Heart to heart — Tradition of sending valentines has evolved throughout the years

Old valentines can be a lot of fun, because they are all about love and friendship. "It's interesting to see how people shared those feelings in past years," says Edith Menna, curator at the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum.

The museum has a small collection of pioneer-era and later valentines. "It's always interesting to look at the pretty things people had at a time when pretty was often hard to come by," Menna says. "That can tell you a lot about people." It's also fun to see how different they are from today's valentines, she says. "You can see how they have evolved."

The museum has some hand-cut paper pioneer valentines, one "cut by Clarissa Wilcox Muling at the age of 84." They have some early Victorian lace designs, but most of the collection comes from around the 1900s to the 1920s.

Among Menna's favorites are those with moving parts: a tissue honeycomb that folds down; a pendulum that swings; a chicken that bends down to eat the grain. "They are awfully cute," she says.

It is sometimes hard to tell exactly when valentines were made, says Nyal Anderson, at the Beehive Collector's Gallery, located at 368 E. Broadway (533-0119).

Most of them are unsigned as to artist or printer, so, he says, you have to look for clues in the style and the attire.

Kate Greenway, a British artist who lived from 1846 to 1901, was one of the leading commercial artists of her day and did some valentines. Esther A. Howland, a student at Mount Holyoke College whose father owned a stationery store in Worcester, Mass., mass-produced the first American commercial valentines. Her valentines had a little red "H" on the back.

"Some of the illustrators who were making post cards also made valentines," says Anderson, but a lot of them don't have the names.

Old valentines are popular collectibles, he says, because they are still fairly inexpensive. Valentines in his shop range from $2 for the smaller ones to $25 for the larger, more elaborate ones.

Some people now buy the old valentines to give to their friends and sweethearts. They're better than many of the cheap valentines you get today, he says.

Not all valentines were full of love and adoration, however. One interesting trend came along in the mid- to late-1800s and beyond with cards known as Penny Dreadfuls (because they cost a penny), Vinegar Valentines or simply Comic Valentines.

Generally, the artwork was simple and the verses insulting. "Great Mouth But Little Brain" said one with a picture of a wide-mouthed, pointy-headed man. The verse proclaimed:

You seem to have been constructed

On a very curious plan,

As ill-balanced an arrangement

As I did ever scan:

You are like a little tea-pot

With a great enormous spout,