Victorian valentine’s notes â in images | existence and magnificence | The Guardian
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Victorian valentine’s cards â in images
Victorian romantic days celebration notes â in pictures
The custom of delivering anonymous romantic days celebration notes originated from great britain and was popularised from the Victorians once mass-produced, pre-printed notes became readily available. The Laura Seddon Range presented by
Manchester Metropolitan College’s Specialized Collections
was amassed over 25 years and possesses above 50,000 notes. Some of these notes reflect the sentimentality we expect through the supposedly prim and appropriate Victorians, while some indicate to us a bawdier, grittier area with their character â as well as their love schedules
Sarah Gilbert
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a center Valentine featuring silver lace and an image of Cupid, from the later part of the 1850s. Victorian Valentines had been delivered anonymously and frequently transported no message on the individual â it had been expected that Valentine by itself will be information sufficient
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Rude and vulgar cards started initially to seem alongside the frillier variations utilizing the intoduction of colour publishing and less costly manufacturing expenses. Men and women identical discovered on their own the butt for the comical passages, such as the one on this subject card published by JT wooden of London, for the 1840s or 50s
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Some notes had transferring components, worked by a tab, similar to this one that caricatures a guy with animal qualities
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Occasionally a scented sachet was delivered as opposed to a paper Valentine. This one with silver lace and plants and a woven cotton information at the heart backdoor dating with from 1870s
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a printing showing the „Vicissitudes of enjoy & Matrimony“, with man and wife increasing and along the ladder of fact, go out unknown. The drawings echo the severe fact of life for a number of Victorian women
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Valentines were usually familiar with get assertive young men down a peg or two â as can be seen in this card showing a strutting soldier with a revealing shadow
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An embossed Valentine with hand-coloured edges dating from 1860s-70s and manufactured by George Meek
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This credit matchmaking from the 1880s seems a strange example of a Valentine: the sender is apparently disillusioned by the recipient
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Dating from 1828, nine years before Queen Victoria took towards throne, this Valentine is among a couple of 14 called „The Despondent Lovers“ crafted by Addenbrooke, a professional card-manufacturing firm
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This cheap Valentine printed of the respected editors S Marks & Sons of London, reveals the devil making use of his fork on an „old maid“, and times from 1840s or 50s
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„My personal precious, the facts by yourself we utter/In saying you are because excess fat as butter/Fat girls I favor thus you should not decline/To be my personal pleasant Valentine.“ Laura Seddon opinions in her catalogue that is actually cheeky card is particularly strange, and that a professional had informed her it was a „mixture of intaglio etching engraved from material dish“. It dates from around 1840s, even though the costume outfit does not look like on the duration