Thursday, 25 December 2008

With compliments of the season

1843 Xmas card
One of the first mass-produced Christmas cards

The lithographed card caused a controversy in some quarters of Victorian English society when it was published in 1843 because it prominently features a child taking a sip from a glass of wine...

Widespread commercial printing of Christmas cards began in the 1860s, when a new process of color printing lowered the manufacturing cost and the price. Consequently, the custom of sending printed Christmas greetings spread throughout England.



FLB

1 comment:

David Isaak said...

And is that a grapevine framing the scene? Who sponsored this card--Harvey's and Cockburns?