Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Autograph picture postcard signed ('Albert') to his mother, Pauline, [postmarked Urnerboden, 27 July 1901].

In German. Two lines of verse and a number of annotations in pencil on and below a photographic image of the Märcherstöckli crag, 139 x 92mm; autograph address to his mother in Mettmenstetten. Provenance: Maja Winteler-Einstein (1881-1951) – her husband Paul Winteler (1882-1952) – Besso family; Christie's, 2-9 May 2018, lot 12.

A jokey postcard from the Swiss mountains. Einstein writes a verse couplet which suggests that weather conditions for his Alpine holiday may not have been ideal:

'Reich mir Herrn Patris Segen
Viel Hagel, Nebel und Regen'.

Grant me by the Father's blessing
Much hail, fog and rain.

In the same spirit, he annotates various features on the mountain with names such as 'devil', 'daughter', 'Angel Gabriel' and 'mother-in-law'.

1901 was a year in which everything seemed held in suspense for Einstein: having secured his diploma from the Zurich Polytechnic the previous year, he had been granted Swiss citizenship on 21 February, and his first scientific paper was published on 1 March; but he spent much of the rest of the year applying unsuccessfully for jobs, and oscillating between his parental household and his future wife, Mileva Maric, of whom his parents strongly disapproved. He had however spent the July holiday, as usual, with his mother in Mettmenstetten (outside Zurich), before going walking in the high Alps at Urnerboden. Published in Schulmann, Kox, Janssen, Illy (eds). The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (Princeton University Press, 1998), vol. 8B, p.990.

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