Season’s greetings Marilyn Crowther explains how cats made their way onto Victorian Christmas cards ver the many years of Queen Victoria’s reign, something remarkable happened to cats; they became YUPPIES – or perhaps that should be YUMMIES; young, upwardly mobile moggies. Their move up the social ladder and onto our Christmas cards is a revealing story of how they became popular during and after the Victorian era.
Cats move up
All photos: Clare Halden
The aspirations of an ever-expanding middle class – particularly in London – required no less than the ownership of a house with a horse and carriage in the stable. There, snuggled warm among the straw, was a cat – often nursing kittens – whose job it was to keep down the vermin. The cat, male or female, that fulfilled this important duty would have been fed regularly by the servants working in the house. Many a fluffy kitten made the move upwards from the stable to the nursery, carried in the arms of a young master or mistress to become a favourite household pet.
The big Christmas card craze Christmas cards began to appear in the 1860s; they were small, flat visiting card size, with simple two-colour printing. But soon the fast steam-driven presses arrived, able to produce superb full colour to sell to an admiring public. Robins were old favourites; they appeared on cards everywhere, prompting a writer in Punch magazine to remark “I hate those robin redbreasts; I wish someone would invent a new form of felicitation.”
Cats make their grand entrance The answer to this request came in 1871 when the first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Such was the publicity and success of this venture that cats were immediately brought to the attention of the public as if for the first time both as creatures of beauty and homeloving pets. Now, at last, cats appeared on cards where they participated in every kind of Christmas activity; often designed specifically to appeal to children. Fluffy Persians were most frequently featured and the breed soon became extremely fashionable, not as a necessary mouser, but as an eye-catching status symbol.
36 The Cat Winter 2010
Christmas cats become ‘designer led’ Christmas cards were such a novelty that the leading magazines such as Punch and the upmarket ladies’ journal The Queen gave annual reviews in the run up to Christmas to appraise the design merits of cards on offer from leading publishing companies. Doyens of the art world were invited to give their professional opinion and the best design won a cash prize. Artist Horatio Henry Couldery, who had studied at the Royal Academy and painted cats and kittens for the ‘fashionable interiors’ market, was awarded a £50 prize in 1881 for his submission featuring two cute kittens sitting in a wide-brimmed hat. Possibly the most prolific cat card artist of the period was the much-admired Helena Maguire, whose work is highly collectable today. Helena designed for some of the leading publishers pre-World War One, such as Raphael Tuck where her inventive skill captured cats performing every kind of Christmas ritual. When the picture postcard became popular at the turn of the century, no time was lost in adapting it as the bearer of Christmas greetings and Raphael Tuck issued many featuring Maguire’s cats including their ‘Christmas Post Card’ series.
Wain’s world The most famous and undoubtedly the most recognisable cats are those of Louis Wain who is still appreciated by devoted fans even today. Some of Wain’s images of cats in humorous situations also appeared on Raphael Tuck’s ‘Christmas Post Card’ series. His kittens are often entertainingly mischievous, sometimes a touch subversive, which gave them an irresistible appeal to children and often parents too. Leapfrog in the schoolroom is a lot more fun than boring lessons! The Victorian and Edwardian Christmas card is a faithful portrayal of family festivities. Dressing the tree, stirring the pudding – licking the spoon afterwards – bearing it triumphantly to the table. There were parlour games such as blind man’s bluff and charades using clothes from the dressing up box as well as more healthy outdoor pursuits like tobogganing or a makeshift coconut shy. These delightful little cards – so caringly and affectionately preserved for us by our forbears – allow us the opportunity to see almost every activity enjoyed in a traditional Victorian-style family Christmas.