MISS NINA SEVENING - EDWARDIAN STAR

Postcards can also be used as Christmas cards. This is one of quite a few Xmas cards that Maude Lankester kept in her collection. It doubles up as a theatrical postcard as well. It was sent to Maude by Beattie. The handwriting reminds me of a younger hand. The addition of Australia at the end of the address might also suggest that it was sent from England.
The young woman on the card is a Miss Nina Sevening, an Edwardian beauty of the London and provincial stage. Perhaps Maude, who had an interest in music, was kept up to date with what was happening in the "Mother Country" by friends in England.

Title: MISS NINA SEVENING

Photographer: Johnston and Hoffmann.
Publisher: C. Modena & Co. aka C.M. & Co. (1902-1912), Sun Street, London, England. This card was manufactured in Saxony.
Year: c1910
Size: 14cm x 9cm (5½" x 3½")
Description: color card with portrait in tinted halftone of "Miss Nina Sevening" – used for a Christmas message overprinted in red on reverse “May your Christmas be a happy one. from …………..”

Content created: “Beattie to Miss Lankester”

Recipient of postcard:Miss Maude Lankester

The postcard is addressed to “Miss Lankester Emu Park Albury Australia. (Card was not franked but sent in an envelope?) The “Australia” might suggest that it came from overseas.

Materials: Paper, Ink.

Associated content: A similar card was produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons but with different colouring. This card is part of the Ducal Series produced by C. Modena & Co. and is numbered 138 at lower right.

Miss Nina Sevening (1885–1958) – Edwardian actor, singer and light comedian. She was born Nina Gladys Sevening in 1885, Westminster, London. Her parents were H W Sevening a German-born commercial clerk and his English wife Gertrude. She was educated in London and Paris. She had a sister called Dora who was to have a career in films later in her life.

Nina Sevening first appeared on stage in December 1894 as a child star in 'The House That Jack Built' at the Opera Comique. She married Victor Charles Hamilton Longstaffe. She retired from the stage in 1917.

Johnston and Hoffman was a commercial photographic firm active in India between 1870 and 1918.

C. Modena & Co. (1902-1912) were in Sun Street, London, England. The firm published black & white view-cards and are well known for comic military postcards.