CARDS AND NOVELTIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23354, 20 November 1937, Page 4

CARDS AND NOVELTIES

A SELECTION FROM RAPHAEL HOUSE ,The house of Raphael Tuck, when once a year it submits its samples of Christmas and New Year greeting cards and novelties, might recall to many who look with delight at these festive offerings, Omar's reflection upon another producer of delectable wares: I wonder what the vintners nuy, One half so precious as the goods they sell. One might be allowed to assume that there must be some particular virtue attaching to the making of objects so handsome, so jolly, and so charming as these cards, calendars, and games, as compared with the mundane tasks assigned to most of us. At least it must be more pleasant to be able to turn the ingenuity to devising new types of greetings cards than to the manufacture of, for instance, new varieties of high explosive shells. And ingenuity is certainly not lacking, even in the humblest of Christmas cards, in this seasonal consignment from Messrs Tuck. There are cards carefully cut to reveal first a cake and then a slice taken from it. to “ wish you a slice of luck and there is an excellent representation of a pair of trousers supported in the traditional modern manner (with two detachable “bachelor buttons”), “Just to orace you up, this Christmas and, the blithe pun having been admitted, there are a pair of gleaming glass eyes on a card, with the announcement, Ive just real-eyes-cd it’s Christmas. These are apart from the ordinary run of cards which are designed to meet with the approval of every kind of Christmas well-wisher, from the aesthete, who can select something chaste and restrained in picture and sentiment, to the lover of the ornate, who may even choose a token with a glass necklet attached, and the old-fashioned person who prefers a motif of coaching scenes, country inns and cottages. But in every instance the craftsmanship evidenced in the production of the cards is impeccable. In addition to the Christmas earns, there is an equally lavish selection qx almanacs, at various prices. Among these are some flower-pieces and animal studies reproduced by the “ Oilette ” process, in full colour, which gives a striking simulation of an original oil paintin'* M. Linnell’s “ Spring’s Delights ” is a most successful example in this genre. Another variety of almanac, very quietly toned, and reproduced on parchment, is represented by A. Marshall’s “The Joy of Life,” a graceful picturisation of a slim young girl, in bonnet and shawl, bending before the breeze on a hilltop. In the more obviously festive mood are such calendars as A. E. Joseph’s “ Somebody’s Darling,” depicting a puppy in mischievous mood, and wearing a real cloth cap surmounted by a real woollen tassel. The Thames is shown in a reproduction from a Dora Neeson water colour, which carries a tear-off calendar with a quotation for each day of the year. Among the novelties in this interesting assortment of good things from Raphael House may be mentioned several packings, from the simple to the elaborate, of Messrs Tuck’s “ Lacette ” d’oyleys and table napkins, in different" designs, and a suitable Coronation year note is struck in the “ Military ” picture puzzles, consisting of 220 interlocking pieces representing such events as the Changing of the Guard a* Buckingham Palace, (he band of the Life Guards in State dress, and the Coldstream Guards taking over at Wellington Barracks.