Ohhh, baby, a New Year

I gathered together some of my favorite early 20th century babies welcoming in the New Year from the archive to share here. Enjoy … and Happy New Year!

A very Victorian Christmas

Over on the Paper With a Past Facebook page, I've been counting down to Christmas with daily posts of Victorian cards from my collection. It suddenly dawned on me that the images ought to be posted here, too, for those not on Facebook. Enjoy …

MERRY CHRISTMAS. The final card.
Published by Boston's Louis Prang in 1881.

Two sassy "You Said It, Sister" holiday cards

I tend to be sentimental when it comes to designing holiday greeting cards. But while restocking the card above from the "You Said It, Sister" line for a shop, it occurred to me that it could be converted into holiday card for Christmas and Hannukah. So here they are, fresh off the printer … they're available in the studio, at The Framery in Hyde Park, and sometime today, at Indigenous in O'Bryonville.

Not a moment too soon … 1st annual Christmas poster

© Sugar Plum Tree

I so wish that in July, someone would dump snow into my studio and pipe in continuous holiday music. That way, I might get on schedule with my holiday greeting cards, tags, etc. But, no, here it is Dec, 6, and what am I doing? Designing a new card, and, "wait," she thought, "why not turn it into a holiday poster, too."

So, I have. Both the card and poster debut this weekend at the Showcase of Art at the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati, which opens this morning at - gulp - 10!

For the design I used one of my favorite Christmas images in which tiny children dance around a ginormous Christmas tree laden with all kinds of goods from the practical (soap, coffee, furniture) to the whimsical (candy cones, fish, toys).

The tree is adapted from an engraving a black-and-white engraving in the January 1882 issue of St. Nicholas, a popular American children’s magazine published by Scribner’s. The pastries are from “The Trade’s Cake Book,” by T. Percy Lewis (MacLaren & Sons Ltd, London, 1912). I altered their colors substantially to make them more fanciful.

The 11" x 17" poster is titled "Sugar Plum Tree," and is a limited edition of 25 signed copies. It's printed with archival ink on Legion Paper's Somerset Enhanced Velvet 100% cotton rag paper. It may be the first of an annual series of Christmas posters. And, who knows, maybe next year's will be designed earlier.