The world's first Christmas card – or at least the first produced and sold specifically for Christmas – could fetch as much as £5,000 when it goes up for auction in Wiltshire next week.
Dating from 1843, it was ordered to be produced by Bath-born Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
He commissioned John Calcott Horsley to design two cards, a coloured example that cost people sixpence, and an uncoloured version for fivepence.
The uncoloured one, depicting a Victorian family eating and drinking, was sent to a lady called Marinda Cundy, and has been passed down through the family since that Christmas 170 years ago.
"This remarkable piece of history can be regarded as the genesis of the present day Christmas card industry," said Andrew Aldridge, whose Devizes family auction house lists it on December 14.
