Raphael Tuck's Scottish Clans Series

The legendary Raphael Tuck was born in East Prussia (now part of Germany) in 1821 and emigrated to England in 1865, with his wife Ernestine and their seven children. His first business venture was in London in 1866 with a picture-framing shop that also sold prints and furniture. Four years later, three of his sons joined the business and, within 12 months, they had started production of their first greeting cards, including special ones for Christmas - a market to which they introduced many new features.

In 1880, they innovatively organized a competition to encourage new greeting card designs and, in 1881, Raphael's son Adolph took over as Managing Director. As early as 1883, their pre-eminence in the publishing field (they had by now expanded into scrap books, postcards and all manner of publishing) was recognized by the Scotsman newspaper which enthused: "Those who seek to make Christmas Cards as good as works of art do great and meritorious service to the community. Among those who certainly render such service, Messrs Raphael Tuck and Sons must have a foremost place. They all reflect great credit on the taste and enterprise of the publishers. Each and all of them will be prized by all people of good taste."

The Post Office was rather pernickety in Victorian times and Adolph was a leading campaigner in getting them to relax their restrictions on postcard sizes to allow him to produce today's full size cards measuring 5.5" x 3.5" (By 1904, the firm had over 15,000 designs in production).

It was ironic that when much of the world was displaying Raphael Tuck Christmas cards on its mantelpieces, one of the worst air raids of World War II on 29th December 1940 completely destroyed Raphael House in London and all Tuck's records and archives, including many priceless originals.

However, such was the popularity of Tuck cards that they were already widely distributed around the world and so the rich heritage created over a period of 60 years was not lost but remains to captivate collectors to this day.

Little is known of this Scottish Clans series except that they were published around 1906, and admirably represent the sentimental way in which the world saw Scotland at that time.

Support a Good Cause while you shop!

One third of Dezine Design's proceeds from the sale of these prints will be donated to The Scottish Tartans Authority through Dezine Design’s Shops with a Mission program, designed to support good causes around the world.

Please also see our Kenneth MacLeay Gallery, featuring museum quality fine art prints of fabulous Victorian watercolors depicting Scottish Highlanders in traditional dress.

(All these images are available for use in publications. For more information, please contact The Scottish Tartans Authority.)

Click here to return to The Tartan Zone.