Never have much thought to the "llamas and sloths" thing til it was pointed out in context. I love the idea that future historians might be just as amusedly confused over it as we are by Christmas lobsters!
Gnomes have been trending for two years in ALL stores I have shopped this season. And tree ornaments are equally crazy. Star Wars, Kitchen appliances, super hero’s. A hundred years from now, they will be scratching their heads…..
I would purchase a book that had all of these whimsical and fantastic images. The card with the rabbits playing ping pong was adorable, and the image of the beetles playing cards was quirky and brought a smile!
One of the reasons I still send Christmas cards, with individually written notes inside, and often photographs---is to put into their lives something TANGIBLE. To receive it, in their daily mail---with love and decorations and personal caring. To me, it expresses to them that their presence in my life is meaningful---they count and are important. I enjoyed this video, thank you.
What a beautiful display of Victorian Christmas cards, in such wonderful condition. I like how very gently you display them, they have found a fine home there at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Looking at the card at 2:50 makes me wonder how long memes (or "fads", I suppose) would last in the pre-digital era...some Victorian would be cracking up at the old "giant lobster devouring children", I bet.
The level of ingenuity and attention to details is so inspiring. I see a lot of humanity coming through their craftmanship. History exists to benefit from it, not to quarrel over. This is the most important part we don't seem to get from history. Thanks for sharing it. We need more of it each day.
Simply wow!! What an incredible collection. The presenters were really great too! The novelty and delicate cards are my absolute favorite. I almost shed a tear those last two minutes! My dad and I have always been card-givers and I feel very happy watching this, I will definitely come back and watch it many more times! 😊
This cheese thing. In Spain everything is 'La Leche' The Milk! It is used to describe cool things, bad things and everything in between They will even take a '*' in the milk. I have seen two opposing explanations of that one. One being so Happy, and the other being the direct opposite. So maybe dairy products were once common slang for emotions and things and events. After all people used to talk about the Cat' Whiskers, the dog's ** and the Bees Knees!
I've heard that the Victorians also used to send Christmas cards portraying dead birds, and perhaps other dead animals as well. That feels really bizarre, and I wonder what that was all about. I've also heard somewhere that the reason that so many Victorian Christmas cards had spring motifs rather than winter motifs is because Christmas also used to be a time of romantic love, where you used to court your love interest, and of course the spring with birds and flowers are motifs strongly associated with love and romance.
Each and every card is truly fascinating. Some are beautiful. I have a wedding invitation to my Great great Aunt's " get together " after the wedding. Its dated 1906. It opens out into a little book style. It has the initals of the bride and groom on a heart. I could spend hours looking at these Xmas cards. Uniqe in their own way. Thank you so much.
Henry Cole's first Christmas card shows more than a family feasting. Each side of the central image shows charity being given to the poor. It might even be a timely reminder that surfeiting at Christmas can be unhustified when the poor are ignored.
So much in common with modern cards... Anthropomorphic animals? check! Objects with "cute" faces? Check! Popular slang that makes no sense to anyone outside the group? Check! Puns that are both cringy and kind of charming? Omg check! I can see a historian 150 years in the future doing a similar show and tell with the current batch of meme based cards roaming around!
I make my own Christmas cards to send to family and friends, have for years now. It’s such a joy to me to make a special card for a special someone. I just love to see the old Victorian cards and get ideas from them! So clever!
I adore victorian greeting cards and holiday cards! They're such pretty little illustrations-my parents go on vacation to Pennsylvania during the summer every year, and at antique shops down there my mother likes to pick me up a few to give me at Chritmas-I keep them in a binder to reference sometimes since I like painting botanicals and there's a lot of pretty flowers to get inspired by :D
Besides the Crystal Palace, my favourite was the lobster card. Lobster was a traditional holiday dish, so I guess the lobsters were trying to get a little of their own back!
Beautiful cards and very unique. Really enjoyed this video. The last card with angels and nativity is stunning. Wish they would reproduce that one today!
those cards were really beautiful and I do greatly enjoyed the puns - would have loved to receive the 'table' one! but my favorites might be the crystal palace one and the hold to the light last one. both such beauties.
