Our Valentine to You: All About Victorian Valentines

The Victorians were thoroughly in love with love. The original flower children were part of a time when affairs of the heart were more celebrated and necklines were not so buttoned up and so, of course, Valentine's Day promised great fun for  all. Major paradigm shifts helped this along, including the increasingly common and shockingly modern idea that one could include love in their reasons for entering into holy matrimony. With this new freedom, Victorians devoted enormous energy to sending their dear ones missives worthy of their love. Common practices included hand-painting your own Valentines and rimming them in layers of fine lace, or gifting lockets, small mirrors, or "puzzle purses", origami inspired Valentines that delivered more and more dramatic professions of amour as they were unfolded. Love knots, amorous acrostics, and cheeky riddles abounded.

An early example of a Puzzle Purse, circa 1816
from Victoriana Magazine

The first Valentines to be commercially produced actually hailed from Worcester, Massachusetts (New England, ever a bastion for innovation). The clever and creative Esther Howland, who later came to be known as "The Mother of the Valentine", started making Valentines to order in her home in 1848 and the business venture had explosive popularity, nearly overnight, selling thousand of her handmade Valentines to amorous suitors all over the world. Her business eventually came to make over $100,000 a year, which would come out to just over three million dollars annually in 2015. The enormous success of Howland's Valentines was in no small part due to prepaid postage stamps and the advent of the affordable Penny Post, introduced in 1840 in England and 1847 in the United States. Suddenly, even common folks could  send messages to sweethearts all over the world.

An example of an Esther Howland Valentine

Even our inspiration Charles Dickens gave a nod to the phenomena of the Valentine in his own publication Household Words, describing a post-office awash with confessions and declarations of love as

"sacrifices to the fane of St. Valentine—consisting of hearts, darts, Cupid peeping out of paper-roses, Hymen embowered in hot-pressed embossing, swains in very blue coats and nymphs in very opaque muslin, coarse caricatures and tender verses.”

Victorian Valentines were not limited to sweet nothings or even vaguely lewd suggestion, but were also occasionally used as a platform to shake a finger at someone or completely insult them. They ranged from the playful to the downright nasty. These were known as vinegar valentines and were a common practice throughout the waging of the Civil War, losing steam as one century turned into another. Perhaps it is not a tradition to be missed.

An Esther Howland creation

So this our Pickwick's Mercantile Valentine to you, a little bit of a peek at what inspires our own love of this delightful holiday. I hope that you are out upholding the legacy and spirit of Valentine's Day in your very own way today. You know we'll be at it today, tomorrow, and always!

"A loving heart is the truest wisdom."

- Mr. Charles Dickens

--

For more seasonally appropriate reading on this fun topic:
The Valentine - a Tribute to Love (Victoriana Magazine)
"Valentine's at the Post Office" by Charles Dickens
"Esther Howland and the American Valentine Industry"
"Love and Derision, or Valentine's Victorian Style"

Valentine's Day Gift Guide: "Pour Les Hommes"

As promised in our Valentine's Day guide for the lady in your life, here is the Pickwickian follow-up, with romantic choices for the gentleman!

Knewton Higgins
Juniper Ridge Trail Crew Wash, $26
Does your sweetheart sport a backpack as comfortably as a business-suit and dream of walking the Appalachian Trail like some folks do of the boardwalk in Miami? Juniper Ridge is made by and for men of darling's ilk. The crew of Juniper Ridge escape into the woods for weeks at a time and emerge loaded down with all natural, wild-gathered and home-extracted essential oils. This crew soap literally smells of an escape into the woods and can even be used safely in rivers and streams. The perfect Valentine's choice for your very own Muir or Bon Iver.

Penny Dreadful
Jimmy Chin x Harry's Kit, $30
Aside from your Valentine, Jimmy Chin is pretty much the most fascinating fellow walking. He hikes, climbs, skis and, most notably of all, photographs. Now he can add design to that list with this collaboration with Harry's. You can read all about our Harry's love on this post from last year and this special collection is no different. Red, yellow, blue- great shaves and as cool as the man behind them.

Lady Pickwick
1740 (Marquis de Sade), $125
The Parisian born Marquis de Sade is one of the most controversial figures in history, a true libertine that shocked and appalled with his sexy escapades and fantasies. This perfume is inspired by his legacy, with a hazy composition that brings to mind red-panelled rooms, damask curtains pooling in shadow, and threads of incense-like smoke coiling in the shreds of light that slip beneath the door-frame. Liquor and leather, davana sensualis, labdanum, patchouli, and the temptation of dry fig.

Thistle Jones
Icons of Men's Style, $30
Gregory Peck, Steve Mcqueen, Yves Saint Laurent, and even John Wayne. If your gentleman is a dapper dress, he will appreciate looking through this book and learning about the trailblazers that made monk shoes and tailored trousers a reality and the perfect simplicity of a white t-shirt and denim a universally acknowledged fact of rogue-ish style.

Mr. Pickwick
Penhaligon's "Lothair", $160
This choice was so clear for Mr. Pickwick that there wasn't even any debate. He hopes Lady Pickwick looks at this list (hello, darling). Penhaligon's of London presents this spectacular fragrance, inspired by the tea ships of yore. How very Portsmouth! This is the object of our obsession at Pickwick's right now, with something for everyone in its many layers. The heart of smoked black tea and fig milk, base of cedar wood, and top notes of grapefruit, salt, and juniper, build the ship before your eyes. There, the deck and there, the cargo- exotic blends of tea and citrus from distant islands, cutting the headiness of wood and its varnish. You will both be transported whenever he wears it.

Admiral Baileywick Candybuttons
Woodford Reserve Spiced Cherry Bitters, $
Baileywick suggests that, while he tries to surprise you with dinner, you surprise him with a Manhattan like never before. These spiced cherry bitters from Woodford Reserve are a favorite among mixology connoisseurs and, topped off with Woodford's equally astounding bourbon cherries? Served next to that rack of lamb you absolutely weren't expecting? Oh yes. You are a good team.

This holiday is all about love so, from everyone here at Pickwick's, we hope you see it from all directions in the next couple of weeks. Love your friends, love your lovers, and love yourself, because you deserve every ounce that comes your way. Happy Valentine's Day!

---

See something you like and can't come in to pick it up?

We ship!

Message Thistle at thistlejones@gmail.com

Our clipper ships ensure that your choices arrive!