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[Thanksgiving for the Recovery of the Prince of Wales]

Paper Peepshow
1872 (published)

This greeting card commemorates the Thanksgiving service that took place on 22 February 1872 in St Paul’s cathedral for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid. He had fallen gravely ill the previous October, and doctors feared for his life. His final recovery was therefore widely celebrated by Britons.

While the front panel of this greeting card appears to be an ordinary image, opening it up reveals a different world. As if by magic, the cut-out panel inside, because it is glued to the front panel, springs forward and creates a three-dimensional space. The contrast between the festive atmosphere depicted on the front panel and the solemn service inside reinforces the impression that the two flaps on the front function as a gateway to another world.

The practice of sending greeting cards around Christmas and New Year was at its height during this period. In 1843, later director of the South Kensington Museum, Henry Cole, sent out the first Christmas card. Different techniques were used to make the cards look special and different from a normal two-dimensional card, and the appropriation of the paper peepshow format, seen in this greeting card, was one of these techniques. The mechanism used in this card can also be seen in Gestetner 279 and Gestetner 281.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Title[Thanksgiving for the Recovery of the Prince of Wales] (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Brief description
[Thanksgiving for the Recovery of the Prince of Wales], 1872
Physical description
Pop-up peepshow greeting card showing the Thanksgiving ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral for the recovery of the Prince of Wales in 1872.

1 cut-out panel. Chromolithograph.

Front panel: the triumphal arch erected at Ludgate Circus for the Thanksgiving with the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in the background. The procession passing through the arch towards St Paul’s. The panel is split vertically at the centre so as to open like two shutters.

Panel 1: Thanksgiving service in progress at St Paul’s. The royals seated with others on the side and in the upper galleries.

Back panel: West end of St Paul’s with audience in the back and on two sides. The back panel is stuck on a lace paper, with the caption ‘A Happy New Year’ at bottom centre.

The cut-out panel is stuck to the inside of the front panel. On opening the front panel, the cut-out panel springs forward.
Dimensions
  • Height: 11.6cm
  • Width: 8cm
Credit line
Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the collections of Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016.
Object history
Part of the Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection, collected over 30 years and given to the V&A Museum through the government's Cultural Gift Scheme, 2016.
Summary
This greeting card commemorates the Thanksgiving service that took place on 22 February 1872 in St Paul’s cathedral for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid. He had fallen gravely ill the previous October, and doctors feared for his life. His final recovery was therefore widely celebrated by Britons.

While the front panel of this greeting card appears to be an ordinary image, opening it up reveals a different world. As if by magic, the cut-out panel inside, because it is glued to the front panel, springs forward and creates a three-dimensional space. The contrast between the festive atmosphere depicted on the front panel and the solemn service inside reinforces the impression that the two flaps on the front function as a gateway to another world.

The practice of sending greeting cards around Christmas and New Year was at its height during this period. In 1843, later director of the South Kensington Museum, Henry Cole, sent out the first Christmas card. Different techniques were used to make the cards look special and different from a normal two-dimensional card, and the appropriation of the paper peepshow format, seen in this greeting card, was one of these techniques. The mechanism used in this card can also be seen in Gestetner 279 and Gestetner 281.
Bibliographic reference
R. Hyde, Paper Peepshows. The Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection (Woodbridge: The Antique Collectors' Club, 2015), cat. 280.
Other number
38041016035164 - NAL barcode
Collection
Library number
Gestetner 280

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Record createdJuly 31, 2019
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