last week i hopped on the subway to have dinner with my friend llubav in williamsburg. walking up bedford avenue, i decided to indulge in a little window shopping at catbird and found myself walking out with these beautiful cards. i didn’t know anything about the artist, but knew that i had to have them. so when i finished dinner i rushed home to find more information on the cards.
from the late 1950′s through the end of the 1960′s, textile designer walter erhard produced a line of christmas cards under the name imp press. in 2002 vigo cards bought the assets of imp press (along with the rights to erhard’s card lines) and started producing box sets of erhard’s beautiful work. i love the rich washes of color in erhard’s images and the way the spirit and style of the 50′s shines through in each piece. my grandmother’s apartment used to be full of work that looked like this so these pieces tug on my heart strings in a really sweet, sentimental way.
you can pick up a box of 10 cards for around $15 (try vigo for a store near you, or call catbird or terrain to place an order), or, if you’re like me, you can save a few to frame. these cards will definitely be hard to part with for me…
CLICK HERE to see 17 more beautiful walter erhard card designs after the jump!
26 Comments
I agree, they are wonderful…The bold designs and colors along with the great drawings really give these cards a presence. I’d frame them for sweet, little gifts.
Oh, these are all unbelievably great.
Those.are.GORGEOUS!!! The color and designs are fantastic…would love to create a little reading nook with a couple framed. thanks for sharing
Grace, I just saw these cards at a paper store last week too, and had the same reaction that you did. :) I’m so happy you featured these because I was curious about who the artist was…you can find some of his cards sold at Print Icon on W 18th as well!
oh, they are wonderful! and i like how he’s made camels cute!
gorgeous!! thank you for sharing these – they are so inspiring!
love catbird, I’m in Brooklyn as well, though sometimes the trip to Williamsburg from where I’m at can be a chore. Those prints are gorgeous!
Wow. These are some of the best holiday cards I’ve seen in years! Kudos to Vigo for putting them back into production.
I love these so, so much.
Does anyone know of a place to buy them online other than the Vigo website (where the minimum order is $200)?
jennie
i included a few links above- you can call catbird, you can order at terrain or you can look at vigo’s website for a list of sellers :)
*you can also call vigo to ask about online retailers- i don’t know of any that sell the full erhard collection so you’ll probably have to find a shop that carries the pattern you’re looking for, sadly.
g
Wow! These are great! They remind me of the illustrations in my books when I was a little kid. (not that I was even alive in the 60′s) Thanks for sharing! I love these.
These are so good. Must have.
I love them all! the lion and lamb, and cat on the bell made me smile, as well as the Dalmatian, dachshund, and blue themed cards. thanks for sharing :)
Very charming. It is hard to find cards with such personality.
oh I received that green deer card as a holiday card a couple years ago! I held onto it as I love it. love the style of the whole vigo collection.
I absolutly <3 the lion one!!
I soooo <3 the lion one!!
ah! they’re so darling! what a find! i want them ALL.
gorgeous! the cat on the bell and the lion with the lamb are precious. so beautiful.
gorgeous, the lion with the lamb, and the tiny cat on the bell are precious!
how exciting to see so many people responding to these cards! i stumbled upon them two years ago and bought as many as i could since they are deadstock. they remind me of my grandmother as well. (thanks for coming by the store Grace.) rony
Thanks for sharing these images, they are beautiful. I now need to do some research and look at his textile designs.
I LOOOOVE these. \
Does anyone know of a site where you can buy a package that has an assortment of cards, rather than just one style for the whole box?
(A few styles are available at http://www.catbirdnyc.com. See Holiday Card section. – http://tiny.cc/Pdghc )
thanks
they’re swell
happy holidays :)
Thank you for displaying some of my father’s cards here. You have done a beautiful job to pay credit to him.
My father, Walter Erhard also designed 50% of all Vera scarves and textiles, though never receiving proper credit for his work as he could never put his name on any of it.
He designed greeting cards in addition to the work he did with Vera. As well, he did children’s books, and was a painter. We have many of his paintings if anyone is interested in learning more about those.
He also loved gardening and spent many hours nurturing his plants, many of which he either grew from seed or planted as seedlings.
He was a beautiful person and a real humanitarian. Sadly he left this world in 2005, and my mother, Elfriede, a talented musician, just 2 years after that. He is survived by me, his daughter, and his son Paul Erhard, who lives in Colorado. Both of us are professional musicians. My father actually had said that he wanted to be a violinist when he was very young, but because there wasn’t enough money to pay for lessons, he took up drawing instead!
Later he learned to play the piano on his own.
I’m happy to hear from anyone interested in learning more about my father and his work.
You can reach me at iwavemusic@aol.com
I am currently working on developing a website dedicated to his life’s work.
Lisa Erhard
Leave a Comment