Pour Féliciter
History, Tradition, and the Art
of the Little Card.
of the Little Card.
From diplomacy to art
Pavel Osipau
Europe has a small, charming tradition that brings together artistry, friendly warmth and festive symbolism: the New Year greeting card marked simply "PF". The letters stand for the French pour féliciter, "to congratulate", and they go back to the nineteenth century, when French was the language of diplomacy, culture and good manners. Brief initials like these began to appear on New Year and Christmas cards across Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and the rest of Central Europe, and before long "PF" became a sign in its own right: a short, heartfelt wish that needed no translation. These little cards were exchanged as tokens of respect and goodwill.
At first, the PF belonged to aristocratic and high-society circles. Diplomats, industrialists and bankers sent it to show regard for their partners and, quietly, to show their taste, so the designs were often entrusted to artists, graphic designers and even well-known architects, who turned a miniature format into genuine art. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries postcard publishing was thriving, and studios in Prague, Vienna, Budapest and beyond specialised in festive cards, decorating them with Art Nouveau ornament, fine lithography and carefully composed layouts. Then the PF gradually stopped being a privilege of the elite. Sending one became a warm, almost domestic habit, rather like sending a text message today, only with more care, more attention to detail and an artistic touch visible in every line.
At first, the PF belonged to aristocratic and high-society circles. Diplomats, industrialists and bankers sent it to show regard for their partners and, quietly, to show their taste, so the designs were often entrusted to artists, graphic designers and even well-known architects, who turned a miniature format into genuine art. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries postcard publishing was thriving, and studios in Prague, Vienna, Budapest and beyond specialised in festive cards, decorating them with Art Nouveau ornament, fine lithography and carefully composed layouts. Then the PF gradually stopped being a privilege of the elite. Sending one became a warm, almost domestic habit, rather like sending a text message today, only with more care, more attention to detail and an artistic touch visible in every line.
A Mirror of the Ages
Photography gave the PF a second life. As early as the 1920s and 1930s, photographic greeting cards began to appear in Czechoslovakia and Austria, intimate in mood and surprisingly rich in artistic expression. Photographers experimented boldly. Some captured snow-covered city streets, others winter landscapes and Christmas fairs, and others still staged theatrical scenes with models in festive costume. The obligatory "PF" and the digits of the coming year were no longer stuck on as an afterthought but woven into the picture itself, inseparable from its composition. In the 1960s and 1970s it was the turn of graphic artists, who treated the small card as a canvas for the spirit of the age, from strict modernist geometry to lyrical graphics and abstraction.
The cards also mirrored history. During the First World War they sometimes carried martial imagery: soldiers, flags, heroes. Between the wars they radiated optimism and faith in progress, with factories, steamships, aeroplanes and power lines. In the postwar years the mood grew quieter and more intimate, with snowbound villages, children by the Christmas tree, family scenes and a calm winter harmony. Each era left its mark, and taken together the cards form a kind of cultural diary that records people's hopes and anxieties, their tastes and the spirit of their times. A greeting had become a miniature artwork, able to hold an entire history within its small frame.
The cards also mirrored history. During the First World War they sometimes carried martial imagery: soldiers, flags, heroes. Between the wars they radiated optimism and faith in progress, with factories, steamships, aeroplanes and power lines. In the postwar years the mood grew quieter and more intimate, with snowbound villages, children by the Christmas tree, family scenes and a calm winter harmony. Each era left its mark, and taken together the cards form a kind of cultural diary that records people's hopes and anxieties, their tastes and the spirit of their times. A greeting had become a miniature artwork, able to hold an entire history within its small frame.
PF Today
The PF is no relic. It is a living genre in which photography, graphic design, personal style and creative expression meet, and in the digital age it has moved well beyond the private greeting to become a means of visual communication, artistic statement and self-expression. Contemporary authors do not confine themselves to the standard card. They experiment with format, combine photography with digital effects, and play with typography, texture and colour. Interest in the personal is especially strong: designers add calligraphy, bespoke typefaces and unconventional layouts, so that the card becomes a small piece of design in its own right.
Nor are PF cards only paper any more. Digital PFs matter more and more, through online catalogues, virtual exhibitions and galleries, and even when a printed card exists, how it looks on screen and how it is received online matters just as much. Many competitions now ask for both print and digital versions, because the online audience is vast and the PF lives in both worlds at once. As the world grows more connected, themes and visual motifs mingle across cultures, and authors draw on everyday scenes, winter landscapes, festive decorations, city lights and quiet moments at home. What counts is not the particular scene but the feeling: warmth, anticipation, the moment when the old year and the new one meet in a single frame.
