| Creator | Peter Balzer (drawing) |
| Printing year | 1894 |
| Sheet size (cm) | 94×63 |
| Printing technique | Lithograph |
| Printer | Art. Institut Orell Füssli, Zürich |
| Condition | A- |
| Asking price | 2'700 CHF |
| Categories | over the water, Switzerland, Zurich |
The Dampf-Schwalben (steaming swallows) were screw steamers around 14 meters long, which from 1892 onwards served from Zurich’s Rathausbrücke to Wollishofen and Tiefenbrunnen as well as Küsnacht and Thalwil, thus providing tram-like local transport across Lake Zurich.
The Zürcher Dampfboot-Aktien-Gesellschaft (now Zürichsee Schifffahrtsgesellschaft), founded in 1890, was so successful – shortly before, the booming railway had threatened to make the steamboats, which operated without a central organization, redundant – that it commissioned larger ships as early as 1895.
It was actually just a timetable, but – as was customary in the Belle Epoque – it was so elaborately illustrated and printed that it also served as an original advertising poster. An extremely rare piece of local history.
maybe of interest as well: