Valentine card: P.14346-R-3

Titles

Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Unknown

Entities

• Valentine card

Categories

• Print
• Album

Description

Aquatint and etching with hand-colouring on 4to-sized embossed white wove paper. From 'The Despondent Lover' (or 'The Unrequited Love') series. The border is lightly embossed with a design of leaves and flowers with a gap at upper centre where the lines of verse have been etched: "Why fear to answer yes? / This circling bond a charm / Will give existing bliss / Will plighted vows each bosom warm / Doubt not dear maid no guile with me / But love unto eternity." An inner etched border of a design featuring incense burners, putti, storks and birds of paradise surrounds the central panel which shows a young couple sitting on a bench in a garden, the man about to put a ring onto the finger of the woman. A black bird in a cage above and a spaniel at the feet of the young woman. A church is seen in the distance to the right. The etched border has been inexpertly hand-coloured (and less complete than seen in P.14346-R-2). The inside pages are blank. This is the same number from the series as P.14346-R-2, although the paper is less discoloured and the plate has been placed onto the paper in a different position. P.14346-R-L2 is another example but without a back paper. Frank Staff says of the series: 'The central picture of each shows a delightful aquatint, beautifully coloured and finished by hand. Although some of the scenes depict young ladies in grief, and one shows a jilted lover, not all of them are unhappy. ... The set numbers fourteen in all, which was recognised as the regular "valentine dozen".' The series was originally published in the 1830s, it is presumed, by Joseph Addenbrooke. However, according to Frank Staff: 'It has been noted that a set of this series is known on paper watermarked '1828', with Addenbrooke's name imprinted. Some time later, it seems likely that the plates came into someone else's possession, who filed off Addenbrooke's name from them and reprinted the entire series on un-watermarked paper. This could explain the plentiful supply still available and the comparatively worn state of the embossing on some copies.' See, Frank Staff, _The Valentine & Its Origins_, Lutterworth Press, London, 1969, figure 64, p. 60 and pp. 62-3. The Glaisher examples are on un-watermarked paper and without a maker's stamp and are most likely later reprints. The Museum of London holds examples of these prints, which are later reprints made by Jonathan King and they date them circa 1870-1885.

Legal notes

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