In 1843 while Charles Dickens was writing his Christmas Carol, Henry Cole, a civil servant, was working on what would become the first commercial Christmas card. It shows a family celebrating Christmas, flanked by images of Christmas charity, but it was a commercial failure, and no more Christmas cards were produced for another 5 years. Only 21 of these cards are known to still exist and one of them is part of an exhibition, Beautiful Books: Dickens and the Business of Christmas, at the Charles Dickens Museum in London.
Via ianVisits
do you know if anyone has reproduced this card artwork for purchase in the 21st century?
ReplyDeleteA company called Zazzle sells them. I’m sure others do too.
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