More and more, PF cards are also seen as contemporary art objects. Collectors, galleries and cultural projects include them in exhibitions and albums, and making one can demand as much time and care as any other artwork: choosing the light, composing the shot, refining every detail. Above all, the PF today looks inward, to personal stories, individual symbols and singular visual solutions. It is no longer simply "snow and a fir tree". It is about how the image is presented, about its character, and about you as the artist. The PF remains a gesture of attention, but one rendered in a contemporary key, where every element has meaning and every format belongs to a wider visual narrative.
Nor are PF cards only paper any more. Digital PFs matter more and more, through online catalogues, virtual exhibitions and galleries, and even when a printed card exists, how it looks on screen and how it is received online matters just as much. Many competitions now ask for both print and digital versions, because the online audience is vast and the PF lives in both worlds at once. As the world grows more connected, themes and visual motifs mingle across cultures, and authors draw on everyday scenes, winter landscapes, festive decorations, city lights and quiet moments at home. What counts is not the particular scene but the feeling: warmth, anticipation, the moment when the old year and the new one meet in a single frame.
More and more, PF cards are also seen as contemporary art objects. Collectors, galleries and cultural projects include them in exhibitions and albums, and making one can demand as much time and care as any other artwork: choosing the light, composing the shot, refining every detail. Above all, the PF today looks inward, to personal stories, individual symbols and singular visual solutions. It is no longer simply "snow and a fir tree". It is about how the image is presented, about its character, and about you as the artist. The PF remains a gesture of attention, but one rendered in a contemporary key, where every element has meaning and every format belongs to a wider visual narrative.
PF-Postcard
Belarusian Collection.
The Belarusian PF-Postcard
Belarus has a rich and distinctive history in the greeting-card genre. As early as the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, printers in Minsk, Vilnius and Hrodna were producing Christmas and New Year cards that showed winter landscapes with Belarusian forests, snowy town streets, angels, traditional Christmas trees and ornaments drawn from local decorative art. The French "PF" appeared only now and then, but the idea behind it, an artistic greeting and a picture that carries good wishes, gradually became part of the country's cultural life. The tradition carried on through the Soviet period. The "PF" designation all but vanished, yet the card itself became part of mass culture, with New Year series printed in millions of copies and sent across the whole country. Belarusian artists and photographers filled them with national motifs such as village fairs, winter markets, folklore characters and family celebrations. These cards were more than decoration. They created a sense of community and celebration and became a kind of visual language of their era, and from the late 1950s many publishing houses and art workshops in Minsk specialised in festive imagery, helping Belarus build its own tradition within the genre.
The 1990s changed the picture. Open borders and renewed cultural dialogue with Europe brought the PF back to Belarus, and many artists began again to make small cards bearing the letters "PF", often by hand or with photographic techniques. These were intimate, deeply personal works, miniature art objects stamped with the author's individuality, and they were both a means of self-expression and a courteous nod to the European tradition. For photographers the genre also became a school of craftsmanship, teaching the discipline of putting a large idea into a small format and fitting a whole visual world into a single card.
Today the PF card in Belarus is entering a new stage, as a distinct form of photographic art. The Belarusian Public Association of Photographers actively supports it through competitions, exhibitions and international collaboration. Since the 2000s, exhibitions devoted to PF cards have been held regularly in Minsk and other cities, and selected works have been published in catalogues that now form a visual chronicle of modern Belarusian culture. The international PF contest, launched by Belarusian photographers, has become a meeting place for emerging talents and established masters, and the exhibitions have grown into significant cultural events that draw large audiences and strengthen Belarus's image as a country with a vivid artistic identity. For Belarusian photographers the PF is more than a tribute to the past. It is a living form of cultural dialogue, in which history, national symbolism and contemporary exploration meet, and they try to capture in it not only the festive mood but also the spirit of the time: social change, cultural expectations, personal hopes. The card becomes a kind of social mirror, a concise but searching record of the year that is leaving and of the dreams for the one ahead. As visual culture moves ever further into the digital realm, it keeps its unique value as a tangible witness to human connection and a cultural code that bridges generations. For Belarus, the PF is at once a tribute to tradition, an element of national identity and a vital part of contemporary artistic life.
