With Christmas only a few weeks away, I decided to go through my auction finds to come up with some items I’d seen or bought with this theme. I’ll share them with you as we head into the holidays.
The first was a group of 12 embossed Christmas postcards with gold lettering, all unused. I got them among a lot of papers, primarily photographs but including a nice foldout Valentine card. These are not your flimsy postcards. They are sturdy and thick.
The cards were printed in Germany but there’s no date on them. They look old – as in the early part of the 20th century – based on their look and the text on the address side. On that side, the instructions to the user are very precise. I guess the printers wanted to make sure the card-writer made no mistakes:
Right side: Write Here.
There’s a dividing line.
Left side: The Address Only To Be Written Here (no crossing the line with your message!).
Top right is a small box: Place a Postage Stamp Here.
The loveliest of the group was a vertical card with the words Dec. 25th inside a bell topped by ivy and a ribbon. The colors on all the postcards were not your usual bright red and green. They were very simple cards, with the colors of fuchsia, a soft green, pink, lavender, amethyst and a soft chocolate.
Postcards have been around since 1843 when Sir Henry Cole, founder of a London museum, had so many greetings to write that he had some cards made to send. Postcard-collecting (or deltiology, as it is called) was said to be a popular hobby, after coin and stamp collecting (either in Britain or internationally, depending to which website you check).
An article on the website of the National Post (Canada) noted that Santa Claus postcards can bring in a few dollars (as in the Coca Cola Santa Claus from the 1920s and 1930s) or more (an unusual one of a green-robed Santa).
The most sought-after and expensive of the Christmas cards are the rare Santa HTL or Hold-to-Light cards. “Holding one to a bright light, the die-cut portions appears to light up, illuminating a magical Christmas scene,” according to an article on the site The Postcard Journal. In other instances, holding the card to a light reveals a scene or character you can’t see otherwise. Take a look at this non-Christmas whimsical card. Unfortunately, we can’t see the other character.
At an auction in March, one HTL card sold for $1,000, according to the Antique Trader website. One of the rarest of the HTL’s is an Uncle Sam Santa dressed in red, white and blue.
Unfortunately, none of my cards has a Santa on it and neither is an HTL. But for sure, I’ll be on the lookout for them, especially Uncle Sam.
Meanwhile, take a look at this collection of Christmas postcards from the New York Public Library and a collection of Soviet Christmas postcards.
