An art nouveau Christmas greeting

by Jeanne from wonderdiva

Today is the perfect day to share with you some of my most cherished vintage items -- four Christmas cards that the art nouveau illustrator Dugald Stewart Walker drew to send to his personal friends.  

Dugald Stewart Walker lived in Virginia all his life (1883-1937,) save for the years that he studied at the New York School of Design.  His beautiful, immensely detailed illustrations were featured in a number of books and also on magazine covers. 

 

Walker was almost as fey as the fairies, elves and other magical creatures that he loved to draw, so it is no wonder that his Christmas cards are ornate and delightful:

  



I have never been anywhere except Richmond, Virginia, and New York, because I have always been told that only grown-up people were allowed to travel. But the good East Wind and the kindly Moon have taken me on rapturous journeys high above the world to get an enchanted view of things. In this book I have put some of my discoveries, but if you are looking here for real likeness of the things that any one could see if he were grown up, you had better close the covers now. You cannot expect me to draw an exact picture of the North Pole or of a Chinese lady's feet or of a sea-cucumber. But if you are interested in what the East Wind or the Father Stork or the Moon told me, then look with my eyes and you will not mind very much if the courtiers in the ogre's court, or the dock leaves in the Garden of Paradise, are not just as a grown-up person thinks they should be.



I hope your holiday is beautiful!