Christmas Gallery

First Christmas Card by Sir Henry Cole and John Horsley

Reputedly the first Christmas card, this was designed by Horsley in 1843, and a coloured version sent out by Sir Henry Cole in 1846.
Commissioned by Sir Henry Cole and illustrated by John Callcott Horsley in London on 1 May 1843. The central picture shows three generations of a family raising a toast to the card's recipient: on either side are charity scenes including food and clothing being given to the poor. Allegedly the image of the family drinking wine together proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2, 050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each, and of those just a dozen are known to have survived.
We are offering reproduction prints of the original design. In 2001 an original version sold for a record 22, 500 pounds sterling at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. After attracting bids from collectors in Britain and America, it eventually sold for the record-breaking price.
The auctioned card was especially sought after because it was sent by Sir Henry to his grandmother and aunt, and signed by the great Victorian.
John Callcott Horsley was an English painter, illustrator, and designer. Born in London on 29 January 1817, he was the grand-nephew of the English landscape painter Sir Augustus Callcott. His sister, Mary Elizabeth Horsley, was the wife of the famous British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Horsley studied painting at the Royal Academy where he met the painter Thomas Webster. His paintings were largely of historical subjects set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, influenced by the Dutch masters Pieter de Hooch and Vermeer. From 1875 to 1897, Horsley was a rector and treasurer of the Royal Academy. Because he was strictly against nude models he earned the nickname "Clothes-Horsley".
Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greeting cards at Christmas time

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10021527

DICKENS: A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. Illustration by Harold Cropping from a 1920 edition of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

DICKENS: A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.
Illustration by Harold Cropping from a 1920 edition of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

© none

1920, Bob, Carol, Carousel Collection, Carry, Charles, Christmas, Cratchit, Dickens, Early, Illustration, Literature, Pie, Snow, Street, Tim, Tiny Tim, Winter, Woman

USH-5065-M Scottish Highland Cow - standing on snow wearing Christmas hat

USH-5065
Scottish Highland Cow - standing on snow covered field
Lower Saxony - Germany
Bos taurus
Duncan Usher
Please note that prints are for personal display purposes only and may not be reproduced in any way

© Duncan Usher / ardea.com

Agricultural, Agriculture, Breeds, Captionable, Cattle, Christmas, Christmas Hat, Cow, Domestic, Dressed Up, Facing, Farm Animals, Farming, Field, Fields, Hat, Hats, Highland, Ice, In Field, Live Stock, M Ammals, Mammal, Out Side, Santa Hat, Seasonal, Seasons, Single, Snow, Snowing, Wearing, Winter