Title
1980s UAE Al Ain Fort Watchtower Cannon Camel Greetings Abu Dhabi Postcard
Front
Colour multiview postcard of Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, set on a mid-blue ground.
The large left-hand panel, within a white border, shows an old mud-brick fort with an antique cannon mounted before it. At the centre rises a tall cylindrical watchtower of pale rendered mud-brick, slightly tapering, crowned with a crenellated parapet of rounded merlons and pierced by projecting timber beam ends and small square openings. To either side run the fort’s curtain walls with matching triangular crenellations. In front stands a large muzzle-loading cannon on a heavy timber field carriage with two great red-brown spoked wheels, its long barrel raised toward the right.
Three Emirati men in traditional dress are grouped around the gun: one standing at the left in a fawn kandura with a red and white chequered ghutra, another behind the wheel in a white ghutra and pale robe, and a third seated on the carriage in the foreground in a white kandura and white ghutra with a black agal, resting his hand against his head. Green lawn and gravel surround the emplacement beneath a clear blue sky.
Inset at the upper right, within a white perforated border in the manner of a postage stamp, is a photograph of a dromedary camel couched on sandy ground with its head raised, wearing a woven blanket over its back, with palm-frond barasti fencing and greenery behind.
Handwritten in black script across the lower right of the blue ground: “Greetings from Al Ain”
Back
Divided-back colour postcard, printed text in dark brown on a cream flecked ground.
Printed vertically along the central dividing area: “A.P.D.P. ABU DHABI P.O.B. 857 TEL. 821043 E.B.C. DUBAI P.O.B. 6455 TEL. 285317”
Four ruled address lines are printed in the right-hand half, with a dashed stamp box at the upper right.
Printed at the lower centre: the printer’s device “PRINTED BY SAGI TRIESTE”
Printed at the lower left: “47”
Printed at the lower right: “PRINTED IN ITALY”
No stamp, postmark or handwriting is present; the card is unused.
Estimated Era
Circa 1980 to 1990. The card was printed in Italy by Sagi of Trieste, a firm supplying Gulf view cards through the 1970s and 1980s, and distributed by A.P.D.P. of Abu Dhabi and E.B.C. of Dubai; the six-digit Abu Dhabi and Dubai telephone numbers are consistent with the numbering in use before the expansions of the 1990s. The fort shown is one of the mud-brick forts of the Al Ain oasis, restored and opened to visitors from the 1970s onward as the Emirates began developing their heritage sites. The saturated colour lithography, the blue ground with white-bordered panels and the handwritten-style greeting are all characteristic of Gulf tourist cards of the 1980s. The card is unposted, so no postmark confirms a year of use.
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