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An Important Question: P.14601-R

An image of Valentine card
View image details Mirador icon - view image Mirador deep zoom IIIF Manifest IIIF Manifest Slow looking

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

Titles

An Important Question
Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Dobbs, Henry

Entities

Categories

Description

A valentine of white lace-paper with front and back mounted and adhered together onto a folded sheet of thin, white wove coated paper. A flower-shaped window is cut at the centre of the panel on the lace-paper front and edge in blue and red inks. Mounted inside is a cut-paper, hand-painted bird with a real feather tail. The bird holds a small, white paper 'envelope' in its beak which opens to display the question: 'Do you love me?' handwritten in blue ink. Leafy stems are hand-painted around the bird. A collage of cut-paper flowers and foliage at lower centre hides a hidden message written in a different hand in black ink at left and right: 'I love' ; 'but thee'. Underneath the left side of the collage a partial, embossed name is almost certainly, 'Dobbs & Co'. A price is inscribed on the verso in graphite at upper left: '2/6 [2 shillings and sixpence]'. Found loose with P.14600-R inside a white envelope printed in black ink: 'UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE'. The envelope is stored with P.14600-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

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Watercolour
Pen and ink
Collage

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.14601-R
Primary reference Number: 215546

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 14 February 2017 Updated: Friday 26 January 2018

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) "An Important Question" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/215546 Accessed: 2025-12-08 11:31:28

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/215546 |title=An Important Question |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-08 11:31:28|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp77/P_14601_R_1_201611_amt49_dc2.jpg"
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        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">An Important Question</figcaption>
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