Victorian Vintage Valentine's Day Wedding fans ribbon cards

The Valentine Card.......... history

The Victorians enjoyed Valentine's Day by giving and receiving elaborate decorated cards.

However, the Valentine's Day Holiday was celebrated many years before the Victorians were even born.

The exchange of the Valentine card was introduced in the early l800's. They were given as messages of love.

One of the more popular cards were the three dimensional fold out Valentine. These cards were first produced in Germany and England. However, with their popularity they become very prevalent in America. The cards were manufactured from pasteboard, so once they were broken they were beyond repair.

The three dimensional cards are very popular with collectors today, because not many have survived over the years.

The fold-out cards were being produced from the late l800's to the early l900's. They were made from heavier paper board then the three dimensional cards.

The fold-out cards were covered with lace, flowers, ribbon and angels. Most of these cards were not mailed because they were large and fragile. They had to be delivered in person.

These were more than cards they were a gift. People would display them in their parlor on a table, and the card would become a topic of conversation.

In the late l860's the album was introduced for preserving your cards. The album became all the rage. Scraps also began being produced in Germany which made the album become one of the first scrapbooks.

As you know, the Victorians loved flowers, so different types of roses became very popular on the Valentine Card. These were sometimes embossed to give the flowers realism.

The Valentine Card then started being produced with cupids, children and women. The images of the people on the cards were done to the specifications of what the Victorians believed to be beautiful. Such as; small noses, long lashes, perfect complexions etc...

As you have read, scraps were first produced in Germany as were most of these fold out type cards. To save money the factories would produce the many scraps on a single sheet of paper to send to the wholesalers.

The Valentine card of today seems to in some way lost its glamour. It seems even though we are mechanically more advanced we do not have the notion to produce such a lovely lost art.

Happy Exchanging your Valentine's

Source: Victorian Journal: Living Victorian

http://www.british-israel.ca/Valentine.htm

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