"To the unrefined and underbred, the visiting card is but a
trifling bit of paper; but to the cultured disciple of social law,
it conveys a subtle and unmistakable intelligence. Its texture,
style of engraving, and even the hour of its leaving combine to
place the stranger, whose name it bears, in a pleasant or a
disagreeable attitude..."
As this extract from Our
Deportment, Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined
Society by John H. Young, 1881, so wonderfully
illuminates, the visiting or calling card was an essential
accessory to any proper Regency or Victorian lady or gentleman.
These diminutive cards, supplied by the local printer in small
batches, served not just as a letter of introduction or aide
memoire, but as an indicator of social class and good manners.
And the cases in which they were carried were status-enhancing
accessories too.
Above: a Victorian pressed
tortoiseshell card case, decorated with a gothic cathedral window
in a border of blond tortoiseshell, sold by Mellors and Kirk for
£120.
The etiquette of leaving visiting cards was played out in the
drawing rooms of middle class households in Europe, Russia and
North America for more than a century from the 1820s. The ritual
was surprisingly sophisticated, as explained in the pages of Rules of Etiquette and Home Culture or
What to do and How to do it, a manners book published in
Chicago in 1886.
"Callers should always be provided with cards. The cards of
unmarried and married men should be small. For married persons a
medium size is in better taste than a large card. The engraving in
simple writing is preferred, and without flourishes."
It continues thus: "A gentleman should carry cards loose in a
convenient pocket; but a lady may use a card case. No matter how
many members of the family you call upon, you send in but one card.
Where servants are not kept, and you are met at the door by the
lady herself, of course there is no use for a card. If you call
upon a friend who has a visitor, send in but one card; but if they
are not at home, leave a card for each.
"A card may be made to serve the purpose of a call. It may be
sent in an envelope, or left in person. In the latter case, one
corner should be turned down if for the lady of the house. Fold the
card in the middle if you wish to indicate that the call is on
several, or all of the members of the family. Leave a card for each
guest, should any be visiting at the house."
Above all there was a rigid distinction to be made between
business and visiting cards. Crude commerce was not to be mixed
with pleasure and it was considered very poor taste to use a
business card when making a social call. A business card, left with
the servants, would imply that the call had been to collect a bill
or discuss a pecuniary matter rather then to exchange social
pleasantries. Besides, business cards were also used by the working
classes and common tradespeople…and that would never do.
So what happened to the visiting card and, in turn, the card
case?
The once-important social custom of leaving cards persisted into
the 20th century but had faded before the advent of the Second
World War. By then the business card was king.
While most card cases assume a standard form - a narrow
rectangular box with a lid that slips on and off, or is hinged - it
is the almost limitless variations and their ease of display that
make them so collectable.
Mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell are most common (a Birmingham
directory of 1873 lists 38 mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell and ivory
workers producing visiting card cases to meet the demand), but card
cases provide in miniature the full gamut of techniques, styles,
materials and fashions that were popular in the decorative arts
during the Regency, Victorian and Edwardian periods.
A remarkable number of different mediums were included: tooled
kid leather from Morocco, pierced and carved bone and ivory
exported to the West from Canton (China) and Vizagapatam (India),
sandalwood from the Middle East, French porcelain, mauchline and
tartan wares from Scotland, Tunbridgeware, shagreen (sharkskin),
papier-mâché, needlework, abalone, filigree, embossed and engraved
silver and silver gilt, EPNS, gutta percha, lacquer and
penwork.
Often different materials and techniques, such as leather and
petit point needlework, tortoiseshell, silver and mother-of-pearl,
are seen in combination.
It gives some idea of the accessibility of this collecting area
that most card cases sell at prices from £30 to £400. But not all
are quite so affordable.
The Rolls-Royces of card cases are the so-called castle tops,
made in silver and engraved or die-stamped with British landmarks.
Many were made by the 'toy' makers of Birmingham.
Nathaniel Mills was the most prolific maker, but Taylor and
Perry, Joseph Wilmore, Yapp and Woodward, Hilliard and Thomason,
Frederick Mason and George Unite are other less familiar names.
The variety of topographical scenes suggest they were marketed
as tourist souvenirs for mid 19th century honeymooners and
day-trippers. And because some destinations were more popular than
others, to collectors of castle-top cards, subject matter is
everything.
Accordingly, while examples decorated with St Paul's Cathedral,
Windsor Castle, Kenilworth Castle and York Minster can be purchased
in the £700-1000 region, more unusual subjects count double, or
more.
A great rarity was seen at Dreweatt Neate of Donnington Priory
in July 2005. The Bevis Marks Synagogue in London was built by
Joseph Avis, a Quaker, for the Sephardic Jews and opened in 1701.
It is the oldest synagogue still in use in Britain, although when
Nathaniel Mills made a card case depicting an exterior view of the
building in 1845 it was perhaps as a special commission rather than
a commercial line. It sold at £8000, eight times its estimate.
The price appears to be an auction record for a silver
castle-top card case and can scarcely be matched in other mediums,
save perhaps some of the rarest and most sought-after card cases
made in Japanese lacquer.
Visiting Card
Cases (Antique Pocket Guides) by Noel Riley.
ISBN-13: 978-0718825492
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