For St. Valentine’s Day, enjoy a suffragette themed ‘Vinegar Valentine’ postcard! Vinegar Valentines were a form of ‘comic’ or anti-Valentine, popular from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Vinegar Valentines were designed to insult and mock the unfortunate recipients through blunt contemporary humour – on this postcard the sender has even continued the ‘vinegar’ sentiment with a handwritten verse! The cards were mass-produced and sent to both men and women for Valentine’s Day, with the card message commonly ranging from lightly teasing to cruel and particularly nasty in tone. (Photos copyright D. Gilligan)
Scéal Heritage Consultancy 