A Guide to Vintage & Antique Valentine's Day Cards • Adirondack Girl @ Heart (2024)

Hi there! We’ll be looking at collecting vintage Valentine’s Day cards today. Who doesn’t remember those elementary school days filled with die-cut cuties?? Oh how I wish I had saved some of them! But I have plenty for us to take a look at, and you’ll find more in this vintage Valentine’s post, too.

I actually had to finish up two blog posts because next week I’m taking another work retreat to focus on a vintage-y writing project. I’m SO looking forward to it.

My sweet husband will join me on the last night to celebrate Valentine’s Day, which is next Friday by the way, in case you’ve lost track of time.

Check out last week’s vintage Valentine project and my Valentine’s Day gift guide if you’re looking for some ideas 🙂

History Behind the Holiday: Valentine’s Day

The roots of Valentine’s Day, like those of many other modern holidays, extend back to an ancient pagan celebration. In this case, historians feel that its origins can likely be traced to the Feast of Lupercalia, celebrated on February 15th.

This feast involved fertility-related animal sacrifice and matchmaking rituals. Hmmm. Let’s just say a heart-felt “thank you” to the Catholic Church for transitioning away from that craziness.

They accomplished this by honoring the death of a saint named Valentine who had been martyred on, you guessed it February 14th, sometime in the 3rd century. As the story goes, St. Valentine married couples illegally after the Emperor had actually forbidden marriage.

Apparently, the Emperor had discovered that men make better warriors when they don’t have wives and children to worry about. This led the soldiers to marry in secret, with the help of St. Valentine. Thus, laying the groundwork for February 14th to become the romantic holiday we now call Valentine’s Day.

Centuries later we find the very first written reference to St. Valentine’s Day being linked to love. In 1382, Chaucer wrote this line of poetry: “For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.”

As a result of Chaucer’s poem, the celebration of love and February 14th became forever entwined and the word “lovebird” came into being.

Collecting Antique Victorian Valentine’s Day Postcards

It would take some centuries for the holiday to fully develop into what we know and love today. King Henry VII of England declared it a national holiday in 1537 and lovebirds during this era, further encouraged by poets like Shakespeare, gave love tokens of handmade cards and flowers to their lovers. source: thirdshift3.com (you can download them there)

Postcards, like those you see here, were among the first mass-produced Valentines to hit the market in England (1880-1910). Prior to this, most were too costly for the average person and therefore handmade.Folded cards delivered in envelopes and children’s die-cut Valentines would come later.

Notice the light blue forget-me-knots on both cards (and those below, too). Victorians practiced the art of “floriography,” or “the language of flowers,” whereby each type of flower had a meaning attributed to it. So a card with “forget-me-knots” or a bouquet of the same expressed one’s feelings toward the recipient.

source: thirdshift3.com (you can download them there)

Both cupid and angel iconography are commonly found on early Valentines and modeling them after children only added to the “aww” factor.

This interesting 1874 advertisem*nt from an English publication gives you an idea of the strong market for all sorts of Valentine-related goods: perfumed and lace cards, elegant sachets, various styles of cards, fan-shaped cards, cards for children, and even musical Valentine’s(!). It suggests just how popular the holiday had grown during the Victorian period.

Dating to 1909, this postcard features daisies, a cherub, and bad poetry:

This daisy heart. A work of art give to you, tis thine, And also may I ask of you To be my Valentine?

It’s part of a series produced in the US called the Cupid Valentine Series; each card in the series displayed a different flower. While not specifically produced for Valentine’s Day, this comedic postcard dating to 1914 implies that the young Dutch (?) man is attempting to make a love connection of some sort. He says, “I wish you’d make your problems mine problems too!“

Manufactured in America, it contains a note on the back with a sign-off in German: liebes fraulein immer dein, which means “Dear lady, always yours.” In addition, I found a simple logo–a B superimposed by an S on the bottom left corner–though I don’t know who to attribute it to.

Here’s another Dutch example, made by a different company (AA), with a pretty sweet sentiment: “But for you I would be a bachelor“(!).

I find myself drawn to the card on the right with its depiction of romantic love showing real people as opposed to images of children, cartoons, or cherubs. They look like they love each other and that’s very touching. As is the saying, “You suit me to a T.” It dates to 1910.

