Valentine card: P.14392-R

Titles

Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Dobbs, Henry

Entities

• Valentine card

Categories

• Print

Description

A hand-painted design of pink and blue flowers with detail in gold leaf, flaming hearts and a peacock at lower centre on 8vo-sized cream embossed paper with hand-painted edge in blue. An embossed neo-classical scene at the centre featuring Athena, Venus and Cupid, an embossed scroll painted in gold leaf below: BEAUTY GOVERNED BY PRUDENCE CROWNED BY VIRTUOUS LOVE. Embossed stamp at lower centre: DOBBS PATENT. A verse written by the sender on the right-hand inside page. The card has been folded several times and a hand-written address on the verso: "For / Esther Miles / No 35 Bucklersbury / City". Stamp in red ink: "T.P. / WOOD St". Postmark in red ink: "10. NOON.10 / FE.21 / 1829". Watermark: EDMEADS & CO / 1809. The discrepancy between watermark (1809) and postmark (1829) suggests either that Dobbs made large numbers of embossed blanks to be illuminated at a later date or that the firm laid in large stocks of paper which were embossed at a later date. Henry Dobbs was trading under the name Dobbs Patent from circa 1820-1838, so it seems more likely that paper made during the first decade of the nineteenth century was embossed at a later date. P.14385-R, P.14386-R, P.14410-R-8 and P.14410-R-12 have the same embossed design around the outer border. This card was included in the exhibition of valentine cards, _For ever thine: the nineteenth century valentine_, held in the Charrington Print Room at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1995, no. 27. P.14428-R is another valentine of a similar style by Henry Dobbs which is addressed to the same recipient (although apparently to 'Hester' Miles) and postmarked 1830.

Legal notes

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