Getting Ready for Christmas

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A few weekends ago I picked up several lots of Victorian holiday cards, many of which I  used in my greeting cards. There were many however, that are too beautiful or collectible to cut up. Those I will eventually list on eBay or Etsy; some I will keep for my collection.

Many of the cards (and some booklets) were printed by Raphael Tuck (England) who were printers of postcards, greeting cards, children's books, chromolithograph prints, etc., and were one of the first companies to offer contests for greeting card design.   They are one of my favorite companies, along with the fine quality postcards that Stengel printed.  With the advent of the industrial revolution and the growth of industry all around, postcard/card/scrap collecting became the rage, where women and children collected these images and pasted them into ledgers, scrapbooks, and was the start of scrapbooking in this country.

The quality of chromolithograph printing is like nothing else you will find today.  Few if any print via that method, and it may be a lost art.  The oil inks are rich, and have not faded over 100+ years.  The biggest issue with these prints is that the oil inks sometimes stick to paper pages, leaving the paper remains on the ink when you separate them.  However, a damp sponge will usually remove the paper remains from the front with some gentle rubbing, and a little finger nail scraping.  If the inks have been lifted from the card surface however, you can sometimes rub in a bit of pastel pencil, or dab with paint to fill in.  Those are the cards I usually cut up and use in my work, unless they are something that I want to keep/or scan.

Off to do some research on some photos I have of what I believe to be of Pre WWI Berlin.  We were talking at a party about how you can find anything you want to know about on the Internet..and I begged to differ.  Frank said that is because I work with and research the obscure, and I had to agree.  Half the fun is the discovery, and I always learn something new, even when I hit a brick wall in my research.

Off to continue listing vintage retro Christmas Seals/Stickers on Etsy.  They are a blast from my past. 
Then off to watch a movie. If I start early enough maybe I won't fall asleep....oh and the card for today's blog can be found on ETSY

Patti O Paper

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