Did you know that Valentine’s Day has been celebrated since the Middle Ages with the most popular belief being that it honours St Valentine, a bishop and martyr who used to secretly marry Roman soldiers during the reign of Emperor Claudius in AD 270?
It might derive from the February Roman festival of Lupercalia, during which men and women took part in a lottery, consisting of each drawing a name, from those in a helmet, to acquire their Valentine, which they then honoured with gifts.
Another theory is that it derives from rural communities’ belief that February 14 is the day when birds choose their mates. Fourteenth century poet Geoffrey Chaucer alluded in a Valentine’s Day poem to the 14th being “the morn when birds do mate”.
Gifts have always been given on Valentine’s Day. In 15th century England, valentines were very popular and in one of Henry VIII’s inventories, it refers to “5 valentines of goldsmith’s work” – I am curious to know who the ‘lucky’ recipients were!
English diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) wrote about having to pay £5 to be his wife’s Valentine. At the time, it was customary for people to draw each other and Pepys wrote that his wife had received her ‘portrait’ from a little lad and how, in turn, he received his from a little girl who thus became his Valentine.
In 17th century high society, the popular name drawing lottery so favoured by the Romans was very fashionable. Whilst many matches went on to marry, in order for a man to be able to relieve himself of his valentine obligations, he had to give a gift to the lady.
Pepys refers to the Duchess of Richmond once having received from the Duke of York a £800 jewel and, on another occasion, from Lord Maudeville a £300 ring when they had been her Valentine. This was a huge amount of money at the time.
A warrant dated 1629 from King Charles I directs a payment to his jeweller of £25 for a valentine of gold, set with two pointed diamonds and 38 smaller diamonds! No wonder the game was so popular with the ladies.
However, men too received Valentine’s gifts. In the 37th volume of the journal Archaeologia, published in 1827, an account is given of Joyce Jeffrey’s diary in which she said, “I gave Tom Aston for being my valentine two shillings and I gave Timothy Pickeray, who was my valentine at Horncastle, four pence.” I wonder why this 17th century spinster thought Tom Aston was worth so much more than Timothy.
Only the most hopeful (or desperate!) would undertake the ritual described in the series of letters published in 1754-1756 in the newspaper Connoisseur, from a young lady describing how she had pinned four bay leaves onto her pillow’s four corners and a fifth to the middle so that if she then dreamt of her sweetheart, they would be married before the year was out.
However, to make sure, the maiden also had to cook a hard-boiled egg, take out the yolk and replace the hollow with salt. When she went to bed, she had to eat it all, including the shell, without speaking or drinking afterwards.
She also believed that if she wrote suitors’ names on paper, wrapped them in clay and put them in water, the first to float up would be her Valentine. I only hope that she was rewarded for her endeavours in the cause of true love!
After the peak time for valentines came the 1840’s ‘Vinegar Valentines’ depicting an ugly caricature with insulting verses, which were mostly sent by the working class, but which remained popular into the 20thcentury.
It was after London’s 1851 Great Exhibition, where beautiful valentine gifts were exhibited, that romance flourished once more amongst the formal and supposedly shy Victorians who enthusiastically took to hand making elaborate and exquisite Valentine cards.
Everyone in a household, from the noblest lady to the lowest maid, would excitedly be waiting for the postman to bring a love token and, for example, in 1882, London’s daily post-load increased by more than 200,000 cards around February 14.
In modern times, Valentine’s gifts are usually flowers, chocolates or a teddy bear, but, in the mid-18th century, enterprising French perfumer Eugene Rimmel, who lived in London, began to produce a range of Valentine gifts. He was also the developer of Rimmel, (eye mascara), but that is another story!
Eugene had a workshop with up to 100 girls who were hired to make his gifts. He worked with stationers, silk flower manufacturers, painters, wood and glass engravers and lithographers, using a whole range of materials such as glass, wood, feathers, fabrics etc. to create what I suppose could be the first perfume gift packs.
Rimmel’s gifts were always scented with his perfumes and included fans, painted cushions, gloves, artificial flowers with hummingbirds, heart-shaped Cupid’s barometers (to indicate the state of one’s feelings), smelling bottles etc. Some gifts also included real jewels in a satin jewellery box.
He also made a huge variety of cards, which were gilded or silvered, embossed and perforated to look like lace work or embroidery. Gilt edged cards with satin fringes and painted with maiden’s faces or flowers, hearts, cherubs, cupids etc. were also inscribed with prayers, benedictions or passionate expressions of unfailing love which invariably led the blushing recipient to believe marriage was on the cards – excuse the pun!
There was, however, a time in the early 1880s when valentines appeared to lose their popularity, although children were still encouraged to send them to be courteous and to remember absent friends. Rimmel sold packs of 12 children’s floral cards for 1 shilling.
One amusing text that I found in the Kerry Reporter newspaper of February 23, 1884, was the story of an exceedingly bright and pretty little girl who had surprisingly received a card from a small admirer on Valentine’s Day, which created some comments within her family. She was asked how she knew the little lad and whether she had met him, to which she replied “Oh yes mamma, I have met him. First, we became acquainted by throwing mud at each other over the garden fence and then afterwards, Uncle Frank presented him and since that we have been quite good friends indeed”.
Handmade cards are probably a rarity nowadays and social media is often used for e-cards and to ‘post’ messages of love. I rarely celebrate Valentine’s Day, but if I did, I would want real flowers, a real card and I would not be averse to receiving a diamond ring!
So now you know!
By Isobel Costa
|| features@algarveresident.com
Isobel Costa works full time and lives on a farm with a variety of pet animals! In her spare time, she enjoys photography, researching and writing.