It’s amazing how quickly the Christmas card thing has died out in the UK, only a few years ago they’d be dozens, now less then 10. When I was a kid in the 80’s it would have been 100’s
with out fail, anytime i watch videos of this sort i find myself sobbing over how much im moved by the deep humaity of the past we are just as human now as we were then and just as much then as we are now i find often that people sometimes seem to think were so much better now than the people of the past but its like... look at the photos and the post cards and the letters look at the news papers and magazines we have always been deeply human and its just so fucking beautiful to me
I need to write "may your Christmas be cheese" to someone. Great comparison of the animals to llamas and sloths these days! Some trends just don't translate and have any reason. As a Finnish, Santa Claus is very important to me, so it was fun to see how he was portrayed like that in Victorian era, as he might have been a child punishing man dressed up as a goat here 😅 Such cute history lesson, thank you!
A truly wonderful video. The cards are detailed and beautiful. Love the animals and the ones with the Puddings. Thinking about starting a collection of my own. ^^ Merry Christmas!
I have a few original Raphael Tuck and Sons Valentine cards that my grandmother received as a child from her father (my great-grandfather), circa 1905. Several are embossed heavy paper, with flowers and very similar artwork. I believe they were purchased at the Tuck and Sons store in New York City.
In Australia we have some freshwater lobsters called yabbies. At times they go for walks. Back in the late 60s and early 70s when a lot of homes still had the dread out door toilets (dunnies), and depending where you lived, a night time trip to the dunny could be a scary thing indeed, if the yabbies where on the move. Good times.😂
I have collected Christmas cards for years. Mostly the cards are the ones with illustration on the obverse and addressed on the reverse. I love Christmas but have many disappointing memories of years gone by. The images that I prefer are of children awakening to Christmas morning and discovering treats that have been bestowed by Santa.
Could be that the "just the cheese" reference was implying that the giver hoped that they receiver wouldn't get any nutty people stopping by for the holiday celebrations... as in all types of people at Christmas visit "from cheese to nuts"--- rather "just the cheese" ??
This is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this. However, all I could think throughout was: how did they actually MAKE these things back then? I understand how we would produce these types of products now with modern printing houses, and automated cutting beds, etc, but back then would they have created a die-cut to make all those intricately cut pieces? Where could one learn more about the production side of Victorian Christmas cards?
I'd 100% send out that children getting snapped at by giant lobsters card and put "Greetings of the season. Thinking of you." Update: just screen shot it. It'll be reworked and is going out next year.
There is a legend about Robins that is the reason for their being associated with Christmas: "On the first Christmas, as the Holy family were in a manger and it was cold, they had a small fire and a small, plain, brown bird kept the fire going by flapping it's wings. It's said that the Virgin Mary saw what the plain, brown bird had done to keep the Christ Child warm and she said to the little bird, "l've seen how you labored tonight to keep the fire going and in appreciation for your labours, as you now glow before the flames of the fire, you shall now always have the bright color of the fires glow on your breast in memory of your very special efforts to keep the Holy Babe warm!" The plain, brown bird then wore the orangey-red color of the fire on it's breast, from that Holy Night on. It would no longer be just a plain, brown bird but a bird with the brightly colored breast to recall the efforts of its ancestor on the first Christmas. ♥️
That's so lovely, I have never heard that before - not in very secular England anyway. Wishing you a lovely Christmas for you and yours, wherever you are!
The sentiment of 'being just the cheese' seems to be somewhat equivalent of the 1920s saying of something being 'the bee's knees', i.e. the best thing going.
Sign them on the back with your location and a date to give future collectors and curators something to look for. In the meantime wishing you and yours a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year.
Please, PLEASE do a feature on Helena Jane Maguire postcards! Her work is popular to this day, and yet, her name remains largely unknown. She was an incredibly prolific artist, as well!
Never have much thought to the "llamas and sloths" thing til it was pointed out in context. I love the idea that future historians might be just as amusedly confused over it as we are by Christmas lobsters!
Can't wait for historians in 3022 to be figuring out our obsession with Louis Theroux
Gnomes have been trending for two years in ALL stores I have shopped this season. And tree ornaments are equally crazy. Star Wars, Kitchen appliances, super hero’s. A hundred years from now, they will be scratching their heads…..
@@IrishAnnie Hopefully there will be collectors of these things, too.
@@themermaidstale5008 There will be, and they will be worth a fortune!
LOL! I am giving one of my daughter-in-laws a very saucy pair of Lobster Earrings as a gift this Christmas---she enjoys odd things like that. 😉
The Victorians were really true cat enjoyers. I also like that translucent cards. It looks cool even to my modern eye.
You can blame Louis Wain for that one.
They were stunning.
The Crystal Palace card absolutely took my breath away. So much lovely detail in all the cards. Thank you for this heart warming video
That was my favorite one
I would purchase a book that had all of these whimsical and fantastic images. The card with the rabbits playing ping pong was adorable, and the image of the beetles playing cards was quirky and brought a smile!
