English: Old postcard of circa 1900.

This image is well and truly out of copyright. It was on an old postcard and must have been taken in 1900 or before. There is no copyright claim on the postcard.

Copyright rationale

The original photographer is unknown. From the date of the image it is presumed the photographer died over 100 years ago and the photo is now out of copyright.

However, even if it was a shorter time, it is presumed that it is still out of copyright under UK law, which is the jurisdiction that applies to this image.

See Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Extension_of_copyright_term as reproduced below:

Prior to 1 January 1996, the UK's general copyright term was life of the author plus 50 years. The extension to life of the author plus 70 years was introduced by The Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/3297); which had the effect of making EU Council Directive No. 93/98/EEC, created to harmonise the duration of copyright across the European Economic Area, law in the UK. It contained a controversial provision which meant that certain copyrights were revived: material that had been in the public domain came back into copyright. The normal practice of British law would have been to freeze the extension of the public domain, rather than reviving copyright. Such retrospective laws are very rarely enacted.

If the 1988 Act offered a shorter term of protection than under the new regulations, if anywhere in the EEA a work was under copyright protection on 1 July 1995, then the copyright of that work was revived. If the 1988 Act offered a longer term than the new regulations, then the old longer term still applied.