Valentines of the Past

“Valentines of the past were exhibited last night at the Outlook Tower, Edinburgh, Miss Macmillan and the Misses Brown having arranged an extensive collection.

The sentimental types were represented by fragile cards bordered with lace paper, some quite small and others quarto size embellished with flowers, birds, hearts, bells and quaint figures of lovers dressed in all the colours of the rainbow. In one, which bore the inscription “Truth” the beloved would see her own face mirrored in a tiny glass when she opened the Valentine.

Conspicuous among the Valentines were a few drawn by Mrs Charles Doyle, mother of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and printed in Edinburgh sixty years ago, a border of plump cupids making merry round them. All the Valentines were not complimentary. Some poked fun at their object, and some were frankly abusive.”
Press clipping 1930

• Above
• “Love me Little, Love me Long”
• One from a set of six valentines printed in the 1870s
• drawn by the mother of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• 203 x 254mm (8 x 10in)

• Victorian Albums
• Victorian Scraps
• Father Tuck's Complete Picture Maker

• Lace-Paper Valentines
• Comic Valentines

• Easter Frolics
• In Fairyland

• A Victorian Christmas
• A Christmas Menagerie

• The Calendar
• Reward of Merit
• The English Lotteries

• Victorian Greeting Card Publishers

Copyright © 2021 Malcolm Warrington. All Rights Reserved.