Victor Franz Theodor Sockl

1847-1921

Victor, the eldest son of Theodor Sockl and Clara Adelheid came to live in England from Vienna Austria in 1889 or 1890. He came with his younger brother Carl who was married to their cousin Emma, at the time they had their first two sons Victor and Augustus, a third son Robert died at birth in Vienna.

It is most likely that they came over to England to get away from the unrest in Central Europe following on from the Revolution in 1848, and to avoid being conscripted. They all lived in the West Norwood area of south east London. Carl and Emma had three more children, Elsa, Albert and Hilda.

Victor set up a greetings card company in the City of London with a partner - Saul Nathan. The company was called 'Sockl and Nathan', although often their cards were just marked 'copyright' as the partners name was Jewish and they were afraid of persecution. The company specialised in reproductions printed by hand in Leipzig Germany based on paintings by artists they had selected themselves, these preceded the mass produced card market. They even got the Royal Warrant. The business was successful for a time and was based at 4 Hamsell Street, City of London.

Carl was the accountant for the firm, this is written on his UK Naturalisation papers signed 30th May 1899. At the time of the first world war, Carl changed his name to Charles though it's not know if this was done officially.

Original cards from the Sockl and Nathan company still exist including two very delicate pop-up cards; one with frogs and the other with a Christmas tree surrounded by members of a family. There is also a very humorous rhyming Christmas card and also a delicate reproduction of a sunset. The printing is very delicate and the small dots of individual colour can be seen close up, which merge together when seen from a distance. The company also published illustrated children's books of poems, a page from one of these called 'Land Of Summer Glee' is shown below.

The exact date isn't know, but there was a fire in the next-door property to their greetings card company, it was put out but unfortunately, water caused extensive damage to their stock and the company struggled to survive after this so fell into decline. This decline was also precipitated by the beginning of the mass produced greetings card companies in the years that followed.

After the business had folded, Victor gave his niece Elsa Sockl a large amount of original paintings, printed cards and handwritten verses by poets. She used to send these to many other family members and friends for Christmas and birthdays! 

As Elsa became old in the 1970's she decided to give what was left, around 200 cards, to her niece Mrs. Eva White née Herfurth-Soterius von Sachsenheim. Eva thought they looked beautiful, but rather old fashioned in this day and age – so she kept them carefully, plus also two children’s books.

By the late 1980's Eva thought something should be done about them. So she took a selection of cards to the Medici Society and they reproduced seven of the originals for Easter, Birthdays and general use for a number of years. But what to do with them in the long run? After more years had passed, Eva mentioned them to a new art dealer friend, he was prepared to purchase around 100 originals. He mounted them and held an exhibition in his gallery in Wimbledon, London in 1998. Eva gave the remaining 100 printed cards to the Ephemera Society along with a batch of poems and the children's books.

Approximately 53 cards published by 'Sockl and Nathan' can be found in the extensive Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection. This collection is catalogued in her book entitled 'A Gallery Of Greetings' published in 1992. On seeing this book, Eva provided missing information about the company to her and also to the Manchester Metropolitan University who now have the collection. It is part of their Victorian Ephemera Collection housed in the Sir Kenneth Green Library on the All Saints Campus. This collection can be viewed by appointment, details are here http://www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk/victoria.php