Ronald Searle's 1971 Christmas Card

Miss Linda King of Swansea was mailed a Christmas card in late 1971 from Ronald and Monica Searle. It was sold on eBay in March of this year with the original mailing envelope for what I recall was a substantial sum. I seem to have neglected to record the actual sale amount, but I believe it was in the range of the starting bid. The eBay seller reported that the card is a "Ronald Searle original hand drawn pen/watercolour sketch/drawing hand made Christmas Card," then confused the matter by calling it "Possibly one of a kind." Possibly? Well, is it a hand drawn original or not?

After taking a close look at all the photos in the listing, I conclude that the card is printed, not hand drawn. The initials RS are printed too, but the French and British flags are colored by hand.

The trifold card

The trifold card

M and R, for Mô and Ronald

The cover shows a postmark of December 27.

My belief is that out-of-focus pictures add nothing to eBay listings. Or to blog posts.

Signatures of Mô and Ronald

The red braces are drawn by hand and annotated.

Mô writes in blue ink, Ronald in black.

Ronald Searle
eBay listing accessed March 12, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394508195030?hash=item5bda8554d6:g:iJ0AAOSwhq1kDJhm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwKGk48BxWXqpq%2Fyc4CXxj%2FkA66grX%2FQdXKVDvViKsrGz2wsd3IdXEeYpU5tX9f%2FGHAmfNVVSRTVLTwqMxMXmR%2FIKALH0vD9wlY5mcjF8N

ooDVJYO8niuYgvfxmZaqJbDo4TmdGplhnWTOVFqf9KqvJlKKQnVG4qz%2Bqt9SZ6D%2BLTgyyt09UGfOeeSxvMlsaxXnXv2eDmHM2y6EQZB4S50AwzXKNXbjXwh6Fn%2FAut0%2F%2FV3kAR8Zljt%2Bq027Pk9XFSnRA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8Li3o7bYQ

Note:  To correct the eBay listing, Searle's wife Mô was the former Monica Koenig. Sorry, Maureen.

For more on Ronald Searle's extraordinary Christmas cards, see Matt Jones's 2010 post here. As of this writing, the 1971 card is not included there.

Cartoonist's personal Christmas cards would make happy additions to this blog, especially if they are not already available online. Scans are welcome. Tricolor and Union Jack optional.

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