TUCK, RAPHAEL

TUCK, RAPHAEL (1821–1900), British art and greeting card publisher. Born to a Jewish family in Germany, Tuck probably came to England at the time of the 1848 revolution, settling in London. He became a noted art publisher and, ironically in view of his religion, one of the earliest and most successful publishers of Christmas cards (which date from 1843). In 1880 he held a competition to design the best-looking card and did much to make them popular. Tuck employed a variety of famous artists to design his cards, including Sir Edward Poynter, and once paid Alfred Tennyson £1000 to write some verse for a card. His son SIR ADOLPH TUCK, FIRST BARONET (1854–1926) is often credited with introducing the picture postcard into England with a card showing Mount Snowdon in Wales and designed to be sold to tourists visiting the spot. He also introduced the first full-color postcards of fine art works, a set of Turner paintings, in 1898–99. Tuck, who received a baronetcy in 1910, served as treasurer of Jews' College, London, and was a member of the committee, founded in December 1917 and headed by Lord Rothschild, to further the policies of the balfour declaration . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)