c. 1840s Large Paper Lace Valentine with Watercolor Flower (Blank Interior) antique brass stencil with some string wrapped around

with some string wrapped around the end at some point long ago to keep a split from encroaching

or a few flowering branches

holding in itself a whole lot of capacity for combustion

I had a lot of fun posing this wonderful fellow

Beside the wear

c. 1840s Large Paper Lace Valentine with Watercolor Flower (Blank Interior) antique brass stencil with some string wrapped aroundA handful of Victorian paper lace valentines today, because 'tis almost the season, and what a lovely thing to give to a beloved, including oneself. I'm fussy about ones I like, choosing these several from more than a hundred 19th c. examples I had the joy of perusing last weekend which had been collected over many years by a major Maine based paper dealer (who made notes on the envelopes of some, dating this one to the late 1840s) whose collection