Such books probably exist, if you search the web.
"Despite what you may think, this is actually a loaf of bread"... I love that the presenter was anticipating us thinking it was maybe a poo emoji 🤣🤣🤣
👀
It looks a little bit like poo....
And the co presenter saying " disturbingly human hands" in regard to the dog postman card. Lol
Compared to some of the idiotic puns I’ve heard, the Victorian puns are charming. Jingle, jingle, ho-ho-ho to the V&A staff 👌
😂😂😂 💩 💩 💩
the v&a NEEDS to reproduce the Great Exhibition card for their gift shop, i almost cried when you opened it up
One of the reasons I still send Christmas cards, with individually written notes inside, and often photographs---is to put into their lives something TANGIBLE. To receive it, in their daily mail---with love and decorations and personal caring. To me, it expresses to them that their presence in my life is meaningful---they count and are important. I enjoyed this video, thank you.
Same
What a beautiful display of Victorian Christmas cards, in such wonderful condition. I like how very gently you display them, they have found a fine home there at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The presenters were incredible. They explained the cards so well. This was a wonderful presentation. Thank you so much! ❤️🎄⛄️🎅🎁
Looking at the card at 2:50 makes me wonder how long memes (or "fads", I suppose) would last in the pre-digital era...some Victorian would be cracking up at the old "giant lobster devouring children", I bet.
That 3D angel card was absolutely gorgeous! And the translucent card was really cool, too! I wish that more cards could be made like that today!
I have over 300 postcards antique ones and new ones that look old. They don't make them like that anymore. The detail is amazing
The level of ingenuity and attention to details is so inspiring. I see a lot of humanity coming through their craftmanship. History exists to benefit from it, not to quarrel over. This is the most important part we don't seem to get from history. Thanks for sharing it. We need more of it each day.
Simply wow!! What an incredible collection. The presenters were really great too! The novelty and delicate cards are my absolute favorite. I almost shed a tear those last two minutes! My dad and I have always been card-givers and I feel very happy watching this, I will definitely come back and watch it many more times! 😊
Very informative as always. This video is just the cheese V&A!
Brie-lliant! 🧀
@@vamuseum Oh God, please make it stop! 😆
This cheese thing. In Spain everything is 'La Leche' The Milk! It is used to describe cool things, bad things and everything in between They will even take a '*' in the milk. I have seen two opposing explanations of that one. One being so Happy, and the other being the direct opposite. So maybe dairy products were once common slang for emotions and things and events. After all people used to talk about the Cat' Whiskers, the dog's ** and the Bees Knees!
I've heard that the Victorians also used to send Christmas cards portraying dead birds, and perhaps other dead animals as well. That feels really bizarre, and I wonder what that was all about. I've also heard somewhere that the reason that so many Victorian Christmas cards had spring motifs rather than winter motifs is because Christmas also used to be a time of romantic love, where you used to court your love interest, and of course the spring with birds and flowers are motifs strongly associated with love and romance.
Each and every card is truly fascinating. Some are beautiful. I have a wedding invitation to my Great great Aunt's " get together " after the wedding. Its dated 1906. It opens out into a little book style. It has the initals of the bride and groom on a heart. I could spend hours looking at these Xmas cards. Uniqe in their own way. Thank you so much.
I collected 'scraps' as a kid. The vintage looking Victorian ones were gems
Henry Cole's first Christmas card shows more than a family feasting. Each side of the central image shows charity being given to the poor. It might even be a timely reminder that surfeiting at Christmas can be unhustified when the poor are ignored.
Both of these ladies carefully and delicately turning the pages is unintentional ASMR! I love the pop up cards and the ones with the animals. 😍
So much in common with modern cards... Anthropomorphic animals? check! Objects with "cute" faces? Check! Popular slang that makes no sense to anyone outside the group? Check! Puns that are both cringy and kind of charming? Omg check!
I can see a historian 150 years in the future doing a similar show and tell with the current batch of meme based cards roaming around!
I'd love to time travel and find out what they make of the symbolism behind Kermit the Frog
I make my own Christmas cards to send to family and friends, have for years now. It’s such a joy to me to make a special card for a special someone. I just love to see the old Victorian cards and get ideas from them! So clever!
I really enjoyed this. As a card maker, it was illuminating.
