Monday, February 14, 2011

VICTORIAN VALENTINES YOU HAVEN'T SEEN

Contemporary valentine cards (sample above) can get pretty nasty, but they don't compare in ferocity to Victorian cards. The Victorians were brutal!

So you thought those cards were all cherubs and swans. Well, think again!!! 


Here (above) the girl ridicules her boyfriend for being a clerk. Ouch! 



The sender of the card above appears to hold postmen in low esteem. I guess she's holding out for a Duke or an Earl.



Don't sell seafood if you want to win the heart of this woman (above)! 


Maybe the seafood guy replied to the fish disdainer with a card like this one (above).


Yikes! Here the Battle of the Cards escalates to the final extreme (above)!  The recipient  is described as a dried-up old spinster who reads silly books all day. Ouch and double Ouch!

I wish I knew how people responded to cards like these. Did they laugh them off or resort to fisticuffs?


5 comments:

Steven M. said...

Dang, Victorains sure were A-holes on Valentines day.

talkingtj said...

harsh, i wonder if they were gag cards.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

This is a comment I just recived on the "Leyendecker and Rockwell" post, June, 2009:

"It is true the Rockwell chased Leyendecker for the first part of his career as a young artist. He strove to copy Leyendecker's style, never actually accomplishing this feat. Leyendecker was a major perfectionist, continually practicing and re-drawing things. There are thousands of sketches of hands by Leyendecker. He was probably then father of the illustrated hand. But Rockwell eventually fell into his own style, after he moved away from Leyendecker and became immersed into another town and society. The truth is, Rockwell rose to great acclaim due to self promotion and boastfulness. Leyendecker was quiet and reserved, very private about his life. It's only now that we're seeing that while Rockwell was good, it was Leyendecker who did it all first, and did it better."

Anonymous said...

How can a "sentimental slut" whose guy-friend is clearly taking his washing off the line behind their shared abode be meant for a "spinster"? A slattern? Definitely. Spinster-don't t'ink so!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon:" Slattern!?" There's a word that hasn't seen the light of day in a long time! I wasn't able to reproduce the text that went with the image, but reading it left me uncertain about why the woman was called a slut, and who the man in the picture was. Maybe she's not a spinster.