Today I'm kicking off my annual Christmas posts with a Christmas post post…
This is a reposting of an installment from my Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London - a series of posts tracing the inky footsteps left behind in our capital by everyone from William Hogarth to Scooby Doo. It's been one of the most popular series of all on The Daily Constitutional in terms of reader numbers and since publishing the posts I've had a lot of fun turning them into a real life walking tour.
Panel 26: The First Christmas Card
The tale of the first commercially produced Christmas card is well known. The year was 1843, it was the idea of this fellow…
… who lived here in Hampstead…
… and it looked like this…
The card was the work of John Calcott Horsley, rector and treasurer of the Royal Academy, painter of historical scenes and illustrator.
A handy cartoonist, too, if his Christmas card is anything to go by.
In the 1880s he became a subject of the cartoonist's satirical pen when he opposed the modish French practice of painting nude life models.
Punch magazine dubbed him "Mr J. C(lothes) Horsley" and presented him thus…
1,000 cards were produced and sold at a shilling apiece (!). They were published by Joseph Cundall at 12 Bond Street.
My Public Scheduled Tours for December 2019
5th December – Old Kensington – 2pm High Street Kensington Tube
5th December – Jack The Ripper – 7.30pm Tower Hill Tube (by the tram)
6th December – Rock'n'Roll London – 2pm Tottenham Court Road Tube (exit 1)
7th December – Marylebone – 2pm Bond Street Tube
7th December – London Horror Story – 7.30pm St Paul's Tube
19th December – Old Kensington – 2pm High Street Kensington Tube
19th December – Jack The Ripper – 7.30pm Tower Hill Tube (by the tram)
20th December – Rock'n'Roll London – 2pm Tottenham Court Road Tube (exit 1)
21st December – London Horror Story – 7.30pm St Paul's Tube
23rd December – A Village In Piccadilly – 2.30pm Piccadilly Circus Tube (by Eros)
26th December – Jack The Ripper – 7.30pm Tower Hill Tube (by the tram)
27th December – Hidden London – 11am Monument Tube (Fish Street Hill Exit)
28th December – London Horror Story – 7.30pm St Paul's Tube
28th December – The Beatles & Bob Dylan In 1960s London – 10am Temple Tube
30th December – A Village In Piccadilly – 2.30pm Piccadilly Circus Tube (by Eros)
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