British, Irish and World Banknotes

United Kingdom of Great Blessings and Joyland, an entirely hand painted Christmas and New Year card in the likeness of a Treasury £1, dated Christmas 1924, serial number 1925, signature of the artist, Alexine Thorpe, with imagery including a turkey, sausages and a Christmas pudding on the obverse and Father Christmas in a wheeled sled powered, seemingly, by Shell Motor Spirit, on reverse, truly beautiful and a very touching item, very fine and unique £150-£200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Sir David Kirch Collection of Skit Notes.

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Alexine Thorpe (born Alexine Sara Tinne Berthon, born 1865) is listed in the 1911 census as a miniature painter and retired concert singer in Selsey, near Chichester, and was clearly an artist of some skill. This meticulously crafted and well imagined Christmas note is both charming and brilliantly executed. She died in 1935.
Alexine came from a remarkable family, with her sister, Ellen Margaret Tinne Berthon M.B. (London), being amongst the first women to gain a full medical degree at the Royal Free University in London. She became an assistant physician in Clapham Maternity Hospital at a time when this was unheard of for a woman.