This scene shows the stretch of Aberdovey that runs in front of St Peter’s Church and beyond.  There is a handwritten note that reads “Sept 15 1905” that was presumably written by whoever purchased it, although it was not used for a message and was never posted.  Perhaps it was a souvenir for a postcard album. Small boats are pulled up on the beach or floating in the estuary, and nets are hung out to dry on structures embedded in the sand.  The church had been standing for 63 years. The mature trees in the churchyard have been removed, but the church is flanked by earlier buildings that still stand.  Two large buildings shown above the village in the postcard are now painted white.  All are visible in the two present-day photographs below, which show the same stretch of houses.  The first is seen from a very similar point on the wharf at Aberdovey, taken in November 2019, the other from the beach at Ynyslas in February 2019.

This is the same view in 1902:

In this scene taken from the same viewpoint, the foreshore is dominated by the schooner Sarah Davies, 1902. Source: Gwyn Briwnant Jones, Picturesque Aberdovey: A Collection of 20th Century Postcard Views. Gomer 2000.

The card was printed using the autochrom technique, more properly Autochrome Luimière, patented in 1903 and used screen plates to produce layers of colour to create naturalistic results.  There’s a good description of how it works, with some excellent examples, on the National Science and Media Museum blog. It was an expensive method of printing, and this postcard will have cost more than the more usual monochrome pictures of the period.

The postcard was published by the Peacock Brand, with its superbly exuberant logo, itself owned by the Pictorial Stationary Co. Ltd..  The Pictorial Stationary Co. Ltd. was established in 1897 in London and started publishing postcards in 1902, the year in which postcards were given the go-ahead by the Post Office.  A helpful guideline for stamp  values (inland and international) is printed where the stamp was to be placed.