True rarities, captured in postcard format. Perfect for New Year’s Eve greetings, winter messages, celebrations, or even for your own picture display. Available in two designs: Japanese fireworks and snowflakes.

The twelve abstract patterns in the FEUX D'ARTIFICE JAPONAIS set are taken from an advertising catalog for Hirayama fireworks, published around 1890 by C. T. Brock & Co., the oldest pyrotechnics manufacturer in Great Britain. Hirayame Jinta was a renowned Japanese pyrotechnician who, in the 19th century, expanded the classic assortment of fireworks to include these original patterns and vibrant colors. The simplified illustrations present them in a graphically abstract style—so that buyers at the time knew exactly which designs they were using to light up the sky.

The photographs in the FLOCONS DE NEIGE set are 12 of the more than 5,000 images taken by the American Wilson Alwyn Bentley. By combining a camera with a microscope, he succeeded in 1885, at the age of 20, in taking the world’s first photograph of a snowflake. Hailed by magazines, jewelers, and textile manufacturers, Bentley wrote: “Every snow crystal is a masterpiece; no pattern is ever repeated. When a snowflake melts, that pattern is lost forever.” Bentley captured them in his photographs.