This week I thought I would delve into my ephemera collection and share some 19th century German cards. They tend to be more intricate and more richly made than others in the collection.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Happy Valentine's Day
This week I thought I would delve into my ephemera collection and share some 19th century German cards. They tend to be more intricate and more richly made than others in the collection.
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Hello Mark:
ReplyDeleteWe too like the 'hand held bouquet' card! A perfect motif for Valentine's Day. Such fine detail, light years away from the mass printing of so many of today's cards.
Hello, Jane and Lance:
DeleteMany of these cards had die-cuts that were tipped onto their surface, so that one could lift up the die-cut and read a message underneath. In the case, the bouquet lifts up to reveal the words that translate as, "I congratulate."
Dear Mark,
ReplyDeleteGood old German Valentines Day Cards - a minimalist's nightmare!
I do like the one with the hand offering the bouquet. I think that that is my favourite of the ones you have shown.
Thank you for sharing these
Kirk
PS
Today we are all celebrating 'Rosenmontag' the main celebration of the 'Karneval' season. Soon it will be Ash Wednesday and after that Valentine's Day - it is going to be quite a week!
Dear Kirk,
DeleteYour week sounds as though you might be eating your way through the equivalent of a two-week cruise! Enjoy, but don't over-indulge. (I'm assuming, of course, that all celebrations include good food!)
Hello Mark, It always amazes me that these were made out of paper. They are absolutely gorgeous. My favorite here (of course) is the hand proffering the bouquet, which is "hands down" the best one of these I have ever seen.
ReplyDelete--Road to Parnassus
Hello, Jim, The quality of the card with the bouquet is in large part due to that handsome framed background, which is more elaborate than most. I look for exactly that sort of detail when I'm collecting.
DeleteHappy Valentine's Day, Mark! Thank you for sharing these beautiful valentines... I can't imagine the work involved in making the dies to cut, emboss and print these pieces-- it really was such a unique time in printing history, don't you think? It seems like there was a combination of huge investments of time in both mechanization and handwork-- maybe never to be repeated.... I especially like the piercing in the first piece--amazing! I can see why you collect these as they are just beautiful-- I'll be keeping an eye out for similar ones on my antiquing forays!
ReplyDeleteWarm regatds,
Erika
Happy Valentine's Day to you, Erika! As you probably know, one would be hard-pressed to order such eleaborate di-cut jobs today, unless they were lasered. So many of the cards that I collect were lithographed with many layers of beautiful color that, for all our technology, just can't be replicated by today's 4-color printing process. I see such detail and know that to replicate such pieces today would be very, very expensive. Also, such art seems not to have been constrained by the deadlines that we have today.
DeleteBest wishes,
Mark
Dear Mark - some of your beautiful cards look as if they are actually made out of lace around the edges.
ReplyDeleteThey are overflowing with sentiment, but in actual fact life was quite difficult at that time for most people. Perhaps one was an antidote to the other.
It is lovely that you are saving these little pieces of ephemera for the future.
H and I wish you a Happy Valentine's Day on the 14th.
Dear Rosemary,
DeleteThanks for enjoying these cards. As you know, I've lovingly collected ephemera for several decades, and there's quite a bit of it! (At some future date, I'll probably protect the collection by gifting it to an institution, as I would like my selections to stay together. In any case, I've always recognized that objects have a life of their own, and that we are only caretakers.)
Happy Valentine's Day to you and H!
Just lovely and these are a reminder of a time when greetings received in the mail or by hand were a wonderful gesture for an admirer. After my mother passed away, I located a wonderful collection of Valentines that had been collected by my grandmother. I have photographed them and placed the pics on my blog several years ago. Many expand for a three dimensional effect, though are much too fragile to handle in this way now.
DeleteHave a peek, if you like.
best, teaorwine
http://teaorwine.blogspot.com/2009/02/love-in-earlier-time.html
Your valentines are lovely, teaorwine, and I especially like the complexity of the first one, which is in remarkable condition. They were obviously lovingly and carefully stored away.
DeleteJust lovely, Mark. Happy Valentine's Day to you as well. (I'm working on my own Valentine post for tomorrow even as we speak...well, almost.)
ReplyDeleteHonestly the days fly by now and I barely have time (or the energy)anymore to do everything I want to do. Getting old is the pits. But what's the alternative??? BIG SIGH.
At any rate, I love your posts and continue to thank you (from the bottom of my whizzened old heart) for sharing your wonderful collections with us.
Thank you for enjoying these pieces, Yvette. You probably can imagine that every now and then I get out the ephemera and look through the collection as though it were a family album.
DeleteI choose not to think of myself as old. I'm simply in my prime!
A lovely V day to you Mark,
ReplyDeleteI'm always wonderfully amazed to see these (over the top) Victorian cards and utterly amused by them. They satisfy my detailed oriented self.
Anyes
xx
Happy Valentine's Day to you, Anyes! That makes two detail-oriented selves who enjoy these elaborate cards. I wish I could go back in a time machine and pick up a few more (but I wouldn't want to be away from my air conditioning for too long!).
Deletewow..this is ll new terrain for me...very interesting! the detail is beautiful! and in such great condition!! a little piece of history...
ReplyDeletei am your newest follower..pls follow back if you can.
happy Valentines day!
Thanks for visiting, Annmarie! And be sure to look in my side bar for more antique paper!
Delete