Valentine card: P.14344-R-2

Titles

Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Dobbs, Henry

Entities

• Valentine card

Categories

• Print
• Album

Description

Lace-paper (same lace-paper design as P.14344-R-1) with a central, oval-shaped panel which is hand-decorated with a collage of dried grasses, cut-paper leaves and a chromolithographed scrap of fruit and flowers. A printed and hand-coloured bird cut-out is affixed at the right. The flower cut-out lifts up to reveal a handwritten inscription in blue ink: "Will you to me / your heart resign? / and in return / I'll give you mine." A cut-out, wood-engraved scroll printed in gold metallic ink at lower centre bears the handwritten verse: "Beauty, youth & endless Spring / dwell upon thy rosy wing". Handwritten verses like these were probably sourced from a Valentine Writer, a book with verses inside it suitable for a Valentine's Day message to a loved one. Valentine Writers were produced for men and women or compiled as suitable for both sexes during the late 18th-century, before pre-made cards with printed verses were commonplace, although they were still being published during the first half of the 19th century. The inside of the card is blank. DOBBS, KIDD & CO blind-embossed at lower centre (visible from the verso). The backing paper bears a visible Whatman watermark. A hand-written inscription in graphite on the album leaf below P.14344-R-1 and adjacent to P.14344-R-2 states: "Price 1 /= each c.1850". N.B. /= denotes shillings. The hand has been identified as belonging to Glaisher's friend, local Antiquarian, Catherine Parsons (1890-1956), who arranged and assembled his valentine albums in 1924. Her hand is seen elsewhere throughout album P.14344-R. The firm of Henry Dobbs was known as Dobbs, Kidd & Co. between around 1851 into the 1890s.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Dr J. W. L. Glaisher, 1928