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Valentine card: P.14545-R

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An image of Valentine card
An image of Valentine card
An image of Valentine card
Current Location: In storage

Titles

Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

A comic valentine on thin white laid paper, which has been cut down, thereby removing publisher's details. The style is similar to comic valentines produced by S. Marks & Sons in Houndsditch. A hand-coloured lithograph of a footman in livery standing in a kitchen (a dresser loaded with crockery behind) being embraced by a maid wearing a green dress and frilly cap. A verse is printed below, the first line of which has been cut and pasted from a different source to exaggerate the lewd content of the image. This text is placed within square brackets: '[He calmly buttoned up his great and small], / Really James it must distress you. / When so many try to gain, / A love like yours, tho' they caress you, / Still their object's very plain.'. A graphite inscription is visible above the figures inside a speech bubble and is imagined speech spoken by the maid: 'Oh James you a'nt [sic] going / to desert me _now_'. P.14545-R is one of several cheap comic woodcuts found in the 'Chamberlain envelope' which have additional text or imagery cut and pasted into the original and/or imagined speech (often very lewd in content) added in the form of graphite inscriptions written in the same hand (not Glaisher's). Glaisher presumably bought these as a group from another collection at auction or from a dealer. See also P.14542-R, P.14543-R and P.14547-R.

Legal notes

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

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

19th Century
1850 - 1860

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Hand colouring
Lithography

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.14545-R
Primary reference Number: 215490

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 14 February 2017 Updated: Tuesday 3 August 2021

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Valentine card" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/215490 Accessed: 2025-12-23 13:51:19

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/215490 |title=Valentine card |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-23 13:51:19|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp77/P_14545_R_1_201611_amt49_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Valentine card"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Valentine card</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>

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