New Year's Day Postcards

by: Roy Nuhn

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, January, 2005

When the picture postcard fad hit America nearly a century ago, publishers found a ready market for special greeting cards for every holiday, including New Year's. The public eagerly purchased seasonal postcards to exchange with relatives, friends, neighbors and co-workers. They were also lovingly saved in keepsake albums.

New Year's Day items were especially attractive because of their superior artistic designs and the fascinating array of seasonal features found on them. Nearly every theme and topic associated with New Year throughout the centuries found its way onto the tends of thousands of different postcards crafted by countless artists in the earliest years of the century, from 1900 to about 1916. Both domestic and imported cards featured grandfather clocks, watches, Father Time and Baby New Year, as well as lovely women, radiant angels and delightful children.

Elves were favored by such American firms as M. W. Taggart Co., Souvenir Postal Card Co., and Illustrated Postal Card Co. European companies made great use of designs incorporating four-leaf clovers, cornucopias, and the antics of pigs and cherubs. Hundreds of tons of these cards were exported to the United States in the years leading up to World War I.

Though they often relied on traditional symbols and motifs, American illustrators did drawings in a more modern style than did their counterparts in Europe. Holiday revelers in autos - heavily favored by International Art Pub. Co. (New York City), humorous scenes of tipsy gentlemen and other portrayals of holiday celebrating are characteristic of American-made New Year's Day postcards. Artists such as Ellen Clapsaddle, Frances Brundage, and H. B. Griggs ("HBG") have always commanded a great amount of attention from collectors.

So intense was the competition that many companies resorted to adding extra attractions to their cards. Nearly all quality cards automatically came embossed and many were embellished with gelatin coatings, gold and silver etchings, and gold backgrounds. Tinsel was added and edges scalloped. Also marketed were blank check postcards, in which the recipient received a "check" good for "a million joys in the coming year," or something similarly whimsical.

Stork delivering Baby New Year to Father Time (B.W. Co., postmarked 1903).

Popular with the public were Year Dates. A contributing factor to the relative scarcity of Year Dates is that they were only good for the duration of the season for which they were published. After New Year's Day had passed they had little value and could not be stored and sold the following year. Leftover stock was thrown away or, if possible, returned to the publisher. Other New Year's Day cards, on the other hand, could be resold year after year, just as other holiday greetings.

Attachment of every kind were applied. The list includes die-cuts of flowers, horseshoes, and doves; and little notes in tiny envelopes. A number of "magic light" varieties, such as hold-to lights and transparencies enjoyed brisk sales.

Quite often, especially after 1910, many publishers and distributors took old stocks of other postcard topics, including scenes of animals, children and lovely ladies and overprinted them with all sorts of New Year's greetings.

Among foreign publishers, none was more prolific or produced better cards than Raphael Tuck & Sons. The London firm exported huge numbers of holiday postcards to this country. Their artists favored charming children, beautiful women and Father Time. However, floral designs were also used extensively.

Other English and European firms doing substantial business in the United States before World War I included Ernest Nister, E. A. Schwerdtfeger & Co., S. Langsdorf, and Paul Finkenrath (Berlin).

Important American publishers were Sam Gabriel & Sons, International Art, Ullman Mfg. Co., John Winsch, M. T. Sheahan, Rose Co., P. Sander, and Whitney Co. With the advent of world war in 1914 production of holiday postcards, including New Year's Day, came to nearly a complete stop. Old inventories continued to be sold by small town retailers and a few giant merchandisers like Woolworth's for the next 10 to 15 years, but there was little new publishing.

The modern day folded greeting card and envelope came into prominence in the 1920s and has remained the standard ever since. Very little modern activity has ever occurred in regard to New Year's Day postcards.

Today's collectors are very lucky in that a vast amount of New Year's Day postcards is still available. Prices, except for about 10% of the very best and most beautiful cards, tend to be a bit lower than those for other holidays. It is still possible to put together a very good collection of the holiday.