Antique Decorative Publishers' Valentine's Bindings

...from Cassandra's collection...

A Margaret Armstrong binding

A page from "Sweethearts Always"



A Margaret Armstrong binding

A Margaret Armstrong binding

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines: A Brief History & a Sampling from Cassandra’s Antique Collection

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

February has been a month of romance since ages past. St. Valentine’s Day originated from Christian and Roman traditions - the Roman Catholic Church recognizes three martyred saints named Valentine or Valentinus. During the Middle Ages in France and England it was believed that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, thus began the practice of celebrating Valentine's Day as a day for romance in the middle of February.

The oldest known valentine still in existence today is considered to be a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. Several years later, King Henry V hired a writer, John Lydgate, to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

During the 1600s, the holiday began to be popularly celebrated in Great Britain; and, by the mid -1700s, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. Due to improvements in the technology of printing in the late 1700s, printed cards began to replace written letters. The manufactured cards made it easier for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Less expensive postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of posting valentines.

In the 1840s in Worcester, Massachusetts, a young woman named Esther A. Howland, inspired by the fancy lace-covered English valentines that her father sold in his Worcester stationery store, began to create and sell the first mass-produced valentines in the U.S.

Esther initially created several sample valentines and persuaded one of her brothers skilled in penmanship to inscribe sentiments in the cards. The valentines proved extremely popular - despite their high cost – many sold for $5 to $10 each, and very extravagant ones, bedecked with ribbons, satin, and silk, cost up to $30.

Esther’s business boomed, and she recruited four friends to help her fulfill the orders and created an innovative assembly-line approach in making the cards. Seated at a long table, one worker cut out small colored lithographs of sentimental subjects, the next laid them on brilliantly glazed paper backgrounds, a third assembled the layers of lace paper that framed the central design, and the fourth pasted down a printed sentiment, typically inside the card or under a flap where only the recipient could see it. In 1881, Esther sold her business to the George C. Whitney Company.

While other manufacturers of valentines competed for the affection of the public, none could compete with the quality, taste, and style of Esther Howland. She is credited with having popularized the lace Valentine, and propelling it into a major industry and came to be known as "The Mother of the American Valentine"..

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite.

~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

A life without love is like a year without summer.

~ Swedish quote

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

~ Lao Tzu

To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.

~ Karen Sunde



Love is the only gold.

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of love,

And feed his sacred flame.

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

~ Mother Teresa

"Bright Ideas for Entertaining" for Valentine’s Day

(Another in a series of ideas for entertaining - before the advent of television and computers - from Cassandra’s antique1905 book, Bright Ideas for Entertaining, by Mrs. Herbert B. Linscott.)

"This description of a Valentine entertainment will be welcomed by those who desire novel and original ideas.

"We were received in a room decorated with wreaths, hung in festoons caught up at regular intervals by ribbon streamers. From the centre of each wreath hung hearts of parchment paper, tinted in blue and lettered in gold, each bearing a number and a fate of fortune."

"Suspended from a portiere rod between the hall and reception room were three hearts formed of heavy wire and carefully entwined with evergreen; above each one was a jingle. The first said:  Blow your bubble right through here, and you’ll be married before another year.  Above the second was: To be engaged this very week, number two is the one to take.  And the third had: A sad, an awful fate awaits the one who seeks me, for he or she will ever a spinster or bachelor be."

"On a small table nearby was an immense bowl filled with sparkling soapsuds, and also clay pipes decorated with little hearts. We first threw the bubbles off the pipes and then tried to blow them through hearts one and two with pretty little fans which were presented to us…"

"After this came a still merrier game. A low scrap basket was placed in the centre of the room, and the company arranged into opposing parties, forming two half circles around the basket. Cardboard hearts in two different colors were given the sides, an equal number to each side. We were then requested to try to throw them in the basket…When we had exhausted our cards those in the basket were counted, and the side having the most of its own color won the game."

"After this, a small blackboard was placed on an easel at one end of the room, and we were each in turn blindfolded, and handed a piece of chalk with which to draw an outline of a heart, and to write our name in the centre; the one doing the best to have a prize of a large candy heart."

"The partners for supper were chosen in a novel manner, the men being numbered, and the names of the girls written on slips of paper, rolled in clay in little pellets, then dropped into a bowl of water; the one to rise first belonged to the young man numbered one, and so on until each had his Valentine."

"A “Good Luck” supper was served in an adjoining room. Over the table, suspended from the chandelier, hung a floral horseshoe. In the centre and at each end of the table were fairy lamps surrounded by smaller horseshoes. The souvenirs and everything connected with the supper bore a symbol of good luck, the bonbons, cakes, and sandwiches taking the forms of either a clover-leaf or a horseshoe."