Victorian Valentine: Collecting Expressions of Love

In a variation of the hidden name, or calling card style, this small, embossed card is embellished with a die-cut, or scrap, showing a wedding couple and a poem. The scrap does not lift, as expected, to reveal their name, so perhaps it was used  for the purpose of the modern “At Home” cards, and would have been personalized.

Victorian stereotypes of stiffly corseted women, mustachioed men with formal demeanor, and rigid rules of etiquette for both, can be happily disregarded when it comes to romance!  Expressions of love from that period clearly demonstrate that Victorians were often exceptionally sentimental and romantic – and, that they were fond of showing it in numerous special ways. My personal collection explores the history and evolution of that passion, as a large part of it evolved during that fascinating era. During the reign of Queen Victoria, some of the most dramatic events in our modern development occurred.  From the early nineteenth century, through the Industrial Revolution, and into the modern period of the early twentieth century, great changes affected the way everyone lived.  History, customs, ideas and ideals – all are reflected in an amazing social documentary, which I think of as a veritable chronicle of love.

Love’s Footfall is a wonderful gift booklet, full of gleeful cherubs and romantic imagery; published by the company of Ernest Nister, London, England, and Nuremburg, Germany, 1880s.

As a new contributor to the online Victoriana Magazine, I am honored to share my love of this subject with you.    In the next issue, February 2007, I will focus on the incredible world of Valentines.  Here, I attempt to rationalize my passionate collecting by showing related objects I have acquired to enhance the things I love.   My collections are largely paper, and the world of ephemera is one I hope to explore within these pages; however, my love for Valentines provided the excuse to search for many other romantic objects.  Sometimes I am sure that the term, incurable collector, was created just for me!   

The Language of Flowers was a popular guide for Victorian young ladies, composed of flower symbolism and poetry. Tussy Mussy bouquets, often created to camouflage body odor or foul smells of the street, became messages unto themselves. Flowers became a means of hidden declaration, ardor, rendezvous, or any other sentiment difficult to verbalize -- unbridled by general rules of refinement.

In reality, Valentines became my excuse to collect all manner of things! A fascination with their floral messages led me to the poetic Language of Flowers, and another collection evolved. Antique books on the subject, and period tussy mussy holders became a new focus as I envisioned their use to showcase exhibitions and photographic projects!  Grouping complementary items together provided a glimpse how they would have been originally enjoyed, and provided a new dimension to the pieces themselves. Romantic Spencerian penmanship guided me to sentimental ladies’ albums, and the tender appeal of folk art opened doors to unique friendship memorabilia.  Marriage  – the culmination of the process– has a focus on certificates and invitations, photographs and memorabilia, and even glorious French wedding domes. The process took on a life of its own, the totality almost assuming greater significance. 

The excitement grew as my process began to expand exponentially, but beautifully. I could now tell a story through complementary items – from fans to lace, from friendship canes to pressed flower albums of the Grand Tour – it began to reveal the flavor of the people who made, gave, and received the loving expressions in which I had immersed myself.  Naïve folk art, with its surprisingly complex puzzle purse, cameo-embossed lace paper embellished with faux-jewels, childish illustrations by Kate Greenaway and Frances Brundage – all fit so perfectly in the context of my collection. An unlikely group, but they became cohesive for, within my hands, I could actually hold the evolution of my subject, and it all made sense.

Fidelity represents the most sophisticated quality of these cards, which would have been used individually, or pasted on the interior page of an elegant lace paper Valentine.  Occasionally, a majestic Valentine may have a small envelope affixed someplace, which opens to reveal a wondrous card such as this, circa 1850.

Finding the missing pieces of my puzzle, sharing the story of people who were just like us, and touching the fingerprints of love – that became the real collection.  No longer limited, it expanded to encompass a wide range of expressions of love and marriage; in fact, many of the same manufacturers produced mourning cards, bookmarks, and blanks for people to draw or embroider their own personalized love tokens.  My passion became a pursuit of the ways in which people shared their innermost thoughts and dreams – and I became their archivist. As treasures were brought out of attics and albums, and inheritors sought pecuniary gratification, my archives became the repository of love and romance; and I became obliged to preserve their love for other generations to savor. In addition to the pure pleasure of an enhanced collection, a distinct justification is that the sheer volume and range provided sufficient examples to enable scholarly research, making a solid contribution to the available knowledge on the subject.

After several articles appeared in the late Victoria Magazine, I was encouraged to create reproductions of some Valentines – a small business which I still pursue.  My accumulated archive of ephemera – collated by my devoted husband, has now evolved into a searchable archive of love and romance, marriage and family, nature and holidays. All the bits and pieces -- and the many treasures – we gathered compulsively at antique shows and online over thirty years, have merged into something meaningful.  

I have always believed that the collecting process has three aspects: acquisition, ownership, and the greatest pleasure – sharing.  Through numerous projects, I have been able to share the wonderful imagery within this expanded collection, making it available for others to enjoy.  My projects have ranged from a collectors’ video to some amazing Christmas stamps for the nation of Gibraltar; seeing my die-cuts and postcards transformed has been emotionally rewarding.  Five exciting new books for crafters, using my antique and vintage ephemera – from labels to Valentines, birds to butterflies, and angels to Santa Claus – have truly placed my personal archive into the mainstream. Working on a home computer, someone can now adapt or combine antique images to create a new, personalized artwork.  Sharing is especially gratifying!

So this first article is an exploration into the convoluted mind of this collector, as much as Victorian romance. I have learned that the emotions of Victorian people are not too different from people in the twenty-first century, that the heart is unchanging, and love is the constant.
 

About the author:  Nancy Rosin is  President of the National Valentine Collector’s Association and Vice-President of the Ephemera Society of America. Her web site, Nancy Rosin’s Victorian Treasury, contains a wealth of information about the history of valentines, information about the National Valentine Collectors Association, plus Nancy Rosin’s posters, antique and vintage valentines, collectors’ video, and reproduction greetings.