An Antique Valentine-Related Trade Card

Although it’s not technically a Valentine’s Day card, I had to include this trade card (for what product, I don’t know) since it so clearly depicts Valentine-y themes like flowers and cherubs.

It’s lightly embossed and I would date it to the 1910’s or 20’s. Certainly someone from that era might have used it as a Valentine or tucked it into a gift of candy or flowers. You can get this trade card free when you subscribe here 🙂

Collecting Vintage German Valentine’s Day Cards

I couldn’t find any specific information on how the custom of school children trading Valentine’s developed, although it’s easy enough to imagine how a teacher observing cards delivered to just a few classmates would turn that into a project for the entire class.

In this way, ideally, no one would be left out. The sweet cards you see here, all made in Germany, date to sometime in the 1920’s-1930’s. Printed on cardstock and brightly hued, they reflect the German commitment to quality and don’t contain any of the silly puns or humor that we now associate with children’s Valentine cards.

Vintage 1940’s Valentine’s Day Cards Mad in the U.S.A.

Here are two examples of 1940’s folding cards made in the US that would have been mailed in envelopes. The clown card reads: “I just LOVE to be “just friends” with YOU!” Surely a crushing blow to the recipient, I suspect.

The bear card, on the other hand declares, “This message is in my heart, you see–Please say that you’ll PLAY BALL with me–Be my Valentine!” Not the most romantic of cards, but I think the point has been adequately made.

This 1940’s card not only contains a play on words, but a three dimensional honeycomb, which makes it very attractive to collectors. Note the elaborate die cut design and the perforated pieces on the bottom that can fold to the back to allow the card to stand.

Cards with moving parts, like this one with a girl contemplating a box of chocolates are also very popular, even if their poetry is terrible and hard to figure out, LOL. Her legs are free, unconnected to the lower part of the card.

It opens up as you can see in the photo on the left, which allows her legs to be free and for the card to stand up as shown on the right. (SOLD $8.99 eBay 2021)

Now we get to the punny cards exchanged by elementary school children, delivered in the small flimsy envelopes and all marked “Made in the U.S.A.”

These two have the perforated pieces at the bottom that can be pushed back to allow the card to stand. The sentiments are actually kind of sweet: “I think you are a knockout Valentine. Is everything K.O.?” and “I hope I’m on the right track Valentine.”

Two more from the same decade, though the one on the left is mechanical in that the pen moves back and forth as if signing on the dotted line, which Janice did! Like I said, these are more desirable to collectors. The card reads: “Here’s a proposition, I hope you think is fine. So, c’mon now–you can’t go wrong–sign on the dotted line.”

The card on the right requests, “Please don’t give me the gate Valentine.” It also has a stand at the bottom. Both are made in the US.

I sold this 1940’s Superman a couple of years ago on eBay and included it in my previous post about vintage Valentines, but thought it important enough to include in this post, since it sold for $17(!).

We should all be on the hunt for character cards like this one 🙂 It has the added bonus of a moving part. The card in Superman’s hands opens up to reveal the face of a young girl, presumably the one sending the message. (The boy doesn’t look very happy, does he??)

I found Superman in a bag of vintage cards at the Warrensburg “World’s Largest Garage Sale” for $10, without even realizing it was in there. It contained many other Valentines, several of which I sold in groupings of three to five and sold for $10-12 a group.

How to Use Vintage & Antique Valentine’s Day Cards

• Collecting: Use photo corners to secure your precious vintage Valentine’s in a scrapbook for protection and easy viewing.
• Make a New Card, from an Old Card: Scan Valentine’s, print on presentation paper, and cut them out to resend to someone you love.
• Wall Art: Frame one or more that speak to you and give it as a gift or hang it on your wall.
• Banner: Clip Valentine’s to some string and create a banner (see Valentine banner + printable Valentine HERE).
• Scrapbooking: Use as embellishments when scrapbooking.
• Mixed Media Art: Use Valentine’s in mixed media art pieces or shadow box displays.
• Shelf Decoration: Scatter them around the house, tucking them in and around items on shelves. They look especially beautiful displayed against antique ironstone.
• Wrapping paper: Scan several Valentine’s overlapping and print out on presentation paper to use for wrapping small gifts.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! If you’ve used vintage Valentines in any other ways (besides sending or selling) I’d love to hear them in the comments. Happy hunting 🙂

I’d love it if you’d pin me for later 🙂

Sources Collector’s Weekly History.com