritten and unposted, with the divided back. The card is in good condition.

The Tour Saint-Jacques is the sole surviving part of the Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, completed in 1523 and largely demolished during the French Revolution. The free-standing tower of fifty-two metres was the departure point for French pilgrims travelling the Via Turonensis to Santiago de Compostela, which in 1998 earned it UNESCO world heritage inscription as part of the Santiago pilgrimage routes in France. The tower was restored between 1853 and 1854 by Théodore Ballu and placed on a stone plinth, concealing the original street level at its base. The Square de la Tour Saint-Jacques, laid out in 1856, was one of the first public parks of the Haussmann era. Neurdein Frères, active since the Second Empire, was among the most important French postcard publishers and merged in 1920 with Lévy Fils to form Lévy et Neurdein Réunis.