CHRISTMAS NOVELTIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20870, 9 November 1929, Page 4

CHRISTMAS NOVELTIES.

RAPHAEL HOUSE PUBLICATIONS. Every year, with the approach of Chirstmos, comes the array of novelties designed by Messrs Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd., art publishers to their Majesties the King and Queen, to make more festive an already festive season. Christmas cards, calendars, books for 'children, picture postcards; pictures, art, novelties, fancy stationery, puzzles, paperware, and so on, are on the list of their exhibits, all being designed to bring pleasure to the homes to which they go. This year, the collection is perhaps more attractive than usual, seeing that it includes’ what is surely a new feature—gramaphone record postcards, which, when used on an ordinary gramophone, can play, sing, and talk. The Christmas cards are in upwards of 3000 different designs, among which are those specially prepared for royalty, and others sweet with the perfume of or supplemented by a lady’s handkerchief; the calendars range from the silver mirror trifles, through between 600 and 700 different series to humorous calendars, which combine amusement With art; the books for children are of all kinds, including painting books, baby books, and toy books, and the picture postcards, pictures, art novelties, fancy stationery, and puzzles are all in their originality and beauty of design, worthy of the firm which has produced them. The paperware section shows that now, as never before, table stationery Las come into its own. It is thus seen that Raphael House in its present exhibitions is responsible for the following sides of art:—The sentimental, aa ertflenced in Christmas cards, birthday and- various other greeting cards, which help, to unite tno world in a common bond Tof fellowship , antl • goodwill; the, .practical, whereby a calendar, is transformed from a mere tabulation of dates into a gem of beauty and utility for the home; the educational, enabling children from their earnest years to acquire knowledge from ■ picture painting and other illustrated books; the decorative, relieving the barren monotony of blank walls by means cw reproductions of original pictures: the communicative, rendering correspondence the more pleasing and welcome through the medium of the picture postcard; . , the musical, by means of . the new gramophone record postcards, which provide in a novel form music for the home or musical greetings from friend to mend; and the commercial, by which art is applied to advertise pictorially the ™sof manufacturer and merchant In all, there are expressed that good taste imd harmony whid, for long have been prime characteristics of the House of