Christmas cards are a bit of a forgotten tradition in our times of quick posts on social media and messages on smartphone apps. Yet there are some pretty vintage cards that may be worth rediscovering like the ones by Boston-based printer Louis Prang who introduced the Christmas card to the American public.
In 1873, Prang went to Austria for the Vienna Exhibition. Here he had a chance encounter with the wife of his British agent who, upon seeing one of his chromolithographed business cards decorated with flowers, suggested him to market them with a Christmas greeting. The following year Prang decided to test this product in England. Since it was a successful idea, he brought it back to the States and started selling Christmas cards in Boston for the 1875 holiday season.
The business soon went from strength to strength, also thanks to the fact that Prang commissioned talented illustrators who produced for him beautiful cards paying attention to the tiniest details as showed by the first image in this post, an advert for Prang’s products (from the Library of Congress archive) that features a couple in Medieval costumes under mistletoe. The red attire of the gentleman matches with the red holly around the frame of the card, while the pale blue dress of the lady features a pattern of gold fleur-de-lis. Pearls trace the outline of her breasts forming a sort of peekaboo bra that reveals another type of fabric underneath the bustier.
Prang also launched from 1880 annual competitions to encourage artists and art students to produce designs for his Christmas cards (the first prize winner for this initial contest was artist Rosina Emmet who also designed textiles for Tiffany & Company in New York).
Prang's earliest cards mainly featured flower designs with the words "Merry Christmas", but his most elaborate products included silk fringes, cords and tassels. An example of these textile elements can be found in a card designed by the Symbolist artist Elihu Vedder who won first prize at the second competition organised by Prang.
Vedder's design featured an allegorical figure inspired by his wife with ribbons radiating from her hair (an article from the Cincinnati Daily Gazette of February, 24, 1881 described them poetically, stating: "Several fantastically streaming long ribbons proceed from the mazes of her auburn hair...") set within an Art Nouveau-style border and completed by the words "Thy own wish wish I thee in every place" from William Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost".
The card was decorated with a silk fringe along its four edges, with two tassels hanging from the bottom corners and a string at the top, which would have allowed recipients of the card to hang it on the walls of their home or on their Christmas tree.
We are by now too accustomed to our quick digital messages to go back to writing traditional cards but, when you think about it, a proper Christmas card with some textile details would be a nice token of affection. In the meantime, maybe you can use the words on Vedder's card - "Thy own wish wish I thee in every place" - for your own digital message to a dear one. Have a wonderful Christmas!
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