St. Valentine's Day in the nineteenth century

If you're interested in the history behind the Valentine's card you're sending this week, pay a visit to the February exhibition at the Bodleian Library.

The Bodleian is showcasing thirty seven items from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera demonstrating both a wide range of nineteenth-century Valentine's day cards and their complex manufacturing process. THE SEASON FOR LOVE: A selection of choice valentines from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera is a free public exhibition held at the Proscholium, throughout February.

The Valentine's day cards come in many forms - from exquisite creations of lace paper, silk, scraps, tinselling and artificial flowers accompanied by elaborate poetry, to simple woodcuts with prosaic and occasionally insulting verses. Some Valentine's Day cards were home-made tokens of love, but others were produced by many hands in manufactories where skill and care were allied to business acumen.  

Although dating from the end of the eighteenth century, the printed valentine is a nineteenth-century phenomenon. Valentine's cards were eagerly awaited on 14 February both before, but especially after, the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post in 1840. At the height of their popularity, around 450,000 had passed through the London Post Office alone, as estimated by the Postmaster-General in his 1863 annual report.

Alongside a wide range of Valentine's cards, also on display are publishers' and tinsellers' stockbooks, games of love and a pincushion heart. Highlights of the display include:

• Collection of Valentines 1822 to 1850 in two volumes - Valentine publisher's stockbook. Spanning nearly thirty years, they reveal a switch in the printing production methods from engraving to lithographic printing and the introduction of embossing.
• To a bachelor with fondest love - A novelty Valentine's card, printed in gold, incorporating buttons, thread and needles, published between 1870 and 1880.
• Pincushion heart mounted in glazed case - Love-token with lace frill, decorated with Union Jacks, a woven-silk cross, and colourful beads held in place by pins. Possibly dating from the second Boer War (1899-1902), when disabled soldiers are known to have produced similar pin-cushions as a means of rehabilitation.
• Curious Hieroglyphick Valentine - Hand-coloured Valentine's card in the form of a word puzzle, dating from 1840s.The pictograms had to be deciphered to unlock its expressions of adoration.
• Don't get too proud when this you see - ‘Comic' valentine, with illustration of an ugly bachelor, and a dismissive verse beginning: ‘Don't get too proud when this you see, / For this is your portrait drawn by me...' Stencil-coloured woodcut, dating between 1830 and 1850.

Julie Anne Lambert, Librarian of the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library said: ‘Ephemera give us fascinating insights into the lives of our predecessors and are increasingly recognized as essential primary source for scholarly research. The current selection of valentines on display at the Bodleian is a good example of the rich source of information that ephemera can offer to social historians and researchers. '  

Valentines form just one of 680 subject headings in the John Johnson Collection which is one of the world's most important collections of printed ephemera - material which was not intended to survive its immediate purpose. The collection contains over 1.5 million items spanning a broad range of social and printing history. Although the earliest item dates from 1508 and there are holdings of 16th and 17th century ephemera, the strength of the collection lies in its 18th, 19th and early 20th century material.

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