After 10 years of privately designing holiday cards for friends and family, in 2023, artist Jane Cantius launched Butternut Press 53 Holiday Cards.
50% of our profits are committed to world relief organizations such as World Central Kitchen, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and others. Created for wholesale distribution to a limited number of museum stores, independent booksellers and stationers; these cards are dedicated to extending the spirit of holiday giving. Butternut Press's imagery is unique in its photographic presentation. Cantius's cards depict playful dioramas of winter scenes to celebrate the holiday season. The winter solstice is about the promise of a new light in that darkest time of the year. Vintage objects cast magical spells of joy and peace for a New Year. Story telling is hinted at in a whimsical and quirky fashion.
Our cards are influenced by many artists and art periods from Quattrocento Italian painters, Outside/Magical artists such as Henri Rouseau and Martin Ramirez. The Surrealists artists, including Rene Magritte, Geogio DiChirico, and Joseph Cornell, create the kind of quiet quirky spaces that Butternut Press 53 seeks to share as well. Japanese woodcuts, wood engravings, fairy tales, and nature poets inspire us.
Butternut Press 53 is housed in a 100 year old brick bakery in Keene, NH. Butternut Bakery produced breads and pastries in this lovely building from 1903 - 1943. In its era of peak production, over 15,000 loaves a week were delivered to the Monadnock Region.
Butternut Press 53 is named in memory of that producer of sustenance and sweets in the hopes of continuing that tradition.