Home >> Blampied >> Ephemera >>
Edmund Blampied's personal Christmas cards
Like many artists, Edmund Blampied designed his own Christmas cards to send to friends and relations. The earliest Christmas and New Year card that I have seen is dated 1931. It is a monochrome photograph of the portrait of Blampied by his friend John St. Helier Lander, which is illustrated below.
The date order of the Christmas cards shown below is guessed as most are not dated. The cards may have been used for more than one Christmas, so the date may not be the date that the card was first used. For example, two cards dated 1937 have been seen. The cards were also used by John Blampied, Edmund's brother and agent, and at least one was sent by a friend, so he may have sold or given some away. I don't think that Blampied sent Christmas cards between 1940 and 1944, which is when Jersey was occupied by the Germans, so there is a gap of five years. If he sent Christmas cards every year from 1931 to 1939 and from 1945 to 1965, there should be at least 30 cards.
When Blampied signed the cards he usually named Marianne first.
I have catalogued the cards as e.g. EB-CC31, in which the two digits are the last two numbers of the year the card was first used. If two cards for one year have been seen they are labelled a or b. If I don't know the year then I have used two digits from 99 downwards. This does not include Christmas cards that Blampied designed for local charities, which are shown with other cards here.
If you have a card that isn't shown below or have one that is dated, please let me know.
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC31)
Date: 1931
Card size: unknown
Signed: John St. Helier Lander, 1931 lower right
Format: monochrome photograph.
Notes: This may be Blampied's first printed Christmas card, a photograph of his portrait painted by his friend, John St. Helier Lander who lived about 5 minutes wlk from the Blampied's flat in South Kensington, London. Thanks to the Blampied family for an image of the card.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC32)
Date: 1932
Card size: 185 x 118 mm
Signed: E.Blampied, lower left
Format: monochrome photograph (112 x 86 mm) stuck on folded piece of laid paper with deckle or torn edges.
Notes: This card, like the one below, was sent to Lucy and Philippe Lizon, French friends of the Blampieds. This card is in the same style as the card for 1931 which I have seen, but don't have.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC33?)
Date: 1933?
Card size: 164 x 222 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower centre
Format: Single piece of thin printed card
Notes: The date of this card is guessed but Blampied did some monochrome drawings of children in 1933 for the Illustrated London News. This could be one that was not used in the magazine.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC34?)
Date: 1934?
Card size: unknown
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of thin printed card
Notes: The date of this card is guessed.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC35?)
Date: 1935?
Card size: 204 x 154 mm
Signed: no
Format: Single piece of printed card
Notes: This drawing appeared in a very similar form but without the holly in Blampied's only book, Bottled Trout and Polo (1936) with the caption Father
. I think it must have been used as a card before the book came out as the dates of later cards is known. It was sent by John Blampied, Edmund's brother and agent.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC36a)
Date: 1936
Card size: 153 x 222 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed card
Notes: There is a copy in the Boston PUblic Library, here.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC36b)
Date: 1936
Card size: unknown
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed card
Notes: This card was sent at Christmas 1936 to the artist and illustrator Philip Youngman Carter by John Blampied, Edmund's brother, who may have also been the agent for Youngman Carter. The drawing had appeared in Blampied's only book, Bottled Trout and Polo (1936), but with a different caption. In the book the caption is: That one of what the curate's sister said to his Colonel
.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC37a)
Date: 1937
Card size: 147 x 235 mm
Signed: E. Blampied, lower centre
Format: Folded piece of thin printed card
Notes: This card was sent in December 1937 to Mr and Mrs Youngman Carter. Philip Youngman Carter was an artist and illustrator while Mrs Philip Youngman Carter was better know as the novellist Margery Allingham. The drawing is very like the illustrations in Blampied's only book, Bottled Trout and Polo, which was published in 1936.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC37b)
Date: 1937
Card size: 130 x 181 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed card
Notes: This card was sent at Christmas 1937 by John Blampied, Edmund's brpther and agent. It looks rather like another drawing from Bottled Trout and Polo, but it is not.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC38)
Date: 1938
Card size: 204 x 145 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower centre
Format: Folded piece of thin card.
