15 DECEMBER 1894, Page 24

CHRISTMAS CARDS, CALENDARS, &c.

We have received from Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons a large assortment of ornamental calendars, Christmas cards, and the like. These things are very difficult to describe or discriminate. Among the calendars, Shakespeare's Hero and Heroine Calendar may be singled out for special notice. The twelve pictures—beginning with Rosalind and ending with Falstaff—are good, though not equally good. The heroes are, perhaps, better than the heroines. But, on the whole, the calendar is distinctly pretty. Some capital photogravures ought also to be mentioned. There is also a con- siderable choice of little books, in which illustrative pictures of landscapes, flowers, foliage, and the like are accompanied by verses. Another variety of ornament is a fan with twelve divisions,—one for each month. An "engagement" calendar, with birds in relief on the front, is very pretty. As for the cards, so numerous are they that we must pass them with a general com- mendation.