There needs to be some comedian valentines in any valentines assortment. The one proven as we speak is from our household accumulation.
Most valentines are frilly, sentimental, with expressions of affection. Comedian valentines, however, has ugly photos, caricatures, and insulting verses. Mrs. Gail Oakes, an avid valentine collector in Mansfield, referred to as comedian valentines “penny dreadfuls.” They have been printed on skinny sheets of paper and unsigned by the sender. They have been not often saved, these insulting items, and subsequently are enticing to collectors for his or her shortage.
As a substitute of affection verses, one may obtain a valentine such because the one reproduced as we speak with this verse: “MUSIC TEACHER: You will have much less music in you than has a screeching loon; You can not inform a pointy from flat nor hold the only tune. You thump away upon the keys and lift a loud din however these you faux to show are badly taken in.”
The primary commercially printed valentine appeared in 1809 and was a comic book valentine, designed and printed in England. These have been so crude and offensive that they have been banned by a number of international locations. They quickly had their counterpart in the US.
Charles Howard is an American cartoonist who’s credited with the earliest comedian valentines in the US. The title “penny dreadful” got here to be related to any such valentine greeting. They have been offered for a penny and flimsy low-cost paper made to just accept its destiny, crumpled, and discarded by the receiver.
Regardless of their coarseness, comedian valentines have been highly regarded within the America into the early 1900’s, and plenty of have been used into the 1930’s, however misplaced their enchantment through the Despair.
Anybody was truthful recreation to be lampooned, and there was a terrific number of individuals caricatured. “Fats individuals, skinny individuals, the dandy, the florist, the girl who wore a bustle, and virtually anybody who walked wrote Dorothy H. Jenkins. In an article within the 1969 Ladies’s Day journal.
She reported that “… typical of all of them is an anti-smoking comedian, revealed round 1900, that actually antedates the present marketing campaign of the American Most cancers Society by an excellent fifty years.” She describes this valentine: “Up within the left hand nook is pictured a bundle of cigarettes labeled, ‘One dozen coffin nails’ and under is splashed on the paper is a younger man dressed as a dude of the time.
Beneath him is the next verse below the title “Sluggish Suicide: If well being and power a person would lose; one sure means there may be to decide on; inhale the cigarette’s lethal smoke; and prematurely he’ll croak.”
Jenkins concluded, “Comedian valentines of this kind have been marketed as ‘laughable and quizzical Merry Valentines’ in 1850!”
One other instance of a comic book valentine in our assortment is comedian feminine character wearing exaggerated model of the early 1900’s, with this verse beneath: “Tis all in useless your simpering appears to be like; You by no means can incline. With all of your bustles, stays and curls; to discover a Valentine.”
In the course of the 1920s and 1930s, “dialect” playing cards have been well-liked. Think about the one with the little Dutch boy saying to his little Dutch woman: “A Valendine Vish. I vouldt observe you want a doggie iff you vouldt chust vhistle, expensive.” One other, just a little Dutch woman standing in entrance of a big purple coronary heart will get this message from the sender. “You iss de woman undt I iss de boy; Dot couldt togedder get mutch choy.”
Valentines modified over time from lace and cut-out fancies to well-liked Valentines publish playing cards and to “pop-ups” and honeycombs.
The latter have been so-called as a result of a part of the valentine might be launched to develop right into a honeycomb part, and fixed on the other facet of the cardboard to supply a 3 dimensional impact.
Later got here the valentines with transferring elements, and far later, the flat form in varied shapes which are present in each youngster’s valentine field.
Amassing valentines is an fascinating interest. Attempt discovering some in your personal properties for pleasure and probably revenue.
(This text initially appeared within the Feb. 10, 1990, version of the Galion Inquirer. Content material offered by the Galion Historic Society.)

This illustration of the comedian valentine is dated from the early 1900s. They have been first launched in England and located a big market that unfold to the U.S.
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