A nice portrait of the celebrated violinist, shown playing her violin in an ornate gown. Her signature incorporates her maiden and two married names, indicating that this postcard must have been signed after 1888, when she married her second husband, pianist-conductor Charles Hallé.

Although the violin was widely considered a man's instrument in the nineteenth century, Wilma Neruda became one of the most respected violinists of her day. Joseph Joachim preferred her playing to that of any other of his contemporaries and asserted that people will think more of her and less of me.

Still, her path was not always easy. As teenagers, Neruda and Wieniawski performed at the same concert in Moscow, at the end of which Neruda received a curtain call and a bouquet of flowers from Vieuxtemps. Wieniawski became so jealous that he began to charge back on stage, eager to play and prove his superior skill, but he was blocked by Russian general. Enraged, Wieniawski poked the man with his bow -- an affront for which he was immediately dismissed from the city. Neruda harbored no ill will, though, and programmed Wieniawski's compositions throughout her career.