Originally published in Pearson's Weekly (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.) vol.2 #75 (26 Dec 1891).
There is no part of the Christmas trade which is so popular, and upon which more skill and labour are expended, than the trade in Christmas and New Year's cards. The marvellous development in this industry during the past few years has certainly received no check. Quite the contrary; for inquiries among manufacturers and dealers establish the fact that the demand is greater this season than ever. Mr. Faulkner, a partner in Hildesheimer & Faulkner, very kindly consented to initiate a representative of Pearson's Weekly into the mysteries of how Christmas cards are designed, made, and sold.
The selection of the designs in the first stage in the history of a Christmas card, and these are executed in some cases by the artists permanently connected with the publishing firm; in others, by artists of high standing in the professional world. Among those who contributed to make Hildesheimer & Faulkner's cards famous all over the English-speaking world, were the late Miss Alice Havers, a truly exquisite artist; E.K. Johnson; B.D. Sigmund; W.J. Muckley, the flower painter; and Jacomb Hood.
Again, an immense number of rough and finished designs are sent in on chance by ladies anxious to make a small addition to their incomes, and who believe themselves gifted with artistic talents. There is no standard price, sometimes an idea will be taken and paid for, and the design redrawn by a good artist from the amateur's rough study.
Then the art publisher brings his skill to bear upon it to see if any improvement can be effected. He "edits" it, so to speak.
The money expended by a publisher on the original design for a card is in many cases very considerable; but it is surpassed by the large expenditure he will incur for the purpose of producing a card which shall be so truly artistic, and so thoroughly imitative of the original, that the difference can scarcely be detected except by the connoisseur.
The question of how many colours--the fewer the better in the case of the cheap cards--shall be used is considered, and then the design is handed over to the printer to be drawn on the stone. Every tint--and sometimes, for folding cards, there are as many as twenty to thirty different ones--is worked from a separate stone, each succeeding one being printed over the last till the picture is perfect. Then there are the verses or mottos to be added, and the cards, which are printed so many on a sheet, are cut up, made up in dozens, packed in gross boxes, and are ready for delivery to the wholesaler and retail trade.
The packing and sorting is generally done by girls. Messrs. Hildesheimer & Faulkner's packing-room is a sight to see, especially at this season of the year. Every card, or rather set of two, four, six, or twelve cards, as the case may be, is carefully done up in clean paper before being placed into gross boxes, and every set has a number to itself, thus the buyers are able to see the samples in the firm's albums and choose sometimes months beforehand what they think are likely to be the most popular cards.
Most Christmas cards sold in Britain are manufactured in Germany. The great bulk of these are produced by chromo-lithography, of which Germany is the home. They can be produced much cheaper there than with us, wages being lower and the atmospheric and other conditions more favourable. And the atmosphere has a good deal to do with the chromo-lithography, for a damp, foggy morning, the printer finds his paper stretches, and smudges and smears are the result. The manufacture, it may be mentioned, is going on all the year round; and while the cards are selling for Christmas 1891, the publishers are busy selecting their designs for 1893.
The actual production of a card takes almost three months, so the publisher must be able to calculate pretty exactly how many gross of each will be required for the trade. People begin buying their Christmas cards as early as July, especially those who are starting for distant colonies. Those who sport each year a private card, i.e., a card specially designed for their own sole use, have also to make their choice early in the season.
If the public left the buying of their cards till the week before Christmas the shopmen would simply be unable to serve them. Literally, millions of these pretty tokens of good-will and remembrance are sent through the post during Christmas and New Year week.
About four hundred sets--that is to say, over a thousand new designs--are placed on the market every year by this one firm. The largest sale is made, of course, to the London retail dealers, but it seems that the provinces also much affect card-sending; especially in this case with those cards boasting pretty and suitable verses.
F.E. Weatherly, Miss Burnside, S.K. Cowan, M.A., Rev. J.W. Myers, B.A., Shirley Wynne, Thomson, and Longfellow, are favourite authors.
The number of verses required for a complete collection of cards is necessarily very great, and a large sum of money has to be paid each year for them. As with the designs, no price is fixed for a verse, the amount paid varying--generally speaking--with the reputation of the poet.