Day 39
Have you sent your Christmas Cards yet?
Image: Card ‘Angel over Leith’ by Mark Kirkham, EdinburghSketcher. Sold singularly or as part of a pack of six city Christmas Cards.
While the first commercially mass produced Christmas card in the UK is commonly attributed to Sir Henry Cole in 1843, Leith based bookseller and printer Charles Drummond had printed and sold new year and Christmas cards from his shop at 133 Kirkgate two years earlier - in 1841.
A letter written in 1907 describing the ‘Guid New Year' card’ in detail was printed in an edition of the Edinburgh Evening News in 1934.
“The card showed the curly head of a boy, open-mouthed (minus a tooth in the upper row) with fat, chubby cheeks, merry twinkling eyes and an expression of such hearty laughter that the happy combination, by the natural infectious process, produced the desired result on the onlooker, who was greeted with the wish of ‘many happy years’.”
The image was designed by his friend Thomas Sturrock, and was fixed on to a copper plate for printing by Edinburgh engraver Alexander Aikman. Indeed, there is evidence that the original idea was suggested by Thomas. While plates for both a new year and Merry Christmas card have been preserved, there is no record of the Christmas version being produced for sale.
A response to the 1934 letter was written by Douglas Sturrock - the grandson of Thomas, advised that a copy of the card had been on display in the old Leith Town Hall until 1920. Following the amalgamation it was returned to the Sturrock family.
The plates and proofs shown here were handed down in Charles Drummonds family, and have been on display in various museums and exhibitions. They were sold at auction in February of 2020 for £2,750.
In the 1840’s new year cards were more common than Christmas cards, and it is unknown whether both of these were for sale, or only the new year card. The Henry Cole Christmas card printed 2 years later was seen as an expensive fad, costing 1 shilling each - well out of the price range for most working class people. It was not until the 1860’s that Christmas cards really took off in the UK.
However, the tradition of writing personal cards began much earlier, with one of the first on record being a card sent to King James VI of Scotland, (1st of England) in 1611. It was from German physician and counsellor Michael Maier, and read:
“A greeting on the birthday of the Sacred King, to the most worshipful and energetic lord and most eminent James, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and Defender of the true faith, with a gesture of joyful celebration of the Birthday of the Lord, in most joy and fortune, we enter into the new auspicious year 1612.”
However, in the words of Charles Drummond, we will simply wish you all a ‘Merry Christmas and a Guid New Year’.
