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Valentine card
Publisher: Unknown
Aquatint and etching with hand-colouring on 4to-sized embossed white wove paper. From 'The Despondent Lover' (or 'The Unrequited Love') series. The border is lightly embossed with a design of leaves and flowers with lines of verse etched above and below the central image: "Dear girl, whilst listening to a lover's vows / Beware deceit - save when a youth / Like me unfolds his heart so spouse / Thee in conjugal links of truth." An inner etched border with hand-colouring of a design featuring the pyramids and sphinx surrounds the central panel, which shows a young woman in an interior standing before a seated old woman who holds an open letter in her left hand. The inside pages are blank. Hand-written graphite inscriptions on the recto at upper left: "No 13" and at upper right: "3/-" [3 shillings]. Frank Staff says of the series: 'The central picture of each shows a delightful aquatint, beautifully coloured and finished by hand. Although some of the scenes depict young ladies in grief, and one shows a jilted lover, not all of them are unhappy. ... The set numbers fourteen in all, which was recognised as the regular "valentine dozen".' The series was originally published in the 1830s, it is presumed, by Joseph Addenbrooke. However, according to Frank Staff: 'It has been noted that a set of this series is known on paper watermarked '1828', with Addenbrooke's name imprinted. Some time later, it seems likely that the plates came into someone else's possession, who filed off Addenbrooke's name from them and reprinted the entire series on un-watermarked paper. This could explain the plentiful supply still available and the comparatively worn state of the embossing on some copies.' See, Frank Staff, _The Valentine & Its Origins_, Lutterworth Press, London, 1969, figure 64, p. 60 and pp. 62-3. The Glaisher examples are on un-watermarked paper and without a maker's stamp and are most likely later reprints. The Museum of London holds examples of these prints, which are later reprints made by Jonathan King and they date them circa 1870-1885.
Bequeathed by Dr J. W. L. Glaisher, 1928
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
19th Century
Production date:
after
AD 1828
Aquatint
Hand colouring
Etching
Accession number: P.14346-R-7
Primary reference Number: 214393
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Valentine card" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/214393 Accessed: 2024-11-18 19:37:47
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/214393
|title=Valentine card
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-18 19:37:47|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp77/P_14346_R_7_1_201702_amt49_dc2.jpg"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Valentine card</figcaption>
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