Collection of New Year greeting cards

These cards were sent annually at New Year to Hayter's friends, in this case to the artist Anthony Gross (1905-1984). Each is inscribed “to Tony and Daisy”. The cards form a fascinating series that charts technical developments in Hayter's printmaking between 1931 and 1984. Hayter's earliest cards were engraved on copper with the burin, the ancient method revived by Hayter. 3 works of 1937-9 have political messages in support of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. The colour cards 1954 – 1968 are mostly of rippling water subjects, closely related to the Abstract Expressionist and “op” art imagery of Hayter's paintings of the period. This collection adds to the group of 31 artist's greeting cards from the same period already at the Hunterian.