"Valentine's Day is the perfect moment to tell your sweetheart how much you love them with a thoughtful card. But what about the people in your life whom you don't like so much? Why is there no Hallmark card telling them to get lost? The Victorians had just the thing: a cruel and mocking version of the traditional Valentine's Day card. Later coined "vinegar valentines" by 21st-century art collectors and dealers, such cards were usually referred to as mock or mocking valentines during the Victorian era."
"Vinegar valentines are what we historians like to call ephemera -materials that are usually not meant to last a long time. It's hard to imagine the recipient of a vinegar valentine wanting to keep it lovingly in a frame, and many have been lost to time. But luckily, some vinegar valentines have survived and are preserved in the collections of historical institutions such as the New York Public Library and Brighton & Hove Museums in England."
Vinegar valentines were anonymous, cruel versions of traditional Valentine's Day cards circulated in the Victorian era to mock and offend recipients. Senders often remained anonymous, allowing anyone to be an unwitting target. Examples attacked rude saleswomen and pretentious poets, using rhymed insults and ridicule. These cards are a form of ephemera, not intended to last, so many have been lost. Some vinegar valentines survive in institutional collections such as the New York Public Library and Brighton & Hove Museums. The anonymous and provocative nature of some cards occasionally produced serious, even violent, consequences.
Read at Smithsonian Magazine
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