Christmas Chantry

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Introduction
Issued in 2004, this painting could portray someone’s home or a guest house - well dressed for Christmas! This is often celebrated today as a secular festival by other faiths.

In Adoration of the Magi by Giotto (1267-1337) the Star of Bethlehem is shown as a comet over the child.

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Hazle Ceramics
Christmas Chantry
Limited Painting of 80
on Billericay

 This half-timbered High Street house in Billericay is close to Hazle. It dates from 1510 not 1501 as shown! Now an Indian Restaurant, Christopher Martin The Mayflower’s quartermaster lived here until 1620.

UK/Europe £59.50
Rest of World £50.64

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 The modern image of Santa Claus and his trappings was created in the US by Clement Moore’s poem in 1823 and Thomas Nast’s 1881 cartoon. A secret gift-giver, the Turkish Saint Nicholas (270-346AD) is believed to be the original role model.

The Christmas Tree
Introduced to Britain by King George III’s German wife Queen Charlotte in 1761 and popularised by a woodcut of Queen Victoria and her family in the Illustrated London News of December 1848 (right). The print appeared in the US in 1850. Cities with German links lay claim to the first US tree. The earliest is 1777 - from Windsor Locks in Connecticut.

 Royal family at Osborne House, Isle of Wight in woodcut from 1848.