Description

A highly decorative art-deco Christmas card, with a verse from Genesis (8:19): Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark on the cover was made by the General Staff of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force in 1921. The cover represents a soldier, an elephant and a lamassu, an Assyrian protective deity, all in forms of Christmas toys, on the crossroad showing the ways to Ararat, with the Noah’s Arch, “Baghdad & Beyond” and “to the Sea”. 

The printed text inside reads: With the Best of wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. General Staff, G. H. Q. Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. Christmas 1921. It is signed with Christian Road, Baghdad 1921. 

The Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force in 1921 was present in what is now known as Iraq, after the region separated from the Ottoman empire, before the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of October 1922, which allowed a local self-government while giving the British control of foreign and military affairs.