For all those Valentines...

Here at Ginny & Jude we always feel a little strange on this worldwide day of love. Mostly because we feel this day of fearless declarations, romance and heartfelt risk-taking has lost it's way a little in modern times.

Today we thought we would take a journey back to when on Valentine's Day romantic gestures were overwhelming tomes of love unbridled:

This beautiful Danish Valentine dating back to 1820 has been painstakingly designed using pin-pricks. 

Source: Mount Pleasant Pioneer

From the early 1800s, this star shape - folded from a square piece of paper - was a popular style for Valentine cards. The colours on this are particularly beautiful. It says:

1 \ My Dearest Dear and blest divine \ I’ve pictured here your heart and mine.
2 \ But Cupid with her Cruel dart \ Has deeply pierced my tender heart
3 \ And has between us set Across \ Which makes me to lament my loss
4 \ But I’m in hopes when that is gone \ That both our hearts will be in one

Source: The Rongovian Academy of Fine Arts

Some beautiful stencil art from the mid 1800s.

It reads:

Behold the rose, of thee an emblem sweet,

(line which I can't read well enough)

Its numerous petals mark thy virtues rose,

And speak the sweetest of the blushing fair.

Dear, lovely girl, thy charms are all divine,

And make me seek thee for my Valentine.

Source: American Antiquarian Society

Back before we thought hair was a bit icky it was the ultimate keepsake of your loved one.

It reads:

This lock of hair I once did wear

To you I freely give

This little gift will come to tell

If I in your memory dwell

Source: American Antiquarian Society

This celtic love knot from the early 1800s reads:

This is love & worth commending, 

still beginning never ending like a wily net ensnaring in a round shuts up all squaring; 

out & in goes every angle more and more does still entangle, 

keeps a measure still in moving never light 

but always loving twining arms exchanging kisses each partaking others blisses; 

laughing, weeping still together blessing one is worth in other never breaking ever bending. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

xo

g&j