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Greetings Cards
A greeting card, as we all know, is an illustrated, usually folded card featuring a pleasing (artistic or humorous) design, together with an expression of love, friendship or other appropriate message, either pre-printed or handwritten.
The custom of sending greeting “tokens” can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who were known to exchange messages of good will to celebrate their New Year. There is evidence, too, that the early Egyptians conveyed messages on papyrus scrolls at the beginning of the year to ward off evil spirits. In Europe, the Germans were printing New Year greetings using woodcuts as early as 1400, and elsewhere in Europe handmade paper Valentines were being exchanged in the early to mid-15th Century. The oldest Valentine card in existence is held in the British Museum. By the 1850’s, the greeting card had been transformed from a relatively expensive item, handmade and hand-delivered, sent mainly by wealthy families, to a popular and much more affordable means of greetings communication, due largely to the introduction of the Penny Post and advancements in mechanisation.
The Victorian era was the most prolific in its inventiveness with cards, and the late 1800’s early 1900’s saw some most interesting and unusual additions to the greeting card collection. The Royal Mail at this time was handling an extra 11 million cards during the festive season alone. With the onset of technical developments such as colour lithography in 1930, the manufactured greeting card industry was rapidly propelled forward. Humorous greeting cards, known as studio cards, became popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s. In the 1970’s smaller companies began to publish whimsical card designs which carried on the back the name of the artist. By the 1980’s a thriving market for what were now called "alternative" greeting cards had sprung up and these "alternative" cards changed the look of the entire industry.
Today greeting cards and gift cards are sent to celebrate every kind of event and in the UK alone, it is estimated that on average we send around 55 cards each per year, the total number of cards sent is around 2 billion per year, and the total spend per annum is approximately £1.7 billion!
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Bug Art Greetings Cards | (25) |
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Little Acorn Greetings Cards | (10) |
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Moorcroft Greetings Cards | (8) |
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Fantasy Art Greetings Cards | (33) |
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Des Brophy Greetings Cards | (6) |
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