Season's Greetings from The Risen, or, perhaps, Rising Greetings.

 

My friend, Robert Warner, is the Master Printer of Bowne and Co. This print shop was founded in 1775, and looks pretty much the same, where it resides in the historic South Street Seaport area of lower Manhattan. Robert has been committed to keeping it that way. Everything is hand-printed off the 18th century press. The cards and artwork cannot be purchased online; they didn't have the Net in the 18th century, so why ruin a good thing? He prints only so many each day and then they are bought up quite quickly from those-who-know, who come from far-and-wide in the city, including many whose families have been in the city for the past 200 years.

This year he asked me what kind of holiday card I would like to have to send out. "Nothing all that jolly and crissmassy," I answered, "Maybe something along the lines of a polar bear dragging a little kid across the snow on a beautiful moonlit night. Both would be laughing uproariously, possibly for different reasons." "OK" he replied, "I like it; I'll see what I can do."

Above is the result. I'm sorry that I can't send one in the snailmail to everyone, so this is the next best way to extend to you our Season's Greetings. I regret that I can't reproduce the fact that the wreath is hand-applied in green sparkles on the actual printed card. Regardless, we wish you whatever you wish, too.

To learn more about the amazing Robert, see the NY Times article here; and another, here.