First Christmas Card - John C Horsley - 1843

First Christmas Card - John C Horsley - 1843. The image is a copy of the very first Christmas Card. It was commissioned on behalf of the British government by civil servant, inventor and designer, Sir Henry Cole (15 July 1808 – 18 April 1882). Artist / Illustrator John Callcott Horsley RA (29 January 1817 – 18 October 1903) was granted this commission and the result was the above image, which is recognised as having been the world's first commercial Christmas Card. Do note: this is a postcard which features this design, and not a customised Christmas Card in the accepted sense. Although this does rather nicely fit anyway, as many people did (and some still do to this day) cut out the middle-man, which here is of course the envelope, and just send a post-Christmas-card.