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Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas Shopping, 1879

Front and Reverse

16 comments:

  1. Hello Mark:
    Are these yours? For the card is so lovely in that slightly sentimental Victorian way and the Baxter Trevor announcement is such a marvellous period piece. Splendid.

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  2. These are totally charming Mark, but I still prefer your father's line drawing!
    best wishes for a Happy Christmas
    Sharon

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  3. How refined and elegant - a bit different to Googling Amazon! enjoy your Christmas.

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  4. Hello Jane and Lance:

    I have edited this posting to show that both images are of the same card. Yes, it is mine, part of a large collection of Victorian ephemera that I've collected over a 40-year span. You can see more of the collection in my sidebar on trade cards.

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  5. Merry Christmas, Sharon! I've been enjoying your Christmas decorating!

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  6. Hello, Rosemary - The gifts sound more elegant, too, don't they? Merry Christmas to you and H!

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  7. Hello Mark,
    Unlike the the bird on your card, you must be an owl if you posted this at 2:00 AM. Very charming illustration, could still be used today with the appropriate card stock. But the back is definitely of the time. All these different fonts, sizes, in bold and regular, wow. The pour guy who had to do the type setting for this card. Love the gift selection.
    Anyes
    XX

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  8. Good morning, Anyes! I have the dubious distinction of being both a night owl and an early morning bird! You're right about all that typesetting, and of course it was all done by hand!

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  9. Hello Mark, A look into the past, how wonderful of you to share with us your treasures. How else could we glimpse into a life which reminds us of gentler times... "gold pens, elegant books and beautiful autographs".

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  10. Good morning, Mark. Well, late morning, anyway. Love your bit of morning ephemera. Just beautiful.

    I wonder if you could get some of your collection printed up as Holiday cards or note cards. Why not? Such beautiful things should not go unnoticed.

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  11. Hello, Gina - Ah, gentler times! My mother said that the Christmas of her childhood was so less commercial. Stores didn't decorate until two weeks before Christmas Day, and St. Nicholas came on a donkey.

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  12. Hello, Yvette - I like your idea of reprinting some of my collection. For a number of years, I made my own cards and perhaps I'll get back into that, at least for myself, with reprints of Christmas ephemera. My next posting is one of my favorite cards, one I found within the past year ...

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  13. Your card's Mr. Trevor was from Norwalk, Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Toledo. Norwalk's main street to this day has a wonderful collection of large Greek Revival and Victorian homes; it is quite charming to take a drive through there.

    By the way, typesetting cards in metal type is creative and fun. Anyes should save her pity for the printer's devil who had to distribute it (place each tiny piece back in its original compartment).
    --Road to Parnassus

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  14. Mark, as echoed in previous comments, this is a lot nicer than all the hype that we start receiving in October for an upcoming Christmas. I would gladly receive this in my letter box, instead of the junk that arrives daily.

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  15. Hello, Parnassus - I know you are right about the fun and creativity of setting type by hand because I've done it myself, using tweesers and a composing stick. I still have several things I set, and now that I think of it, they should show up as a future posting...

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  16. Hello, David - This card would have been given by Mr. Trevor as a little premium when you bought something at his shop, and you would have pinned it to a wall or perhaps pasted it into a scrapbook. Few of us receive anything today through our letter boxes that would merit scrapbooking!

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