Mechanical valentines with moving parts were reproduced in exacting likeness from the ones that stole another generation’s heart.  Asst. set of 9 cards with 6x9” envelopes.

Mechanical Valentine History

Pamela Wiggins, an expert on antique ephemera shares a fascinating overview of a an ever-popular correspondence that has endured for over a century: Mechanical valentines first surfaced in the late 1890's and 1920 and continued to be manufactured into the 1930s, although the later mechanicals were not quite as elaborate as those manufactured during the Victorian Gilded Age. The earlier versions were embellished with intricate paper lace, metal, velvet trims and vibrant lithographs.

The Victorian designs frequently featured automobiles, ships and trains with moving parts and a paper lever to motivate these novelties into motion.

Long before modern technology yielded talking greeting cards and email salutations, romantics found a way to express themselves with paper valentines. Just because they were made of paper, often by hand, doesn't mean they were simple, however.

Many of the first American valentine crafters used not only ink and paper, but adorned their creations with sketches, watercolors, pinpricks and cutouts to make them more interesting and personal. Sometimes natural elements such as bark, feathers and dried flowers were used along with scraps of cloth, yarn, ribbon and even locks of hair. Occasionally semiprecious stones and jewels found their way into a valentine composition.

The earliest valentines were sealed with wax and made their way to the recipient through hand delivery. If the greeting was anonymous, it would be left where the intended would surely find it.

By the middle of the 19th century, crimson hearts, colorful roses, Cupid with his bow and arrow, and illustrations dealing with matrimony gained popularity with valentine producers and givers alike.

Stand-up cards with a base and several three-dimensional fold-out layers were popular from about 1895 until 1915, as were honeycomb paper puffs which opened to form bells, fans, balls, hearts and other shapes. Being convenient to mail, the honeycomb cards remained popular for many years. These cards could be mailed flat and then easily folded out to impress the recipient.

Luckily for collectors, many of these popular items were saved by the recipients. And for goods made of paper more than 100 years old, Victorian cards can be found in relatively good condition in many instances. In fact, the colors on the cards are usually still vivid and bright with only tissue paper decoration and honeycombs showing some fading. Market value of earlier mechanical valentines will capture as much as $100. For a modest paper novelty that originally cost less than a penny!  But the smiles they induced...priceless.