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Ask Not if I Love Thee Valentine card
Publisher: Unknown
A 'raised' valentine composed of two layers; a latticework arch of silvered lace-paper with scalloped edges and collage of pink gauze leaves and flower scrap frames a central varnished chromolithograph of flowers and birds with gilded detail. The frame is mounted with paper springs to a second layer of plain embossed paper with collage decoration of pink gauze leaves at lower centre and a cameo-embossed Cupid scrap with pink ground. A verse is printed in letterpress on the inside right-hand page: 'Ask / not if I Love Thee / Oh! ask not if I love thee / well, / For thou dost surely know, / It suits not maidens' lips to tell / They love - though it were so! ...'. Hand-written inscription in graphite on the album leaf: '2 /=' [2 shillings]. Presumably relates to an inscription found on the verso of the card.
Bequeathed by Dr J. W. L. Glaisher, 1928
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
19th Century
1840
-
1880
Letterpress
Chromolithography
Collage
Accession number: P.14413-R-7
Primary reference Number: 214857
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Ask Not if I Love Thee" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/214857 Accessed: 2025-12-10 21:01:18
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/214857
|title=Ask Not if I Love Thee
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-10 21:01:18|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-214857
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp77/P_14413_R_7_1_201607_amt49_dc2.jpg"
alt="Ask Not if I Love Thee"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Ask Not if I Love Thee</figcaption>
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