CNN
—The world’s first commercially printed Christmas card is up for sale, depicting a merry scene that scandalized some of 19th-century Britain’s more puritanical citizens.
The card, which is on sale with Boston-based book dealer Marvin Getman from Friday, was produced by Henry Cole, John Calcott Horsley and Joseph Cundall in 1843 – the same year that Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was published.
The modern idea of Christmas, and its associated traditions, is understood to have emerged in the first half of the 19th century.
But the hand-colored lithograph card – which features a family and a small girl gathered around a table, enjoying glasses of wine – caused a scandal among the UK’s temperance movement, who were calling for abstinence from alcohol, Justin Schiller, president of Battledore Ltd., the New York antiquities dealership that currently owns the card, told CNN.
Schiller told CNN that the image on the greetings card provoked outrage among the movement – “it was not only encouraging drinking, it was encouraging drinking by a child!” he said.
The card proved so controversial that it was three years before the publisher produced another, he added.
“Consequently, that delayed the enthusiasm for there being a second card,” he said.
A thousand copies of the card were originally printed to be sold for a shilling each – but it is now estimated that fewer than 30 examples are left, with some on display in museums or for sale, according to Battledore.
One such card, addressed to “Mother and Father,” is up for auction at Christie’s next week, with an estimated price of $10,752.
Battledore’s specimen is thought to be a publisher’s file copy, Schiller told CNN, noting that it has an array of prices jotted on the back.
The card is priced at $25,000.
The first commercially printed Christmas card is up for sale – a merry Victorian-era scene that scandalised some when it first appeared in 1843.
The card, which is being sold online through a consortium run by Marvin Getman, a Boston-based dealer in rare books and manuscripts, depicts an English family toasting the recipient with glasses of red wine.
“A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You,” it reads. But for teetotallers – and there were plenty of those in the 19th century – the imagery included a bit too much holiday cheer: in the foreground, a young girl is pictured taking a sip from an adult’s glass.
That did not sit well at the time with the puritanical Temperance Society, which kicked up such a fuss it took three years before another Christmas card was produced.
“They were quite distressed that in this scandalous picture they had children toasting with a glass of wine along with the adults. They had a campaign to censor and suppress it,” said Justin Schiller, founder and president of Battledore, a Kingston, New York-based dealer in antiquarian books who is selling the card.
Getman said the hand-coloured lithograph is believed to have been a salesperson’s sample. Only 1,000 copies were printed and sold for a shilling apiece, and experts believe fewer than 30 have survived, he said.
The card, intended to double as a greeting for Christmas and New Year’s Day, was designed by the painter and illustrator John Callcott Horsley at the suggestion of Sir Henry Cole, a British civil servant and inventor who founded the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Cole is widely credited with starting the tradition of sending holiday cards, a multimillion-dollar industry today.
It is believed to have gone on sale in the same week in December 1843 that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was first published.
Christie’s auction house in London also is selling one of the rare cards and says it expects the item to fetch between £5,000 and £8,000 ($6,725 to $10,800).