Notes: This card was sent by Jack Blampied to John and Dorthy Nicolson. It is based on (but not identical to) a cartoon first published in Men Only in January 1936. Thanks to Celia and Cilla Irvin for the image of this card.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC39a)
Date: [1939]
Card size: 157 x 234 mm
Signed: E Blampied, beneath photograph
Format: Folded piece of card with another peice of thicker card and a tissue paper cover both tipped in at the left edge, over the photograph, which is pasted onto the card with an imprinted border and a printed frame. The greeting was written on the front of the folded card.
(Click to enlarge)
Notes: This is one of two cards that has been dated to 1939. The card was sent from 'Baymont', the house in St. Aubin that Blampied rented on his return to Jersey in late 1938. The photograph is of one of the six oil paintings that Blampied was commissioned to paint in 1939 to be given by the Island of Jersey to H.M.S. Jersey. It is called The Jersey drag hunt
. The ship visited Jersey in July 1939 on a maiden visit. HMS Jersey was sunk by a German torpedo outside Valetta harbour on 2nd May 1941. This is one of a few photographs of one of those paintings.
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC39b)
Date: 1939
Card size: 248 x 178 mm
Signed: Blampied, top left in the image and below, lower right, in ink
Format: Folded piece of paper.
Notes: This is the second card dated to 1939. The card was sent from 'Baymont', St. Aubin, Jersey. Blampied had returned to live in the Island in late 1938. It is a reproduction of a drawing in The Queen's Book of the Red Cross (Hodder & Stoughton, November 1939) called The Symbol
. This card was also sent by John Blampied, but was not signed in ink.
(Click to enlarge)
1940-44
Blampied probably didn't have cards printed during the German Occupation of Jersey, when both card and ink were in short supply. I suspect that if he sent cards at all he made them by hand, but only for a few good friends and close relations. I haven't seen any.
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC45)
Date: 1945
Card size: 175 x 232 mm
Signed: Blampied 1945, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed glossy card
Notes: This card was sent by Edmund and Marianne Blampied to Jock Nicolson and his wife Dorothy. It is not dated other than in the image, but might have been used in 1946. It is unlikely that he would have sent two cards in one year to Jock and Dorothy Nicolson. Thanks to Celia and Cilla Irvin for the image of this card.
(Click to enlarge)
<
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC46)
Date: 1946?
Card size: 175 x 232 mm
Signed: Blampied 1945, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed glossy card
Notes: This card was sent by Edmund and Marianne Blampied to Jock Nicolson and his wife Dorothy. It is not dated other than in the image, but might have been used in 1945. It is unlikely that he would have sent two cards in one year to Jock and Dorothy Nicolson. Thanks to Celia and Cilla Irvin for the image of this card.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC47)
Date: 1947
Printing block: 155 x 192 mm
Signed: no signature visible
Notes: The card see is dated by Blampied Dec. 47
. The printing block is show below with the image inverted, so that it shows the same way round as on the printed card.
Christmas card printing block, with the image flipped (click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC48)
Date: 1948
Card size: 212 x 148 mm
Signed: Blampied 1948, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed card
Notes: This card is actually dated 1948, but the next two cards could also have been used in 1948 because they include stamps that were issued in that year.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC49a)
Date: 1949
Card size: 146 x 221 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower left
Format: Single piece of printed glossy card
Notes: This card was sent by both Edmund and Marianne Blampied (to Jock Nicolson and his wife Dorothy) and by Jack Blampied, who dated his card Christmas 1949
. Thanks to Celia and Cilla Irvin for the image of this card.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC49b)
Date: 1949
Card size: 155 x 215 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed card
Notes: This card is dated Christmas 1949
and was sent sent by someone named Violet Arm, whose name appears several times in Blampied's diary for 1949. She had bought a small painted screen for £40 and Blampied gave her a painting for her Christmas and birthday, so they must have been good friends. This design is the same as one of the 12 silhouettes that Blampied issued in a limited edition of 100 sets in 1950. The title is Jersey farmer
.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC99)
Date: 195?
