A pre/early-war unused postcard depicting an anonymous Ulan in the typical uniform: the double-breasted ‘Ulanka’ with Polish cuffs.
Instead of a Tschapka, this man is wearing a krätchen in pre-early/war colors.
According to the research done by S. Wouters, the presence of ‘litzen’ on his cuffs, the kokarde on his Krätchen, and the white color of the latter narrow down his unit’s identity to one regiment: Königliche Sächsische 2. Ulanen-Regiment Nr.18 from Leipzig.
The all-white faustriemen identifies its carrier as a member of the unit’s 1st Squadron.
This photo provides a good example of the limitations of orthochromatic film. In the b&w original* the details on the collar are lost because the emulsion is insensitive to red and yellow. In this case, the yellow litzen disappeared against the red collar and its shape is barely discernible.
Given that I couldn’t see the litzen I was unable to colorize it, so instead, I resorted to digital plastic surgery. This means the collar you’re seeing was not colorized. It’s the actual litzen of an original tunic from this particular regiment which I cut from a modern photo and fitted here, like a skin graft.
*see comments for the b&w original
Original and unit research courtesy of Sam Wouters.