Oh i’m in love with those special cards at the end, they’re absolutely stunning
I adore victorian greeting cards and holiday cards! They're such pretty little illustrations-my parents go on vacation to Pennsylvania during the summer every year, and at antique shops down there my mother likes to pick me up a few to give me at Chritmas-I keep them in a binder to reference sometimes since I like painting botanicals and there's a lot of pretty flowers to get inspired by :D
The rabbits playing ping-pong in the snow is so funny and bizarrely ~not~ very Christmassy, I just love it!
Me, too.
If someone reprinted it, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
I love the pop-up card showing the Crystal Palace.
Besides the Crystal Palace, my favourite was the lobster card. Lobster was a traditional holiday dish, so I guess the lobsters were trying to get a little of their own back!
I agree. My childhood Italian-American Christmases always included lobster.
Beautiful cards and very unique. Really enjoyed this video. The last card with angels and nativity is stunning. Wish they would reproduce that one today!
This was jolly good fun - love the x-mas sweaters - very good presentation of a lovely theme.
The table card had me in stitches XD
I can't look at modern cards in the same way now. These cards are so much more beautiful.
Absolutely gorgeous cards! Beautiful.💝
These are fabulous, especially the kittens and the cayfish.
Many thanks V&A for this year's whacky electronic Christmas cards - you've saved me a fortune!
those cards were really beautiful and I do greatly enjoyed the puns - would have loved to receive the 'table' one!
but my favorites might be the crystal palace one and the hold to the light last one. both such beauties.
the last one with those angels was super cool
How gorgeous! I could look at these all day. Oh, to work at the V&A!
Absolutely spectacular. Thank you for this video
So interesting. All these videos make me wanna work in the V&A and I dont even live in the same country as it
It’s amazing how quickly the Christmas card thing has died out in the UK, only a few years ago they’d be dozens, now less then 10. When I was a kid in the 80’s it would have been 100’s
I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who saves Christmas cards (no, not all of them just the extra special ones).
Thank you for this video.
Quite interesting.
Loved the pun cards & that last 3D card. The railway one showing the light was beautiful.
with out fail, anytime i watch videos of this sort i find myself sobbing over how much im moved by the deep humaity of the past
we are just as human now as we were then and just as much then as we are now
i find often that people sometimes seem to think were so much better now than the people of the past
but its like... look at the photos and the post cards and the letters
look at the news papers and magazines
we have always been deeply human
and its just so fucking beautiful to me
amazing video! And the two assistant curator are super good and proud at sharing their knowledge
What a wonderful collection of cards! Thank you! ❄🐦🌲
Thanks for sharing such a magnificent collection!
I need to write "may your Christmas be cheese" to someone. Great comparison of the animals to llamas and sloths these days! Some trends just don't translate and have any reason. As a Finnish, Santa Claus is very important to me, so it was fun to see how he was portrayed like that in Victorian era, as he might have been a child punishing man dressed up as a goat here 😅 Such cute history lesson, thank you!
The Santa Claus with a red hat and a green coat looked like the meme man sitting with his cup in front of the computer and smiling!
@@aboutfeddy The original inspiration for Hide the Pain Harold
This is so beautiful and interesting!
I can feel their excitement in handling such a prexious and delicate art 💖
Truly enjoyable and amazing. The card that was held up to the light was exquisite.
Wonderful! If only it was longer 😍
These are all incredible and wonderful! I can only say I wish we’d seen more!!!
So much fun and beautifully and amusingly presented!
Really interesting! My favorite was the Crystal Palace card.
I 💖 Victorian images! Every year a get a Cynthia Hart calendar, each month is a feast for the eyes. Merry Christmas🎄
A truly wonderful video. The cards are detailed and beautiful. Love the animals and the ones with the Puddings. Thinking about starting a collection of my own. ^^ Merry Christmas!
I make cards, thinking next year to do a Victorian theme!
The one with the insects is my favorite! I'd love to have that in a frame on my wall ❤
That was a lovely presentation--thank you for sharing these treasures with us.
This is such a beautiful video, thank you so much!
These were all wonderful to see. Thank you.
Charming!... Happy Christmas @V&A
I have a few original Raphael Tuck and Sons Valentine cards that my grandmother received as a child from her father (my great-grandfather), circa 1905. Several are embossed heavy paper, with flowers and very similar artwork. I believe they were purchased at the Tuck and Sons store in New York City.
This is really inspiring to be honest! Thank for sharing such an amazing collection & stories 💌
The dryness of the 1st presenter is the best!
Now I'm a fan of history. Very well presented!