The 1990s changed the picture. Open borders and renewed cultural dialogue with Europe brought the PF back to Belarus, and many artists began again to make small cards bearing the letters "PF", often by hand or with photographic techniques. These were intimate, deeply personal works, miniature art objects stamped with the author's individuality, and they were both a means of self-expression and a courteous nod to the European tradition. For photographers the genre also became a school of craftsmanship, teaching the discipline of putting a large idea into a small format and fitting a whole visual world into a single card.
Today the PF card in Belarus is entering a new stage, as a distinct form of photographic art. The Belarusian Public Association of Photographers actively supports it through competitions, exhibitions and international collaboration. Since the 2000s, exhibitions devoted to PF cards have been held regularly in Minsk and other cities, and selected works have been published in catalogues that now form a visual chronicle of modern Belarusian culture. The international PF contest, launched by Belarusian photographers, has become a meeting place for emerging talents and established masters, and the exhibitions have grown into significant cultural events that draw large audiences and strengthen Belarus's image as a country with a vivid artistic identity. For Belarusian photographers the PF is more than a tribute to the past. It is a living form of cultural dialogue, in which history, national symbolism and contemporary exploration meet, and they try to capture in it not only the festive mood but also the spirit of the time: social change, cultural expectations, personal hopes. The card becomes a kind of social mirror, a concise but searching record of the year that is leaving and of the dreams for the one ahead. As visual culture moves ever further into the digital realm, it keeps its unique value as a tangible witness to human connection and a cultural code that bridges generations. For Belarus, the PF is at once a tribute to tradition, an element of national identity and a vital part of contemporary artistic life.
PF-Postcard
Belarusian Collection.
Why PF Cards are so Valuable?
There is a certain magic about PF cards. Their value lies not only in their festive purpose but in their rare ability to join art, history and personal memory. Each card is a miniature artwork in which typographic tradition, graphic design, photography and composition meet, and unlike mass-produced greetings it has an unmistakable individuality, whether it is a nineteenth-century lithograph, a 1930s photographic experiment or a contemporary digital composition. A PF is never just a card. It is a gesture of attention, a token of respect, a small work of art made to carry the joy and spirit of the New Year.
For art historians and collectors, the PF is especially fascinating as a document of its time. It reflects the artistic styles of every era, from the refined elegance of Art Nouveau to minimalist graphic design, from intimate black-and-white photography to vivid modern abstraction, and through these small cards one can trace shifts in culture, society and even politics, from wartime symbolism and industrial optimism to lyrical scenes of domestic warmth. The Belarusian PF holds a special place in this heritage. Here the greeting-card tradition found its own national voice, blending the European visual code with distinctly Belarusian motifs, and local artists filled their cards not only with festive spirit but with the character of their time: landscapes, folklore, everyday detail. Each work becomes more than a seasonal message. It becomes a fragment of Belarus's visual heritage, kept for future generations.
Today the PF is seen not just as a personal greeting but as a collectible art form. Galleries, archives and private collections increasingly include PF cards in exhibitions and catalogues, recognising both their aesthetic and their historical significance. For the artist, a PF offers a compact space for creative expression. For the collector, it preserves a unique piece of cultural history. For the viewer, it is a direct encounter with a living tradition that links past and present. PF cards are precious precisely because of their double nature: personal and collective, functional and artistic, fleeting and timeless. Within their small frames they hold an astonishing amount, the history of an era, the artist's hand, and the emotion that makes art truly alive.
For art historians and collectors, the PF is especially fascinating as a document of its time. It reflects the artistic styles of every era, from the refined elegance of Art Nouveau to minimalist graphic design, from intimate black-and-white photography to vivid modern abstraction, and through these small cards one can trace shifts in culture, society and even politics, from wartime symbolism and industrial optimism to lyrical scenes of domestic warmth. The Belarusian PF holds a special place in this heritage. Here the greeting-card tradition found its own national voice, blending the European visual code with distinctly Belarusian motifs, and local artists filled their cards not only with festive spirit but with the character of their time: landscapes, folklore, everyday detail. Each work becomes more than a seasonal message. It becomes a fragment of Belarus's visual heritage, kept for future generations.
Today the PF is seen not just as a personal greeting but as a collectible art form. Galleries, archives and private collections increasingly include PF cards in exhibitions and catalogues, recognising both their aesthetic and their historical significance. For the artist, a PF offers a compact space for creative expression. For the collector, it preserves a unique piece of cultural history. For the viewer, it is a direct encounter with a living tradition that links past and present. PF cards are precious precisely because of their double nature: personal and collective, functional and artistic, fleeting and timeless. Within their small frames they hold an astonishing amount, the history of an era, the artist's hand, and the emotion that makes art truly alive.
