Happy New Year’s Cards – My Calendar Land

Send Your Best Wishes with Vintage New Year’s Cards!

New Year’s postcards have been popular (with ups and downs) since the beginning of the printing industry. The tradition of sending greetings at the beginning of the new year dates at least a couple of millenniums back to ancient China and Egypt. While electronic devices reduced the number of sent New Year’s greeting cards, the tradition is still alive in practically every corner of the world.

Handmade greeting cards were already sold across Europe in the 15th century. With the evolvement of the printing technique picture postcards, including the ones with New Year’s, Valentine’s, Easter, and Christmas greetings postcards became extremely popular. Every kind of graphic material was considered for picture postcards but illustrations like the one below (created by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)) dominated the early years.

Some of the best artists in the world designed them and clubs of collectors with thousands and thousands of active members were established. This time, roughly starting just before 1900 and ending with World War, is called the Golden Era. Gradually a part of the market was occupied by photo postcards but illustrated cards never completely fell out of fashion.

We will present examples mostly from this time. One card per artist. All of them focus on the first day of January. All of them are in the Public Domain due to 70+ years rule.

Enjoy your journey.

Charles Henry Bennett (1828-1867)