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A boxed valentine: P.14603-R

An image of Valentine card

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

A boxed valentine

Maker(s)

Publisher: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

A boxed valentine. A valentine contained inside a shallow white cardboard box with a lid. White lace-paper with a pink slip paper and pink silk panels and a second layer of lace-paper overlaid on paper springs with a central oval window framed with cream and blue woven lace and white net border bound with metallic thread. At the centre of the window is a collage of white net, linen flowers, imitation grasses with frosting and real quaker grass. The outer edge is studded with beads (pearls) on silver tinsel snowflake ornaments and a gilt scrap of a horn of plenty affixed at lower centre bears the motto, 'I am fondly thine own'. The lid of the box is inscribed in graphite in Glaisher's hand: 'Miss Acton's Valentine'. This inscription relates to a letter found loose within Glaisher's valentine collection which was sent to Glaisher from 'J.C. Acton' in 1925. See, Valentinesarchive1. The letter lists eight valentines with prices that were sent to Glaisher on approval, '1 in a box' priced at 5 shillings. Glaisher seems to have kept at least three of the other valentines from this group, including _Cupid's Dream_, P.14383-R, P.14366-R, a Stevengraph sachet valentine of the train 'Lord Howe', which is almost certainly the valentine listed as 'Railway train' in J.C. Acton's letter, and P.14384-R, which is the jewelled valentine. J.C. Acton was one of the daughters of the Brighton-based dealer, Walter Acton from whom Glaisher procured many of the valentines in his collection. The Actons sent Glaisher valentines on approval and he also visited their shop during trips to Brighton. One of the Misses Acton, presumably J.C. Acton, had her own collection of valentines of which Glaisher was very envious and from which he persuaded her to sell him some: 'I got her even to take one out of her album.'. See Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 892-1985, 14 September, 1924, letter to Miss Catherine Parsons (written on headed notepaper from The Grand Hotel, Brighton). P.14603-R 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. 51. This valentine was one of 12 included in the exhibition about J.W.L. Glaisher as collector, _James Whitbread Lee Glaisher ScD, FRS (1848-1928) Mathematician and Collector_, held in the Octagon Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1999, Case 9. The selection repeated that of the 1995 exhibition.

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
Production date: circa AD 1880

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Applied textile
Lithography
Collage

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.14603-R
Primary reference Number: 215548
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 14 February 2017 Updated: Friday 20 April 2018 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

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 (2024) "A boxed valentine" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/215548 Accessed: 2024-04-30 16:51:26

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/215548 |title=A boxed valentine |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-30 16:51:26|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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