New Year Card

• Victorian New Year greeting card illustrated by Kate Greenaway
• Published by Marcus Ward & Co
• Circa 1880
• 95 x 127mm (3¾ x 5in)
•  

George Buday, author of The History of the Christmas Card, remarks:

Kate Greenaway's popularity and the infuence of the costumes of her graceful child figures began in the 1870s, and culminated at the turn of the century. Her name was given to the fashion of children's style at least in two continents, and remains a household word up to the present.

But while our grandparents were mostly attracted by the picturesque reversion to the children's fashions of their grandparents' day, we must be grateful to her chiefly for the insight she gives us into the world of children in her own times.