AngDesign

Different types of card

As greetings cards became more and more available, a much wider variety of types and styles became more and more popular.  Many of the Victorian Christmas cards were of very religious scenes, they were decorated highly, though the pictures were not what would be expected on a Victorian Christmas card, or as a way of expressing the Victorian religion. Some of the cards also showed signs of possible cruelty, with the introduction of sadistic cards.  Many cards consisted of simple pictures, and others especially those of nude people became increasingly popular.  The work of W. S. Coleman and his nude cards was liked a great deal by Ruskin, and the work of Miss E. G.Thomson was admired by Lewis Carroll. Scenes of everyday life within the Victorian era were also used quite frequently in Christmas cards, along with the stagecoach during the 1880's. The 'New fangled bicycles', decorative ships and the motor car became very popular designs during the 1890's.

Sir Frank Lockwood

In 1897, Sir Frank Lockwood sketched a motor car as his personal card, and in 1903 Professor Hubert Herkimer printed a card of a car travelling at full speed.  This card is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Jonathan King

Jonathan King turned his Islington house into a Museum of Christmas cards due to the huge amounts that he had.  In the 1890's the collection weighed between six and seven tons, and his collection included about 163,000 varieties of different cards published between 1862 and 1895, but the majority were dated after 1880, and they were all put together in groups.  All of this collection was destroyed during 1918 in a fire.

The idea of sending Christmas cards was not really considered to be a valuable idea by Baptists, Methodists, Mennonites, Amish and Lutherans until 1900.  Even then it was Roman Catholics and Protestant Episcopalians who were the first to adopt this idea. Up until the 1900's Christmas cards were not usually signed or mailed, but they were delivered with a calling card.  Also before this time many things such as silk fringes, tassels, mother - of – pearl and satin were used to decorate Christmas cards.  The most frequently used designs include animals, flowers, fish, children, young women and summer scenes, which were printed 'In a variety of different colours.

Between the years of 1900 and 1914 postcards which were printed in Germany with images of Santa Claus, fireplaces, doorways, snow scenes, holly and the Nativity as motifs became increasingly popular as Christmas cards.  These sold for one penny in the USA.  The idea of sending Christmas booklets containing poems continued in England, until 1914.

Joyce C. Hallmark

Joyce C. Hallmark was the founder of Hallmark greetings cards and is considered to be the architect of the modern day card industry. This business that he started back in 1910 on the 10th January continued to grow and has now exceeded a 3 billion Dollar corporation. Hallmark cards are a world wide Organisation with international headquarters in places such as Kansas City.  They are distributed to more than one hundred countries and are available in over thirty different languages.  They have therefore come a very long way since a poor eighteen year old, from Norfolk, Nebraska arrived at Kansas City, with two boxes of picture postcards and many great ideas. One of these was to distribute them. He sent packets of one hundred cards to various different dealers throughout the Mid - west. This idea, at first would appear to have been quite unsuccessful, as many of the dealers which were sent these cards returned then with an angry note attached to them, and other dealers kept the cards without sending any form of payment.  Hallmark, however decided to continue with his idea as he was encouraged when one third of the dealers kept the postcards and sent a cheque in return. Within about two months Joyce C. Hallmark had already gained 200 Dollars and as a result he opened an account.  Even though he considered this to be a great Success, he was not entirely satisfied that with postcards he would continue his business. As a result, he took more interest in the more quality type cards, such as Christmas and Valentines cards that were mailed in envelopes.

"The international Fine ARTS Competitions for paintings on the Christmas theme sponsored bay Hallmark cards, Inc., Kansas City, were a significant artistic contribution to Christmas cards in the USA”

Encyclopaedia

Many Hallmark art award paintings are frequently used on their Christmas cards.