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Vintage valentines perfect way to say you care
Valentines touch a place in me that wants to play, to smile and to just be happy. Even though I’m an adult, getting a Valentine’s Day card still elicits the same giddiness as it did more than 35 years ago when my preschool classmates would file past my desk to drop tiny missives in a shoebox.

And c’mon admit it, they make you feel that way too.
That silent joy is part of the reason I started collecting vintage valentines about 20 years ago. It was during my fervor for sifting through antique stores (especially the big boxes of indeterminate “smalls”) that I discovered these tiny treasures … well, actually, tiny pieces of me waiting to be rediscovered.

Two of the first examples I bought (most of my valentines are from the 1940s-1960s) reflected two of my early collecting interests — toy tops and Humpty Dumpty.

I bought these inexpensive flats as additions to my collections. Now I have about 10 assorted Humpty Dumpty cards that echo my love of the nursery rhyme character.

Soon I discovered mechanical cards — usually those with a metal pin that allowed a part (such as arm, leg, mouth or maybe even mustache) to move. I soon realized that not only were these valentines inexpensive, playful, great to display and easy to love, they were animated. That simply increased the
wonder.

I now own cards that show pigs kissing, ducks quacking and seesaws, well, seesawing. To me, the more absurd the animation, the better. One of my favorites is a bleary-eyed lamb leaping playfully as her head bobs to and fro.

While the animation and illustration first drew me in to vintage valentines, I soon searched with a more discerning eye. I began paying more attention to the words and phrases.

As an English major, I have always loved puns and playful turns of phrases. The aforementioned lamb card contains the phrase, “Be a little lamb and take a gambol with me.” The pun of “gambol” vs. “gamble” wasn’t lost on me — although I doubt children of the day (probably 1940s) would have understood it.

Some of the wordplay was more common such as the turtle card inviting the recipient to “come out of your shell and be my valentine,” or the countless cards depicting ducks saying such things as “I take to you like a duck takes to water,” or “Don’t duck the issue, be my valentine.”

My all-time favorite wordplay valentine, however, is a copyright 1907 Raphael Tuck & Sons postcard, illustrated by E. Curtis. It shows a forlorn vegetable head character carrying a candle with the phrase, “Dearest Valentine, you do XX all the others.” The card was a rebus — with the head providing the missing word. I bought the card because it was Tuck and because it was an anthropomorphic vegetable, which I loved. But I must admit I thought it was a turnip, which didn’t make sense. Obviously, I soon realized it was a beet (you do “beet” all the others).

I have since learned that the card is part of a series of Curtis’ fruit and vegetable-head postcards with similar love greetings (also included are “apple of my eye,” “we would make a happy pear,” “temper like a pepper” and “your unkindness makes me melon-choly”).

As I began amassing a quantity of vintage valentines, I was faced with display issues, and I’ve been pleased with the choices I’ve made. Most of my mechanical valentines are arranged under a glass top on a little white nightstand — actually my childhood nightstand. So that little piece of my childhood now takes on even more meaning thanks to these whimsical pieces; I look at them often in my home office. I mounted my collection of Humpty Dumpty cards on a frame located near my larger Humpty Dumpty collection.

Nicer mechanicals are displayed on vintage metal flower frogs in my living room and kitchen so I can look at them daily.

My most creative — and personal — use of vintage valentines was as centerpieces at my 2005 wedding. In lieu of flowers, I placed the cards (along with some vintage wedding and love-themed postcards) in photo fans. Not only were they inexpensive conversation pieces at each table, guests were invited to take their favorites home as favors. In addition to the joy these cards bring me, I was able to share that with others.

And that’s the real message, I believe, in why we collect anything — to find something that touches us that we can hopefully share with others.

Valentines do that for me year round. They just make me smile. It’s hard not to when faced with a bobbing head giraffe or somersaulting rhino.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all — I hope you can all find some collecting passion to speak to you as much as mine does to me.
Sharon Verbeten displays her valentines throughout her home in De Pere, Wis.
2/11/2009