[font=Verdana,Sans-serif][/font][font=Verdana,Sans-serif]A 162-year-old Christmas card, one of the first commercial cards produced for the season, sold at auction in England on Saturday for $16,000.[/font] [font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The hand-colored card, which shows a family celebrating around a table, is one of about 10 surviving from an original batch of 1,000 printed in 1843, auctioneers Hendry Aldridge & Son said.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The cards were commissioned by Londoner Sir Henry Cole, who is generally recognized as the inventor of the commercial Christmas card.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The card was originally sent to a Miss Mary Tripsack, a close friend of the poet Elizabeth Barrett, wife of poet Robert Browning. "We don't know who sent it to Miss Tripsack. We can only assume that they must have been of means as cards were a novelty at the time," said Aldridge.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]Although wood engravers produced prints with religious themes in Europe in the Middle Ages, the first commercial Christmas and New Year's cards are believed to have been produced by Cole in 1843.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20051203/D8E8RM103.html
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[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The cards were commissioned by Londoner Sir Henry Cole, who is generally recognized as the inventor of the commercial Christmas card.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The card was originally sent to a Miss Mary Tripsack, a close friend of the poet Elizabeth Barrett, wife of poet Robert Browning. "We don't know who sent it to Miss Tripsack. We can only assume that they must have been of means as cards were a novelty at the time," said Aldridge.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]Although wood engravers produced prints with religious themes in Europe in the Middle Ages, the first commercial Christmas and New Year's cards are believed to have been produced by Cole in 1843.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20051203/D8E8RM103.html
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