The First Christmas Card

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 5

The First Christmas Card

DP you know that this custom of sending Christmas Cards is not nearly so old as you would think? In fact it’s less than a century since the Christmas Card was-shall we say-" invented." A man called W. A. Dobson, who atfterwards became Queen Victoria’s favourite artist, painted a card and sent it to a friend instead of his usual Christmas letter in 1844. A year later, a Newcastle vicar, the Rev. Edward Bradley, better known as an author under the pen-name of "Cuthbert Bede," went one better by getting his Christmas Card design printed for sending to his friends. A boy of 16 called W. M. Egley brought out a card as early as 1842. This clever boy’s card shows Sir Roger de Coverley, a Christmas dinner, a Punch and Judy show, a distribu- . tion of soup to the poor at a house door, skating, and a little knot of Christmas waits singing carols. So you ‘see it was a boy who really got in first. The first Christmas Card to be sold in shops was designed by J. C. ’ Horsley, an artist, and it was sold at a shilling. One of those cards is now worth £50, as it is highly prized by collectors. In the middle of the card is a family group enjoying a good Christmas dinner, and in other panels are sketches of hungry and shivering beggars being fed and clothed-("This and That": " Christmas Comes But Once a Year" from " Ebor’s" Scrapbook, 2YA, December 23.)