Description:
A silk and paper valentine from the 1830's to 1850's with its original fancy paper envelope. It is in a modern frame that is 24 1/4" tall by 14 7/8" wide. The frame has an antiqued gold finish and has a cream colored mat. The glass is nonreflective glass. We acquired this valentine with several early framed valentines and suspect that this piece is archivally mounted. The reason that we believe that this valentine is archivally mounted is that all of the early valentines that we acquired appeared to have had considerable trouble gone to with the framing, some being quite tricky to frame.
The valentine measures 9 3/4" tall by 7 7/8" wide. The colorful center basket is composed of gilt and paper flowers and leaves which are attached to an ivory silk background which is surrounded by a fancy paper that simulates lace. Gilt clasped paper hands are below the gilt paper basket.
T is only one small light brown fox mark on the lacy paper. T is a small section of paper missing that measures 1/2" by 1/4" and can be seen in the photo that accompanies the listing. Also, about 1/4" of the original bottom edge of the valentine is missing as, after examining it, we realized that the top edge design was not matched at the bottom edge. The original envelope accompanies the valentine and is mounted in the lower half of the frame. The envelope measures 10 1/4" wide by 8 1/8" tall. The paper of the envelope also simulates lace.
The valentine was addressed to: "Mrs. Margaret Smith, Care of Wm. E. Smith, No. 92 Walnut St., Pha." (Pha being an abbreviation for Philadelphia.) On the postmark is the following (as best as we can make it out): "SPECol MESSur FROM EAGLE POST, So Chestnut St. 5." The last two letters after "MESS" are hard to read. We assume that the postmark might mean "Special messenger." The envelope has considerably more age toning than the valentine has. T is some light browning along the envelope edges and some breaks along areas of the lacy paper that act like perforations. The longest is about 2 3/4" long near the upper edge of the envelope in the area of the curvy design in the paper. Early valentines such as this one are increasingly hard to find.
We guarantee this item to be original & authentic in all respects. We offer a full & prompt refund if you are not satisfied & if the item is returned in the same condition within 3 days of receipt.
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