Victorian-Era Vinegar Valentines - Penny Dreadfuls

Comic, Penny Dreadfuls, Vinegar Valentines were all the Rage

Comic Valentines also called “Vinegar” or “Penny Dreadfuls”, were sent anonymously to insult the recipient so they would know that a neighbor, co-worker, or even a family member not only disliked a characteristic of their life, they disliked it so much that they felt inclined to buy and send the offensive message.

Popular in both the United States and England, the market for comic valentines rivaled that for sentimental valentines, with their sales numbers about equal in the 1840s and 1850s. Sentimental valentines were more expensive, ranging in price from twenty-five cents to thirty dollars. A single comic valentine cost about a penny, hence their other nickname “penny dreadfuls.” The cards were printed from wood blocks and the color was added by hand (often with stencils). The later examples were reproduced lithographically, but imitated the look of woodcuts. All types of the Vinegar Valentines were sent until the mid 1950s, the recipients typically threw them away, so few survive.

Many had rhymes proclaiming some unfavorable quality or feature of the recipient. They often featured garish caricatures of men like the “Dude” or women like the “Floozy.”

For instance, a Valentine’s message for the mean Saleslady:

Saleslady
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.

For the mean saleslady in your life. Vintage card, c. 1910 / Public Domain

Vinegar Valentine’s were also used politically. A Valentine’s message expressing disapproval during the women’s suffrage movement for the “Modern Woman” voting. These cards depicted such women, “modern women”, as neglecting their families.

You’ve got to vote and you think it’s your mission,
To go to the polls like a bum politician
And while you are voting, your husband must roam
For something to eat which he can’t find at home.
He’s getting dyspepsia and can’t work for pain,
Your children neglected, ask for you in vain.
While you make speeches from a broken soap box,
Your family is wearing soiled clothes and torn socks.

Women's Rights Vinegar Valentine — Women’s Rights Vinegar Valentine – c 1840s
Ken Florey Suffrage Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Cruel and Mean Vinegar Valentines

Dear mam you’re ugly cross and old,
An errant vixen and a scold,
So that betwixt us I’m afraid:
You’re doomed to live and die a maid,
For since your age is sixty-nine,
You cannot be my Valentine.

To My Valentine – No Chance for You