PENNY POST
The sender pays
Before 1840 the recipient paid the postage, and the cheapest letters cost 4 pence. The Penny Post let a basic letter go anywhere in the country for a penny.
See the numbersWHAT THE COLLECTIONS SHOW
Love, by
penny post.
The valentine card took off with cheap post.
Pick a valentine
ONE PENNYanywhere in the country
- Cheap post from 1840
- Lace made of paper
- Sent without a name
- A Victorian craze
Museum collections show how the Penny Post of 1840 turned valentines into big business: lace-paper romance, novelty flaps and lobsters, and spiteful 'vinegar valentines' sent to people the sender disliked.
Updated
THE SHORT ANSWER
Cheap post made
the valentine boom.
Once the sender paid a penny,
everyone could afford to send one.
PAPER LACE
Lace you could post
The V&A calls 1840 to 1860 the golden age of sentimental valentines, helped by embossed and then perforated lace paper made in England.
Pick a valentine
THE MAKERS
Made in London
London Museum holds over 1,700 valentines, most of them from one Islington stationer's family workshop, from romantic to downright insulting.
Inside the tradePICK A VALENTINE
Which card
would you send?
Pick a kind of Victorian valentine to see what museum collections say about it. The bar shows how much care, and money, went into making it.
Based on London Museum, the V&A and The Postal Museum collections and writing.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
A London habit
that kept doubling.
How many valentines London sent before 1840,
and what posting one cost afterwards.
200,000
Valentines circulating in London each year by the mid-1820s
After the Penny Post began, the number was reported to have doubled by the late 1840s and doubled again by the 1860s.
BEFORE 1840 · LONDON MUSEUM
1 penny
Cost to send a basic letter anywhere in the country
Before the reform, prices varied between every pair of postal towns and the cheapest letters cost 4 pence, paid by the recipient.
FROM 1840 · POSTAL MUSEUM
Sources: London Museum, Quirky Victorian Valentine's Day cards; The Postal Museum, Vinegar Valentines.
SPOTTING AN OLD VALENTINE
Four clues
on the card.
Victorian valentines turn up in museums, archives and family papers. These details from collection records help you read one.
Look at the lace
Paper lace was first embossed by hand, copied from real lace, and later pressed by machinery, then perforated.
Feel the layers
Hand-made cards collaged paper scraps, hand-painted illustration and lace paper, sometimes several centimetres deep.
Read the verse
Springtime, flowers and rhymes were popular motifs, and many cards contain marriage proposals or mention engagements.
Check the paper quality
Mocking cards were cheaply printed and crudely hand-coloured, unlike the ornate embossed sentimental ones.
INSIDE THE TRADE
Shop windows
full of hearts.
London Museum says stationers put on enormous window displays each year and experimented with thousands of designs sold across the country. In one Islington workshop, staff could make their own designs, but the owners decided what was good enough to sell.
Not every card was kind. Insulting valentines mocked appearance, trades and behaviour, and some carried offensive, racist and antisemitic images and verses. The Postal Museum says vinegar valentines did not outlast the Victorian period once senders paid the postage.
Questions
Questions people ask
When did people start sending valentine cards in Britain?
London Museum says London's relationship with valentine cards goes back at least two hundred years, with an estimated 200,000 circulating each year in London by the mid-1820s.
How did the Penny Post change valentines?
From 1840 a basic letter could be sent anywhere for a penny, paid by the sender. London Museum says the number of valentines then doubled by the late 1840s and again by the 1860s.
What was a vinegar valentine?
A cheaply printed card with a mocking rhyme, sent anonymously to someone the sender disliked. Before 1840 the recipient paid the postage, so they paid to be insulted.
What is paper lace?
The V&A says the earliest paper lace was copied from real lace, embossed by hand at first and later pressed by machinery. Embossed and then perforated lace paper made in England was exported to America.
Were Victorian valentines expensive?
Some were. The Postal Museum says some men spent up to a month's wages on a deeply felt valentine, while insulting cards were printed on cheap paper.