"I never thought it was such a bad little piece of ephemera."

Today's piece of ephemera is, possibly, the Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree¹ of ephemera. It's sad, battered Victorian card with rips, stains and a few big chunks missing. It was never a very festive illustration in the first place. And there's not even any interesting writing on the back.

But, as Linus said, "I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love."

So maybe we can give it a little love and point out some nice things about this old scrap of paper. I'll start:

• You can't see it in the image, but the card still has some of its original glitter. There is glitter on the shell, the pink plant and the clouds in the background. Not bad for a card that's around 100 years old.
• In the bottom-left corner, it states "W.B. & O. New York." The only identifying text on the card at least gives us a clue to start from in finding out more about this piece.
• The scripted message on the card, which stated "Accept my Christmas Greeting(s)" before a chunk was torn out, really looks wonderful. You don't see elaborately detailed script like that any more, in this age of computer fonts and typography.
• It is a rather lovely Christmas ... shell.

That's what I have. What can you do, gang, to heap some more love on this not-so-bad piece of ephemera that just needs a little love?

Footnote
1. While there are a number of good articles online about "A Charlie Brown Christmas," one of the more interesting pieces I came across was "The Lonely Tree: The Story of A Charlie Brown Christmas" by Brian Heater.