Briefkaart aan jonkheer Hendrik Teding van Berkhout (1879-1969) before 1932

Ton Meyer made this brief card to Jonkheer Hendrik Teding van Berkhout sometime in 1932. What strikes me is how the information is layered onto the card, creating a dance between the typed, printed, and handwritten. It's like looking at a cityscape where different eras of architecture collide. There’s a real physicality to the handwriting. You can almost feel the pen scratching across the surface, leaving behind trails of dark ink. Take the flourish under the word "Directie", for example. It’s so confident and bold, adding a personal touch to what could have been just another piece of bureaucratic mail. It's like a little wink from the sender, a sign of life in the midst of the mundane. I’m reminded of Cy Twombly’s scribbled paintings or even some of the Fluxus artists who treated everyday objects and ephemera as art. This card invites us to reconsider the boundary between the functional and the aesthetic, reminding us that even the simplest things can be imbued with beauty and meaning.