Valentine card: P.14345-R-2

Titles

Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Unknown

Entities

• Valentine card

Categories

• Print
• Album

Description

Comic valentine; A hand-coloured woodcut of a female figure printed onto a large single sheet of thin wove paper. A grotesque female character is depicted who wears fashionable dress of the 1830s, the components of which have been grossly exaggerated even by the standards of the 1830s; An enormous, high-brimmed bonnet which is decorated with a large clutch of brightly-coloured feathers and flowers on the left side, balloon-like sleeves and a multi-frilled skirt. The mouth of the woman is open wide in a gaping, rictus grin with sharp, pointed teeth visible at the top like those of a snake. The woman's large nose and cheeks are coloured a lurid crimson. A printed verse in sloping script above and below: "That horrid face of yours Miss Prim / The Devil well might stare, / And yet, while grinning just like him, / You fancy you are fair, / O ancient maid, abhorr'd and stale, / How e'er dressed in the mode. / Connubial joys shall ever fail / To cheer thy curst abode." A faint graphite drawing copying the outline of the figure, which has been mostly erased, is visible at centre right. This appears to be of a later date. Inscriptions in graphite at upper left: "14 / 1/6" [1/6 denotes the price of 1 shilling and sixpence]. Copying was commonly practised as a method of art instruction for children. Children were also recipients of comic valentines and companies like Rimmel designed series' of comic valentines specifically for children. See advertisement for Rimmel's 'Our Gents and Misses (Satirical)' below the list of valentines produced for children: https://johnjohnsoncollectionnowandthen.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/johnson10-can-0004-0.jpg. The John Johnson Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford contains a very large collection of valentines and related valentines material. A wood engraving published in the _Illustrated Times_ in 1871 shows a group of children looking at valentine cards they have just received. An older boy studies what is clearly a caricature of a male figure with a large head, unkempt hair and scrawny neck. See catalogue of valentine cards sale at Christie's South Kensington, 10 February 1995, lot 45, illustrated p. 11. It seems likely that humorous caricatures like this one could have been used to capture the imaginations of children during copying exercises. See, for example Edward VII's copy of his instructor Edward Corbould's comic drawing of a soldier, reproduced in, Leah Kharibian, _Passionate Patrons, Victoria & Albert and the Arts_, Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd, London, 2010, p. 173.

Legal notes

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