greeting card
A greeting card (also known as a greeting ticket) is an illustrated card that is usually sent to friends as a small gift , also with gifts , on special occasions such as birthdays , weddings or on holidays such as Christmas . Frequently, such cards with lucky symbols, such as. B. horseshoes, four-leaf clover or ladybirds printed. In some cases, these are foldable cards that can be opened and are usually brought in a sealed envelope. They are also available in the form of one-piece, clearly legible postcards . Cards especially for birth, baptism or wedding are usually folded cards that are sent in an envelope.
The international professional association Greeting Card Association represents the interests of the manufacturers of greeting cards. The majority of the members are US manufacturers. In Germany, manufacturers are also represented by the Association of Manufacturers and Publishers of Greeting Cards (AVG).
Greeting cards, such as birthday cards, are often given personally to the addressee. They usually serve as a complement to a gift or a bouquet and convey a personal touch. Today, greeting cards can be individually designed with the help of the computer. Professional greeting cards can contain extras such as small saved melodies that play when you open them, or coupons for goods.
Electronic greeting cards ( e-cards ) use the computer as a means of transmission. They are usually sent by email. The recipient must open the greeting card or collect it from a provider. Such cards were often infected with viruses, so acceptance has decreased somewhat.
history
The custom of sending greeting cards, which was supposed to replace the usual personal visit to celebrations, goes back far beyond the sending of postcards . The first greeting card in Europe was sent out in 1415, and Germany's first greeting card in 1493. Small-format graphic greeting cards with pictures, verses and small texts that count as casual graphics became fashionable in the 1770s, initially in upper class society. They were produced in partially colored copperplate engravings , as lithography and chromolithography , and later also using photographic printing techniques. Cheap products were also made as woodcuts . In addition to simple, only ornamentally decorated cards, there was luxury paper with embossing , designs as folding and drawing cards, as transparent and push-through cards, etc. Wish card publishers developed and their own industry for production. The cards were distributed through paper shops and street vendors. The congratulatory postcards followed on from this card culture.
distribution
Before telephony became widespread, the greeting postcards were a very popular way to convey congratulations to relatives and friends on festive occasions or anniversaries. The importance of greeting cards is great despite the dominance of electronic means of communication. In a study by Swiss Post, the high personal character of the postal media was cited as the reason for this. For Germany, a study by GfK shows the sale of 637 million greeting cards in 2010. This corresponds to an average of 8.3 cards per person per year. In addition, women and people over 60 are more likely to buy greeting cards.
The largest American manufacturers, Hallmark Cards and American Greetings , make billions in sales. The Netflix - dramedy Girlfriend's Day (2017) against the backdrop of the greeting industry.
literature
- Walter von Zur Westen: On the art of courtesy. Congratulations, visiting cards, and family advertisements from six centuries . Otto von Holten, Berlin 1921.
- Congratulations on postcards . Altonaer Museum , Hamburg 1977.
- Jutta Haack: Picture postcards with congratulations. On the typology and function of birthday cards between the turn of the century and the First World War. [Microfiche], Phil. Dissertation Hamburg, 1988
- Yasmin Doosry: Buyable feelings. Biedermeier friendship and congratulations tickets. With a contribution by Jutta Zander-Seidel: Friendship and souvenir jewelry. Nuremberg 2004 (= cultural-historical walks in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Volume 7), ISBN 978-3-936688-04-7 .
- Arthur Blair: Best wishes. The story of the greeting card. Greeting Card & Calendar Association
Bibliographic Directories
- International Bibliography on the History of Paper (IBP) , De Gruyter Saur, Munich 2003, Volume 2, pp. 939–941
- W. Brückner (Ed.): Massenbildforschung. A bibliography , publications on folklore and cultural history, Würzburg 2003, 440 pp.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wolfgang Till: Old postcards. Collect meaningfully - win guaranteed. (= Battenberg collector's catalogs). 2nd Edition. Battenberg, Augsburg 1992, page 22
- ↑ Greeting cards: popular since ancient times. Retrieved May 21, 2013 .
- ↑ Market figures on the 2010 greeting card. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 28, 2013 ; Retrieved May 21, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
