Russian Christmas and New Year postcard 1898-1918

The illustrated open letters that became fashionable at the end of the 19th century abroad quickly became popular in Russia. Tens of thousands of cards with a wide variety of subjects were produced annually. Many famous artists who worked in the book and magazine schedule came to the card: E.M. Bem, N. Karazin, F. Berenshtam, N. Gatorin, B. Zaprykin and others. Russian patterns could well compete with European ones in terms of beauty and quality of execution , and sometimes exceeded them.
The album presents more than 600 New Year and Christmas cards, business cards and mail cards issued from the late 1880s to 1918, from the author’s personal collection.
"Postcards were sent and turned out to be piles. They were sent to the next street, to the nearest city and the far village. The new fashion for postal congratulations covered everyone: they wrote subordinates to the bosses, bar bars, servants for the masters, gymnasium students to each other, workers and artisans in the village of parents, etc. Postcards were chosen to their liking or according to the addict’s addictions. The mail was extremely neat: the departure went from Moscow to St. Petersburg, three days from Warsaw to Moscow, from St. Petersburg to Tiflis - three or four ... "