Hooray for Valentines! With all of the Christmas decor abound, it makes me realize that my favorite holiday is right around the corner. This is a card from Laughing Elephant in Seattle. I have collected 1930s valentines for the past 5 or so years, and I always make a point to seek them out in antique stores. Some of them are so sweet, especially the handmade ones that are made out of construction paper, lace and cotton balls!
“A History of Valentines,” a book by Ruth Web Lee traces the tradition of giving cards on St. Valentine’s day from it’s beginnings as hand crafted communication by lovers through it’s transformation to a heavily marketed quintessential holiday of the early 1900s. The craft and social constructs behind generations of Valentines are discussed, including early American hand-made Valentines, American Lithograph Valentines, Late Victorian Valentines and Comic Valentines. Many exquisite photographs of hand cut and hand worked cards are shown throughout the book as examples of the craft. Esther Howland,in 1847, became the mother of the modern-day Valentine.
Esther Howland (1828-1904) lived in Worcester, Massachusetts When she graduated from college in 1847, she received her first Valentine card. She was so touched by it that she decided to start making her own Valentine cards. Because she could not find the supplies in America, she imported paper lace and embossed, die cut paper from England and began making the cards by hand. In 1850, the demand for her cards increased, so she recruited her friends to help keep up the supply. Together, they formed an assembly line: one cut paper, one cut lace, one glued, one chose text and assembled. Her successful company expanded and when she retired, in 1881, it was making nearly $100,000 per year. And you thought Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line!
I love swallows, roses, little umbrellas, gold, pink and flapper girls. My “wall paper” in my entry way is a spraypainted damask stencil. OH MY GOD. There is a reason that my walls are only half done. It took me 4 cans of gold spraypaint and many hours of messy patience to get this far. This involved taping the stencil, “masking” different parts with a dust pan, and spraying, spraying, spraying. Plus, the fumes made me really dizzy and all of my housemates got mad at me!
Part of my collection is pinned above my boudoir table around my mirror.
All of my berets and all of my headbands and garters. You can see my makeup stored in little teacups near my jewelry case.
I love this little guy in the bigger heart, but lookout, he has a gun!! I also have a boy with a baseball bat but he is MIA.
Underneath in blue is a handmade construction paper card with “Love Norma” written in child’s scrawl inside.
My house (a co-op house) is a giant and from the 1930s. I live in the second floor in what was formally the “sleeping porch.” There are two giant arches in my room, and the teal part is just concrete, so I can’t hang anything from that part. The valentines are pinned in the arches above my windows.
One of the Valentines is a girl inside a head of lettuce!
Some little valentines in a frame. These frames were originally from goodwill and were gold! I spraypainted them teal and lined the background with heart fabric that I got forever ago. I thought these were very sweet.
Anatomical Heart Embroidery (by me) & Heart Tin
My birdie tattoo by Jason Donahue from Idle Hand in San Francisco. I saw his work on flickr about a year ago and made an appointment with him over the phone. He asked what I wanted and I said, “Some kind of black bird sitting on a lacy vintage glove with a Valentine in it’s beak.” He did not disappoint!!
My Valentine Tattoos! Also by Annie Mess, who did my vegan back piece. This photo was taken back when my walls were an ocean blue. I painted them and within a week I hated them! I did lots of research on old Westerns and their decor for the way my room looks now… but that is for another post!
Vintage Valentine typewriter on etsy. Oh, to spend $600 on a typewriter! I remember seeing this typewriter on display at SF MOMA a few years ago and just gasping with delight. Maybe in my future life…
This is cute! It’s from Jitterbuggin on etsy. Her whole shop is adorable, it’s all remade from vintage patterns.
Red heart shaped hand bag by Minna Parikka.
Yay, looks like you have fixed the comment form problem!
your room is gorgeous! i love how you painted the walls. i always loved valentine’s day in school, when you put a little decorated box and your desk and everyone walked around and dropped theirs in. my mom always helped me make mine, glitter & lace doilies & conversation hearts. your collection is really impressive.
oh! what a treat! i love to peek into the places where people sleep. that spray painted damask is so so SO beautiful! i fully agree with the valentine theme for one’s sleeping quarters, it’s only fitting, being the most romantic room in the house.
Wow. What an amazing collection! I love Valentine’s themed things but, have to admit, I’m one of those bitter singletons who pretends to hate the holiday otherwise ;]
-Andi x
these are the loveliest pictures – your room is beautiful, i do love the gold damask stencil!
i just bought myself an olivetti valentine as a graduation gift
i am so happy!! i can’t wait til i receive it …
you should meet my friend josh. he has the most beautiful collection of typewriters. he and i both have found really nice ones for cheapie at mission thrift on valencia!
[...] tellement les valentines anciennes qu’elle s’en est inspirée pour ses tatouages. Le billet qu’elle consacre à sa collection m’a conquise (en plus de me donner des envies déco) [...]
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