Anonymous

A Sachet Valentine

S. l. (England), s. n. 1860. Sachet valentine, n. d. (1860s); 5 x 3 1/2; several layers of gilded and embossed paper lace, forming an elaborate, 4-sided envelope; recto with two die-cut chromolithographs of flowers and butterflies; verso with a larger chromolithograph of a floral bouquet; silk satchet within, with a poem printed on it; remarkably well-preserved, with minor loss of paper to edges; in very good or better condition. Although unsigned, the stunning valentine could possibly be attributed to Benjamin Sulman - renowned British lithographer and manufacturer of greeting cards and valentines in the 1860s and 1870s, in the lavish style of the current one and quite often containing a perfumed sachet. The novelty of a sachet valentine would have been irresistible to the ladies - what with receiving a secret message, printed on a pad of perfumed silk, which reads: “Forget-Me-Not”: I have a little flower I tend it ev’ry day I place it where the sun- beam May warm it with its ray, I would thou wert that flower! And I, the sun to thee How sweetly should’st thou bask love, In purest beams from me-- I’d peer into each dew- drop bright, That in thy petals lay And finding there imag’d light, I’d kiss thy drops away! . Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 004184

Catalogue: Valentine

Keywords: Valentine, Perfume

Anonymous

You Would Get Married [a Vinegar Valentine]

New York, US Engraving Works. First Edition. Broadside, n. d. (second half of the 19th century)); 11 1/2 x 6 1/4; hand-colored illustration with a six-line poem below; small part of the image colored at a later date; faint intersecting crease lines with tiny nicks to edges of creass; small, period manuscript notes to bottom of recto and top of verso; tiny square of paper excised from lower left margin; overall in very good condition. Comic valentines, later to become known as vinegar valentines or Penny Dreadful, began to flourish in the US and Britain in the 1840s. Unlike the pretty, sentimental, conventional ones, the former were cheap, teasing, or even downright mean and insulting, and they usually made fun of traits, physical characteristics, or professions. Although produced in tremendous quantities, given their popularity, not many of the early ones have survived, as people naturally got rid of the nasty notes. The current one depicted a disheveled man, sitting and holding a baby and a small child, with another toddler sprawled in his feet, all three yowling and tear-stained. The text read: "Poor fool, allow me to extend / The sympathy of a pitying friend; / These things are always learned when it's too late, / For babies come as sure as fate; / There are plenty of fellows in your same condition, / Who find matrimony a living prdition." To add insult to injury, whomever gifted the valentine had added two extra-snippy manuscript notes - "This is what you will look like an year from now" and "Look Before You Leap." . Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 003475

Catalogue: Vinegar Valentine

Keywords: Vinegar Valentine