Skip to main content

Ask Not if I Love Thee: P.14413-R-7

An image of Valentine card

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Alternative views

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Ask Not if I Love Thee
Valentine card

Maker(s)

Publisher: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

A 'raised' valentine composed of two layers; a latticework arch of silvered lace-paper with scalloped edges and collage of pink gauze leaves and flower scrap frames a central varnished chromolithograph of flowers and birds with gilded detail. The frame is mounted with paper springs to a second layer of plain embossed paper with collage decoration of pink gauze leaves at lower centre and a cameo-embossed Cupid scrap with pink ground. A verse is printed in letterpress on the inside right-hand page: 'Ask / not if I Love Thee / Oh! ask not if I love thee / well, / For thou dost surely know, / It suits not maidens' lips to tell / They love - though it were so! ...'. Hand-written inscription in graphite on the album leaf: '2 /=' [2 shillings]. Presumably relates to an inscription found on the verso of the card.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Dr J. W. L. Glaisher, 1928

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

19th Century
1840 - 1880

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Letterpress
Chromolithography
Collage

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.14413-R-7
Primary reference Number: 214857
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 14 February 2017 Updated: Tuesday 26 March 2024 Last processed: Tuesday 29 July 2025

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Ask Not if I Love Thee" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/214857 Accessed: 2025-12-10 20:44:28

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/214857 |title=Ask Not if I Love Thee |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-10 20:44:28|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-214857

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp77/P_14413_R_7_1_201607_amt49_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Ask Not if I Love Thee"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Ask Not if I Love Thee</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>
    

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...