PBA Galleries

12 folding single-sheet cards, two each of six designs, each measuring 8¼x12" when unfolded. Each card with a Christmas sentiment, printed in colors, on the front of the card, on the inside is text of a parable, printed in black, with a large initial in gilt and a lavish floral border in gilt and colors, and a reproduction in full color of a painting by N.C. Wyeth above a caption with floral border. The 12 original unprinted mailing envelopes are also present, each with a blank stiff insert. With the original two-part box, with printed paper label on end reading "Religious Folders, Six Designs".

Around 1920 the Unitarian Laymen's League of Boston commissioned the celebrated artist and illustrator N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945) to produce a series of paintings that would illustrate the parables of Jesus in the artist's robust, realistic style. The intention was to publish the newly-illustrated parables in book form, but that project fell through. Instead, six images were published as a group of religious Christmas cards, with decorations and lettering by Theodore Brown Hapgood, Jr. (1871-1938). 600,000 cards were printed, but few seem to have survived. As Douglas Allen remarks, "These cards are now rare collector's items." This is the first complete set in a box that we have encountered.