Nothing says ‘be mine’ like vintage valentine
It is customary to give your sweetheart a token of affection on Valentine’s Day.
Most of us shop for the traditional gifts of chocolate and flowers, and stand in the crowd to pick out a card with just the right message.
But if the one you love appreciates anything vintage, and you enjoy time spent antiquing, it isn’t difficult to find one-of-a-kind treasures to give.
Instead of a card from the drug store, why not look for valentines from another era. Fragile early European paper confections are works of art, often hand-cut and ornamented with bits of lace and ormolu. The rarer examples can be pricey, sometimes hundreds of dollars, but they are small works of art that will appreciate each year.
Jazz Age valentines from the 1920s and ‘30s and cutesy schoolyard valentines from the 1940s and ‘50s are still plentiful and for the most part affordable. You can pick them up for under $10, sometimes for just a dollar or two.
If you’re feeling especially sentimental, tuck a monogrammed handkerchief between the pages of a book of poetry as a bookmark for the verse that says exactly the right thing. Tie a colorful printed cotton 1950s-era hankie around the neck of a champagne bottle, or include a pair of thrift store champagne flutes with the bottle of bubbly
Add a cut glass perfume vial to a gift of perfume or put a pair of men’s cufflinks on a small tray he can use to hold the change from his pockets
Art nouveau sterling silver heart charms are inexpensive and easy to find. Strung on a length of ribbon, or chain, the charms make wonderful gifts and will be worn long after the holiday ends.
A vintage picture frame, with a new photograph inside, will be a year-round reminder of your affection.
I love to search for Victorian and Edwardian motto cups, with inscriptions like “Forget me not,” or “Love the Giver.”
Filled with chocolate kisses, a nosegay or tiny shells and stones I gathered at the beach, they make lasting souvenirs. How can my valentine look at that cup and not think of me?
Motto cups can be found in most antique stores and online auctions. Many were made in Germany and are decorated with raised patterns, gold rims as well as the sentimental inscription. Most are in the $25 to $30 range, but you can find odd cups, missing the saucer, for $10 to $15. Actually, I prefer the orphaned cups because they take up less space than a full cup and saucer set.
I don’t think a valentine gift has to be expensive. But it should reflect the sentiments of the giver and the personality of the recipient.
For some of us, new isn’t always better.
My column which ran Jan. 28 on vintage photographs brought mail. Here are a few of the letters I received:
New Spokane resident, Dorothy Moore, wrote to tell me that she works hard to make sure her family photographs are documented and well cared for:
“As the family historian for the past 25 years, all family photographs wend their way towards my address. Copies go into ‘starter’ memory books for each adult (guess what they always get for birthdays and Christmas) and the originals are scanned in by the family expert, my youngest daughter,” Moore wrote. “My copies are constantly being scrapbooked so we glean as much information as possible from everyone in this very extended family. In this way the photos have much more meaning to us now and hopefully to those in the future.”
Like me, Larry Vandervert, of Spokane, loves to immerse himself in an old photograph.
“Looking at old photos can be, depending on the photo, an almost mystical time-travel journey. All of the things you so vividly described are things my wife and I have done mentally with old photos, especially some of those we have seen at the museum,” Vandervert wrote. “I am a neuroscientist, and in addition to the sort of purely subjective experience you describe, I like to think about how old photos trigger various collages of imaginative processes in the brain.”
Another reader, Mary Andres of Colville, wrote to say that she is the curator of her family’s treasures.
“I just wanted you to know that I love to read your stories. It brings me back to my Grandmother’s stuff strewn all over my house,” Andres wrote. “I have the treadle sewing machine she used to make all my Mom’s childhood clothes and the five quilts she made for me before I married in 1965. I have her reading glasses, thimble, collection of cups and saucers, and her Bible, complete with notations in her handwriting.”
After reading last week’s column about the 1943 edition of “The Joy of Cooking” I picked up at an antiques show, several readers called.
Sidney Smith called to say she got a 1940 edition of the book as a wedding present and she still uses it.
Another reader, who didn’t leave her name, took issue with my comment that even though our country is at war, you wouldn’t know it in our kitchens. The caller pointed out that there is another war going on and it directly involves the kitchen: the war against obesity. It’s an excellent point. Many of the sugarless recipes included in my wartime cookbook could benefit those trying to cut back today.