Costly greeting - early cards sell for £17,250
Three of the world's first Christmas cards have fetched £17,250 at auction - 115,000 times their original cost.
The cards, from 1843, were printed in London and priced at one shilling each, 5p in today's money.
The hand-coloured cards - three of only 18 known to exist out of 1,000 originally printed - went for 8,330, 5,550 and 3,370.
One of the cards was sent by its designer, John Calcott Horsley, to his "old young friends Emma & Agnes". The cards were the idea of civil servant Sir Henry Cole.
Sotheby's spokesman Justin Caldwell said: "The cards were quite expensive at the time and were not a runaway success. A few years later, the tradition of sending cards really began."
Email to a friend
Print this page- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- Leveson Inquiry: Tony Blair defends ‘working relationship’ with Rupert Murdoch
- Craig Levein insists Scotland will recover from US thrashing
- The Rumour Mill: Monday’s football news and gossip
- Police investigate death of man, 31, on West Highland Way
- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- The Rumour Mill: Monday’s football news and gossip
- Craig Levein insists Scotland will recover from US thrashing
- James McPake set for Coventry talks as Hibs wait in wings
- Scottish independence: Labour voters ‘will deliver independence’
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
