ANTIQUE POSTCARDS OF SANTA:
Antique Christmas postcards are a favorite collectible. They are inexpensive, easy to store, and provide access to a wide range of artists from many countries. This collection includes photographic cards, Santas with non-red clothing, and some pretty crotchety Santas thrown in for good measure.

ANTIQUE EDITIONS OF NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS:
While Christmas has always been a favorite subject of artists, A Visit From St. Nicholas has been absolutely inspirational. Early magazines published the poem with an engraving by Nash. Later Nash art appeared in publications devoted to only that Christmas poem.

MAPS BY HENRY LIVINGSTON:
Henry Livingston learned the art of surveying from his father, Henry Sr., who had learned it from his father, Gilbert, who had learned it from the family American progenitor, Robert Livingston, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor. Surveying required mathematical training, as well as a constitution that could take tramping over vast stretches of unimproved land in all kinds of weather. It was a highly regarded trade among families interested in land speculation, since the surveyor got an early look at land that might someday go onto the market.

The product of a survey was a map of the surveyed area, and on his maps, Henry tended to include little sketches of trees and buildings and crudely drawn people.

PUBLISHED DRAWINGS OF HENRY LIVINGSTON:
When Henry began publishing his poetry and prose in the New York Magazine; or, Literary Repository, he found a market for his art, as well. The drawings that Henry sent to the magazine were converted into engravings which illustrated his written pieces. Most of the drawings were crude, but they weren't much worse than the average level of illustrations published by such authors as Benson Lossing.

A drawing that Henry did of his father's property on the Hudson River was also engraven into the lid of a silver box.

WATERCOLORS BY HENRY LIVINGSTON:
The looseness of watercolors seemed more to suit Henry's talent, and the watercolors of his father's house and his saw mill are much more successful on a purely artistic level. Many of his drawings were done to amuse his family, but few of those survive. A letter by William Sturges Thomas refers to a watercolor of Henry's own home, which was supposed to exist in a red bound book. That watercolor has not been found.