In Australia we have some freshwater lobsters called yabbies. At times they go for walks. Back in the late 60s and early 70s when a lot of homes still had the dread out door toilets (dunnies), and depending where you lived, a night time trip to the dunny could be a scary thing indeed, if the yabbies where on the move. Good times.😂
I have collected Christmas cards for years. Mostly the cards are the ones with illustration on the obverse and addressed on the reverse. I love Christmas but have many disappointing memories of years gone by. The images that I prefer are of children awakening to Christmas morning and discovering treats that have been bestowed by Santa.
Could be that the "just the cheese" reference was implying that the giver hoped that they receiver wouldn't get any nutty people stopping by for the holiday celebrations... as in all types of people at Christmas visit "from cheese to nuts"--- rather "just the cheese" ??
Wow! So much eye candy to look at. It was a feast for the eyes.
Loved this, great presentation. New sub from 🇨🇦..and of course..Merry Christmas! 🎄⭐️💛 ;^)
I wish I could be alive when historians are dissecting the "cute animals holding knives" trend on instagram
Wonderful. Thank you.🌹🌹🌹
Gosh, thank you! This is one of the prettiest videos I’ve seen this year.
Magnificent presentation. Thank you. Best regards.
Stunning. Thank you and Happy Christmas.
Absolutely beautiful 😍🎄🎅🏻 14:14
Thank you. That was delightful. Fascinating and informative.
0:20 😃isn't she clever to put the mic inside the Christmas stocking on her jumper 🧦🎄🧑🎄
This was so delightful 🤍 thank you and Happy Christmas 🎄
Delightful video. Thanks.
Such a great collection of cards, Thanks and Merry Christmas 🎄
I so enjoyed this video! Great education of a long time tradition…….
This is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this. However, all I could think throughout was: how did they actually MAKE these things back then? I understand how we would produce these types of products now with modern printing houses, and automated cutting beds, etc, but back then would they have created a die-cut to make all those intricately cut pieces? Where could one learn more about the production side of Victorian Christmas cards?
Lovely video. Thank you, V&A.
thank you for this - absolutely delightful
So enjoyable to see!
I'd 100% send out that children getting snapped at by giant lobsters card and put "Greetings of the season. Thinking of you."
Update: just screen shot it. It'll be reworked and is going out next year.
There is a legend about Robins that is the reason for their being associated with Christmas:
"On the first Christmas, as the
Holy family were in a manger and it was cold, they had a small fire and a small, plain, brown bird kept the fire going by flapping it's wings.
It's said that the Virgin Mary saw what the plain, brown bird had done to keep the Christ Child warm and she said to the little bird, "l've seen how you labored tonight to keep the fire going and in appreciation for your labours, as you now glow before the flames of the fire, you shall now always have the bright color of the fires glow on your breast in memory of your very special efforts to keep the Holy Babe warm!"
The plain, brown bird then wore the orangey-red color of the fire on it's breast, from that Holy
Night on. It would no longer be just a plain, brown bird but a bird with the brightly colored breast to recall the efforts of its ancestor on the first Christmas. ♥️
That's so lovely, I have never heard that before - not in very secular England anyway. Wishing you a lovely Christmas for you and yours, wherever you are!
@@OdeInWessex
Thank you! So nice of you to reply! I'm in Kansas City.
You have a happy Christmas also and many thanks for your great video! ♥️🌲🎅🌲🎉🎉🎉
Thank you! I have always questioned why you guys weren’t wearing gloves to handle paper. Got it now!
The sentiment of 'being just the cheese' seems to be somewhat equivalent of the 1920s saying of something being 'the bee's knees', i.e. the best thing going.
Great video, very enjoyable to watch x
Really really really love it!
Is there a coffee table book with these? I'd love that!
Interesting, and lovely cards, to think these cards were posted at Christmas and received, in to these long dead peoples Victorian house's
What a video. My God! 🫶🏻🎄
So beautiful❤️
Lovely presentation. I make one of a kind cards for all my friends and family members. Perhaps one day mine will find its day into a museum.
Sign them on the back with your location and a date to give future collectors and curators something to look for. In the meantime wishing you and yours a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year.
@@OdeInWessex I hand write “Made 4 U by me” then my name and the year. I genuinely try to remember to do so on every card!
Beautiful
Please, PLEASE do a feature on Helena Jane Maguire postcards! Her work is popular to this day, and yet, her name remains largely unknown. She was an incredibly prolific artist, as well!
So they were basically snail mail memes. Oh imagine future historians pondering on internet archives of memes and their lost in time context