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Early NZ Christmas cards

Researcher Peter Gilderdale says Christmas cards arrived in NZ in the 1860s but in the 1880s artists started adapting them to suit a Kiwi Christmas. 

 

The earliest commercial British Christmas card, of 1843. It was sold for a shilling and wasn't very popular at the time. The artist was John Callcott Horsley.

The comet Christmas card of 1882 became a cultural phenomenon. Courtesy: Te Papa

American Louis Prang cards became very marketable. This is a Prang New Year card of 1879. Courtesy of Peter Gilderdale.

An American Louis Prang Christmas card, 1875. It was a chromolithograph. Courtesy of Peter Gilderdale.

Page of coloured chromolithographs showing New Zealand landscape scenes and native plants, prepared as greeting cards and presented in a sample album circa 1884- - 1885. Courtesy: Alexander Turnbull Library

Early 1880s British chromolithographic Christmas card in a plush mounting. Courtesy of Peter Gilderdale.

Early 1880s British chromolithographic Christmas card in a plush mounting

Early 1880s British chromolithographic Christmas card in a plush mounting

A Sunday Morning listener Rachel Wightman sent in some of her cards from the early 1900s.

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.