Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-04-04
CITY AND DISTRICT.
EASTER SOUVENIR
What q Dealer I'm Cards Told a s.StaF''
Reporter.

what a Dealer I'm Card. Told ..star''
FINE ART AT Low PRICEs-How CHRISTIAN
HOPE AND THE POETRY OF SPRINGrIME ARE
PORTRAYED BY ARTIsTS-wHERE THE DE-
SIGNS ARE MADE, DC.
aIf Easter cards this year have lost some
thing of their appropriateness emblems
OF the holy season they have
gained more in artistic beauty and
consequently in popularity" said dealer in
cards to THE STAR man the other day as they
stood looking over the countless varieties OF
cards displayed for sale. big, broad table, or
rather two or three big tables put together occu-
loaded down with cards valued from two cents
up to seven dollars. The whole store seemed
given up to cards; es TIN they are growing on IN
think it will be long before they get ahead of
Christmas cards. The fashion of sending cards
eral, and think will never die away. Christ
mas now has the lead, but the Easter cards are
Prettier. and in year or two will be more
plant of some church people of the loss of
emblematic designs is at all reasonable. 1t
Thev oe are ,.'t'i in 'n fact If certain melanchox
outlines are the only proper signs of this
joyous time. But 1t is no loss or discredit to
art. To my mind, however, there is more that
Is truly emblematic of the joyous breath of
Easter that makes the flowers bloom and the
birds sing in the designs for the cards to-day
unnatural and the unreal, the orthodox and
rigid Biblical cuts of angels, cherubims,
and archangels, and the greatly abused saints in
blue and green and red, with cart wheels for
halos have gone out of fashion. More thanks
TO our art development. But the saints have
not suffered from the change in taste, nor have
the associations of Easter, with all its holiness,
died away. Not at all. They have all been
improved and made realistic-revivified. A
bunch of small blue violets smell more of
Easter, and is more suggestive than a whole
flock of green sheep. / don't want to be irrev-
Easter designing, but there is more light and
happiness; more of the breath of life; more of
Easter in a beam of sunlight lost among the
flowers and spring grasses and awakening the
. butterflies from their long winters sleep, than
in all the allegorical figures ever tortured into
red and green.'
Then the dealer stopped to take breath.
"But who said anything about these designs
not being appropriate broke in the scribe. II
"Well, i did break out kind of sudden. You
see / get provoked. Some straight-laced de-
scendant of Hudibras was here just before you
came in, and was very much shocked at the
frNolity of modern Easter cards. Well now, as
q matter of fact, these cards, besides being more
before published. See this little book; is it not
neate" He handed the reporter little antique
vellum covered pamphlet, with rough-edged
parchment pages bound together with twisted
silk, with "Easter Souvenir in rugged gold
letters on the back.
Now there is a set of three of those, and they
contain photogravure reproductions of all the
sacred paintings by the old masters. That is
something worth having. Then there are two
by the wayside, containing short poems in
manuscript and print, and the other, one of
William Cullen Bryant's poems, The Unknown
ings. Both of these are very beautiful, and ar
tisticaly designed. They are among the pref
nest this season They certainly are rest
Easter cards. Another beautiful souvenir is
the Easter BELLS delightful little Easter
poem, artistically bound in silver and peach
blossoms and printed on DarchmpDf AL
ternately in type and reproduced manuscript.
Then in cards proper there are thousand and
ceedingly pretty. Many of the same designs
appear in different settings. Some that are
hand-painted on satin for the more expensive
cards are reproduced on autographed cards.
"Who designs all the cards?" asked the scribe.
"The designs are generally by Lady artists,
but the best artistic talent is employed. Most
of the cards we sell are made in this country,
and some are made in England. There is q
great deal of money invested in the business.
Raphael Tuck, Hildeshimer, Wirth Bros,
Evans & Darling and Phil. Hake. A lady in
Philadelphia makes the hand-painted mouchoir
cases, which are among the highest priced
souvenirs for both Christmas and Easter. selling
for from seven to eight dollars. Then there are
many Others who make cards.
"NOw there's variety for you; look at them at
your leisure" he added, as he left the scribe to
60 to a customer, and The STAR man fingered
there displayed in a small way. Some of the
tokens were purely conventional and not at all
pretty; OtherS were beautiful There was every
thing, from the little hollow egg shell with
little brown and red spots for eyes, nose and
mouth. hid away under little paper sun
bonnets, to the handsome satin plaques
Tyre Of pink plush and white satin, with Gre
Clan maiden lounging in a graceful attitude
beneath boughs of apple blossoms, letting the
butterflies OF spring out Of their dark winter
cage, which she holds in her lap. The idea and
the treatment of il is very pretty. The colors
are excelc at. and the outlines perfect grace.
The same figure appears in cheaper form on
card board, but with the same delfcacy of out
line and colortng. Another pretty design is a
narrow white satin plaque, against which is
fastened a spray of apple blossoms, in the
branches of which Is a stuffed humming bird
Then there was brass plaque, mounted with
silver spray Of flowers; and satin crosses and
eag all about the table
red riding hoods, and seemed to want moth
er's care to smooth out their soft, yellow down.
Others stood looking curiously at broken egg
shells, as If intent upon the problems Of evoiu-
tion Then there were many large folding
cards-sOme just combination of weli-assorted
colors; others blending the colors into hand
some designs Some of Prangs designs were
particularly pretty, and possessed considerable
artistic merit. The back of one card, showing
the sunlight on a field of high grasses and a
butterfly just awaking to the spring warmth,
was particularly attractive piece of coloring
Yes, we are selling great many this year;
more than we ever did before, said the dealer
as the scribe turned to go. "They are very
fashionable, and they ought to be. They do
more than anything else towards cultivating
a taste for art among the poorer people.
and they are distributed so freely that people
who have never had peep at the beautiful
soon learn to distinguish the fine from the COM
mon and cultivate taste for the pretty. Then
they bring in a breath of spring time and tell
OF bright sun shine, spring flowers and song
birds There are great many worthless com.
being crowded out by thsbetter ones. some Of
these cards are almost fine enough to frame"