Card size: 105 x 151 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Folded piece of printed card
Notes: This card is dated from 1950 because inside is stuck Blampied's 2½ d stamp, which was issued in 1948 to celebrate the third anniversary of the Liberation of Jersey. It could have been used earlier than this, but the previous card is dated 1949 on the reverse. The image on the front was also used on card sent by Messrs Annan of Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, to invite people to an exhibition of oil paintings and drawings by Edmund Blampied. Annans exhibited his work in March-April 1947, December 1948, November 1950 and May 1953.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC98)
Date: 195?
Card size: 105 x 151 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower left
Format: Folded piece of printed card
Notes: This card is dated from 1951 because it's the same size as the previous card and on the front is the 1 d stamp (not designed by Blampied) which was issued in 1948 to celebrate the third anniversary of the Liberation of Jersey. This might have been added afterwards on the misapprehension that it was designed by Blampied. I don't think Blampied would have added someone else's work to the front of his card.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC97)
Date: 195?
Card size: 137 x 178 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed blue card
Notes: This card is dated from the 1950s, but the exact year is not known. I have the original printing block for this card, which is a piece of engraved metal, 80 x 182 mm, nailed to a block of wood 20 mm thick.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC96)
Date: 195?
Card size: 104 x 153 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower left
Format: Folded piece of printed white card
Notes: This card is probably from the mid-1950s, but the exact year is not known.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC95)
Date: 195?
Card size: 115 x 148 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This card has the Blampied's address stamped at the top: 21, Netherby Court, Beaumont, Jersey. They lived there between 1949 and at least 1958. It is probably from around 1957.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC94)
Date: 195?
Card size: 151 x 104 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right in middle of image, and Blampied, in ball point pen, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This card is similar in design to the previous cards, so was probably printed by the same company (Commercial Printers, Jersey).
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC93)
Date: 195?
Card size: 117 x 149 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right, below dog
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This card is similar in design to the previous cards, so was probably printed by the same company (Commercial Printers, Jersey).
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC92)
Date: 195?
Card size: 154 x 107 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower centre
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This card is dated from the late 1950s, but the exact year is not known.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC60)
Date: 1960
Card size: 155 x 115 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This card is similar in design to the previous two cards, so was probably printed by the same company (Commercial Printers, Jersey) and is actually dated.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC90)
Date: 1962?
Card size: 110 x 140 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This might have been used by Blampied as a Christmas card in 1962 - I am guessing. It was sent by Marianne Blampied as card to some of her friends after Blampied had died, perhaps in the 1970s. She wrote on the back: I found a few cards in one of the drawers, so thought you might like this one.
I have the printing block for this card. Marianne gave it to friends as a gift.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC63)
Date: 1963
Card size: 157 x 240 mm
Signed: Blampied, lower left. Blampied has added 1963 in ink lower left and written over his signature, also in ink
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: Blampied has added ink details to the printed card illustrated to the left. He has not added any Christmas message on the other side, but it might be the front of a folded card that has been cut in two. A printed version of this card with his Christmas greetings has not been seen, so this may have be rejected as a design because the printing was too weak. I have another printed version without ink and the original printing block for this card, which consist of a copper lithographic plate (145 x 229 mm) nailed to a wooden block, 22 mm thick.
(Click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC63)
Another Christmas card dated 1963 is in the collection of Jersey Heritage.
This card can be seen at the website of Jersey Heritage.
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC64)
Date: 1964
Printing image: 78 x 122 mm
Signed: Blampied 1964, lower right
Format: printing block, 125 x 77 x 20 mm
Notes: This printing block consists of a metal relief plate nailed to a wooden block. It is the design for Blampied's Christmas card for 1964, but I don't have a printed version yet. It shows a man with his hand raised holding a top hat, sitting in a trap being pulled by a trotting horse and a dog running behind. The image to the left has been inverted so that it is the same as the printed card. The block was used to print cards for a charity, see here.
Christmas card printing block (click to enlarge)
Christmas and New Year card (EB-CC65)
Date: 1965
Card size: 152 x 128 mm
Signed: Blampied 1965, lower right, and E.Blampied, in ball point pen, beneath image, lower right
Format: Single piece of printed white card
Notes: This was Blampied's last Christmas card as he died in August of the following year.
(Click to enlarge)