Happy New Year! Marry me! Unrecorded German ‘Neujahrsbild.’

[New Year’s wishes]. Gestern Abends treumte mir Ich war so ganz beglückt mit Dir. Ich als Bräutigam und du als Braud. Durch Priesters Hand mir angetraut. Und wenn dieß sollte werden wahr. So wünsch ichs noch in diesem Jahr. S.l. [German-speaking lands]: s.n., s.a. [early 19th century]. [11.6 x 7.3 cm], [1] f. etching, with original hand color. Trimmed inside platemark on three sides, minor edge wear, remnants of mounting on verso, colors still fresh and bright.
 
 
Unrecorded early 19th-century German Neujahrsbild, or New Year’s card, here in an example enhanced with bright, contemporary hand coloring. Busts of two young men and two young women clothed in the latest First Empire fashions are depicted in ovals as if they were miniature portraits painted on ivory. 
 
The text reveals that this little gift was designed for a man to give to his sweetheart. A translation of these verses reads, “Last night I dreamt that I was so happy with you, I as the bridegroom and you as the bride, married to me by the priest’s hand. And for that to come true is what I wish for this year.”
 
Horst Heres notes that exchanging such pictures/cards at the turn of the year was a very old tradition with its roots in devotional/liturgical practice (“Neujahrsbilder haben eine sehr alte Tradition. Sie waren mit die ersten Andachtsbilder, die die Geburtsstätten des Andachtsbilds, die Klöster, verlassen haben, sei es als Pergamentminiaturen oder als Holzschnitte. Meist ist das Christkind darauf abgebildet, das Segenswünsche für das neue Jahr überbringt” [Heres, p. 87; See also Spamer, pp. 43-49). Here, the tradition has entered completely into the Romantic era.
 
 
OCLC and KVK do not locate any examples of this print.
 
*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert, pp. 43-49; Horst Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett, pp. 87-89.