- 24
[Cole, Henry (pseud. "Felix Summerly")]
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- paper
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You. London: [Joseph Cundall for] Summerly's Home Treasury Office, [December 1843]
Hand-colored lithographed card (3 1/4 x 5 in.; 83 x 127 mm), in the form of a triptych, the central panel depicting a family party of three generations in which the adults are toasting the health of the addressee with wine, the side panels representing Christmas charity (the poor being fed and given warm clothing), addressed to Miss Rusby by H. Vernon; remnants of pink paper glued to the verso of card and inscribed in ballpoint ink "To My Dear Wife | with Love | Christmas 1966 | the first Christmas Card | published 1843." Folding linen case, linen mat chemise.
Hand-colored lithographed card (3 1/4 x 5 in.; 83 x 127 mm), in the form of a triptych, the central panel depicting a family party of three generations in which the adults are toasting the health of the addressee with wine, the side panels representing Christmas charity (the poor being fed and given warm clothing), addressed to Miss Rusby by H. Vernon; remnants of pink paper glued to the verso of card and inscribed in ballpoint ink "To My Dear Wife | with Love | Christmas 1966 | the first Christmas Card | published 1843." Folding linen case, linen mat chemise.
Provenance
Joyce Blundell Tonge (Sotheby's London, 29 November 1989, lot 193)
Literature
Grolier/Elliott 41; Elliott, Inventing Christmas, pp.85–87; Buday, The History of the Christmas Card, pp.6–18; Rowe, The Ephemerist (December 1997), p. 713
Catalogue Note
The first Christmas card, one of three within the Elliott collection.