Monday, April 4, 2011

Santa in a Wreath


This is an old Christmas postcard from around a hundred years ago or so. The composition has Santa placed within a wreath holding device. It's a festive holiday wreath made of holly with bright red holly berries. Santa is sort of looking up and off into the distance, as though planning his Christmas Eve flight. He's smoking his trademark pipe - a small one, perhaps made of ceramic - and holding a thick piece of tasty candy cane, ready to offer it to some lucky girl or boy. And just over his shoulder we can see his bag of toys that he is hoisting around with him. There's a nice detail of black leather strap showing how Santa might carry his bag of toys.

His face is decently well rendered, with pleasing warm eyes. His arm is a bit out of proportion but this adds to the folk art feel of the piece. My favorite part is the scroll at the bottom with very nice blackletter-inspired "gothic"-style lettering. The "h's" in "household" and "heart" are very interesting.

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