By Isla Quinn
Mid-December, 1843. A man has a pile of letters to answer and no time. So he asks a friend to draw him a picture.
The man was Henry Cole. The V&A, which he helped to found, calls him its founding director, and says he wanted a faster way to answer his Christmas mail. The friend was the artist John Callcott Horsley. Cole’s diary for 17 December 1843, quoted by the museum, reads: “In the Evg Horsley came & brought his design for Christmas Cards.”
What was on it
Look at it the way the V&A describes it. The central panel shows three generations of the Cole family raising a toast. It is framed by a trellis and by black-and-white scenes of giving, which the museum reads as a message of celebration and charity. Only the centre was hand-coloured. In the bottom right corner Horsley drew a tiny self-portrait instead of signing, and dated the card “Xmasse, 1843”.
Not every source describes the layout the same way. Who Do You Think You Are? magazine calls it a three-panel card, with the toast in the middle and charitable acts at the sides. The V&A talks of one central panel with scenes around it. Our reading: both are describing the same arrangement from different angles.
How many were printed?
This is where the sources split.
- The V&A says a thousand copies were printed, and that each could carry a handwritten greeting.
- Who Do You Think You Are? magazine also says 1,000 copies were offered to the public, lithographed and hand-coloured.
- The V\&A and the magazine agree on the verdict: the V\&A calls the venture a commercial flop, and the magazine says it was too expensive for most families.
The V&A holds one of the cards, museum number MSL.3293-1987. It does not say how many others survive.
The toast that bothered people
Who Do You Think You Are? mentions that in 1894 a writer in The Studio rebutted a complaint that the central panel might encourage drunkenness. The V\&A article does not mention any controversy.
Was it really the first?
The V\&A calls Cole’s card the first. It says the second known card was designed by William Maw Egley in 1848, and that it was once thought to be earlier because its date was misread as 1842. Who Do You Think You Are? adds that an illustration sent by W. C. T. Dobson to a friend in 1848 was printed for friends and relatives the following year.
Why it caught on later
The Uniform Penny Post of the 1840s, says the V\&A, encouraged seasonal greetings on decorated letterheads and visiting cards. In 1843 Dickens published A Christmas Carol, which the V\&A lists among the things making Christmas keepsakes more affordable to the growing middle classes.
The V&A dates the Victorian heyday of Christmas cards from about 1860 to 1890, helped by chromolithography, metallic inks and die-cutting. Early cards borrowed from Valentines, with embossed and pierced paper known as paper lace. Around 1879, the museum says, Hildesheimer & Co. brought out the “Penny Basket”, a set of about a dozen cards sold through tobacconists, drapers and toy shops. The Half Penny Post of 1894 gave another boost, and the postcard became the most popular format.
Dates in order
- 17 December 1843: Horsley brings the design, according to Cole’s diary as quoted by the V&A.
- 1848: Egley’s card, according to the V&A.
- 1860 to 1890: the Victorian heyday, according to the V&A.
- 1879: the Penny Basket, according to the V&A.
- 1894: the Half Penny Post and The Studio’s reply, according to the V&A and the magazine.
What kind of sources these are
The V\&A is a museum, and it owns a copy of the card. Who Do You Think You Are? is a family-history magazine.
What we left out
We left out the card’s price and its auction sale, because we do not quote sums. We left out the Hallmark company and the American card trade beyond Prang, since they are a different story. We left out last posting dates, which change every year.
Quick answers
Who sent the first Christmas card? According to the V&A, Henry Cole commissioned it in 1843 from the artist John Callcott Horsley, and a thousand copies were printed.
Why did Henry Cole make a Christmas card? The V&A says he wanted a faster way to answer his Christmas mail.
Was the first Christmas card a success? The V&A and Who Do You Think You Are? magazine both describe it as a commercial failure at the time.
Related on this site: bath-somerset-roman-baths-georgian-stone, uk-hallmarks-how-to-read-the-marks, scottish-register-of-tartans-what-registration-means
Roam first. Shop later.