"Ahh, Valentine's Day: the perfect moment to tell your sweetheart how much you love them with a thoughtful card. But what about people in your life 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."
"Such cards were meant to shock, offend and upset their recipients. Not surprisingly, as with real Valentine's Day cards, senders often chose to remain anonymous. Vinegar valentines are what we historians like to call ephemera, that is, materials that are usually not meant to last a long time. It's hard to imagine a recipient of a vinegar valentine wanting to keep it lovingly in a frame, and many have been lost to time."
"One jab at obnoxious sales ladies reads: "As you wait upon the women With disgust upon your face The way you snap and bark at them One would think you owned the place" There is even a card for the pretentious poet who pretends to make a living with his art: "Behold this pale little poet With a finger at forehead to show it But the way he gets scads Is by writing soap ads But he wants nobody to know it!""
Vinegar valentines were cruel, mocking Victorian cards designed to shock, offend and upset recipients. Senders often remained anonymous, enabling wide targeting and occasional dangerous consequences. Collectors later coined the term "vinegar valentines"; Victorians usually called them mock or mocking valentines. These cards qualify as ephemera and were not intended to survive, so many were lost. Some examples have survived and are preserved in museum collections such as Brighton and Hove Museums and the New York Public Library. Examples included verses insulting saleswomen and pretentious poets. In one 1885 case a recipient's estranged husband shot her after receiving a vinegar valentine.
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