Vintage Times-Herald Art Department Original Christmas Cartoon Illustration on Bainbridge Kromo-Lite Board

Vintage hand-rendered Christmas cartoon illustration created for the Times-Herald Art Department, featuring a humorous newspaper-office holiday scene with staff members, caricatures, signs, and seasonal details.

The artwork reads:

“Wishing you a very Merry Christmas”
“Compliments of TIMES-HERALD Art Dept.”

The illustration appears to be executed directly on professional Bainbridge Kromo-Lite illustration board, using ink with hand-applied watercolor or gouache color. The reverse retains the original Bainbridge Kromo-Lite Licensed Board stamp from Charles T. Bainbridge’s Sons, 20 Cumberland Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Kromo-Lite board was professional commercial-art material used by photographers, illustrators and advertising artists during the mid-20th century; documented examples were already in professional use by the 1940s. The Morgan Library & Museum

The artwork is especially interesting because it appears to have been produced as an original internal newspaper Christmas greeting, rather than as a commercially printed decorative piece. Numerous handwritten jokes and names appear throughout the composition, giving it strong newspaper, journalism and commercial-art interest.

Condition: Vintage condition with toning, corner/edge wear and minor surface marks consistent with age. No major damage visible in the photographs.

Approximate Date

Based on the illustration style, board, lettering and overall presentation, I would initially place it around the 1940s–1950s, although identifying which Times-Herald newspaper produced it could narrow that considerably.