Raphael Tuck & Sons was a business started by Raphael Tuck and his wife in Bishopsgate in the City of London on October 1866, selling pictures and greeting cards, and eventually selling postcards, the latter being the most successful. Their business was one of the most well known in the 'postcard boom' of the late 1800s and early 1900s
In 1871 Tuck supervised the design of Christmas cards featuring the religious aspects of the season: Jesus Christ, the Holy Pair, the Magi, the Nativity scene, as well as the traditional Santa Claus, holly and mistletoe.
Their contributions left a lasting effect on most of the artistic world. During The Blitz, the company headquarters, Raphael House, was destroyed including the originals for most of their series. The company never fully recovered.
In 1959, Desmond Tuck retired. The company combined with two others to become the
British Printing Corporation, (renamed British Printing & Communications Corporation in 1982 and finally Maxwell Communications Corporation in 1987), which was originally located only a short distance from where the first shop of Ernestine and Raphael Tuck once stood.
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