Chromos/Scraps
'Chromos' is a shortened form of Chromolithography, the nineteenth
century technique of color printing. Unlike contemporary four-color
offset printing, with chromolithography, each color of an image is
printed with a separate lithographic stone. The beauty of the chromolithographed
image is the result of the skill and artistry of the printmaker's interpretation
of the image to be printed. 'Scraps' refers to the wildly popular Victorian fad
of sheets of lithographed, embossed, and die-cut images that were sold to be cut,
composed and pasted into books, hence the term 'scrapbook'.
The scope of subject matter depicted on scraps was limited only by the Victorian
imagination, and for the Christmas collector, the attraction to scraps lies in the
beautiful renderings of innumerable Christmas motifs. Scraps were not only pasted
into books. Those that were printed on heavier paper were popularly turned into Christmas
tree ornaments. With a bit of tinsel and some blown-glass beads, a scrap ornament lends a
Christmas tree not just sparkle, but also rich color and intricate detail. Scraps were a
useful addition to any home-made ornament that could use decorative enrichment - Santa
scraps were even applied to Christmas cookies!
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