One of First Christmas Cards Auctioned
A 162-year-old Christmas card, one of the first commercial Christmas Cards produced for the season, sold at auction in England on Saturday for $16,000.
The hand-colored card, which shows a family celebrating around a table, is one of about 10 surviving from an original batch of 1,000 printed in 1843, auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son said.
The cards were commissioned by Londoner Sir Henry Cole, who is generally recognized as the inventor of the commercial Christmas card.
The card was bought at the auction at Devizes in southern England by Jakki Brown, editor and co-owner of “Progressive Greetings” magazine and general secretary of the Greeting Card Association.
Auctioneer Aldridge said he was “pleased with the price and that the card is staying in this country within the greetings card industry.”
The card was originally sent to a Miss Mary Tripsack, a close friend of the poet Elizabeth Barrett, wife of poet Robert Browning. “We don’t know who sent it to Miss Tripsack. We can only assume that they must have been of means as cards were a novelty at the time,” said Aldridge.
Source: MyWay.
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