In 1978, William Helfand wrote that Valentine’s Day cards were “primarily British and American institutions,” with the exchanging of cards being an offshoot of the practice of leaving a calling, or visiting, card, at the homes of your friends and relatives around the New Year. The earliest valentines were handwritten (starting in the late 1700s in England!) with printed cards gradually replacing the older handwritten varieties in the 19th century.
Above: (L) Sentimental valentine, printed by Obpacher Bros in 1884; (R) Vinegar valentine from the same period.
The manufactured cards were inexpensive, and extremely popular. They were decidedly not only of the sentimental, romantic sort–just as popular, for a time, were the “comic” valentine. Today we know these 19th-and early-20th century cards as “vinegar valentines.” Vinegar valentines were meant to insult (or, at best, tease) their recipient. There were comic valentines for any sort of person you could care to insult: spinsters, short men, annoying suitors, even your dentist:
So, if you’re not having the Valentine’s Day of your dreams, perhaps spare a thought for the recipients of this early, analog form of trolling, and be happy you missed that particular social craze.
