Comic Valentine card printed in red and black on white, showing a greengrocer with long sideburns and a carrot in place of his nose, holding a cabbage; caption reads - To a Greengrocer; verse reads - You have a voice just like a parrot / And for your nose you wear a carrot! / Perhaps you think you are a mash / But I could never love such trash / So though your cabbages are fine / You cannot be my Valentine; two copies; 1880 - 1900
A market for satirical cards emerged alongside the popularity of caricatures as an art form and the wide availability of cheap coloured printing in the 1840s – 1850s. ‘Mock’ or ‘Vinegar’ typically feature unflattering caricature images and mean-spirited, sometimes offensive satirical verses. Cards were cheaply produced and could be bought for one penny. Such cards lampooned people of all trades and professions and they frequently stereotyped racial and ethnic groups, especially African-Americans and the Irish. Women were included in the venom, with old maids, assertive women, ‘flirts’and ‘coquettes’ portrayed as devils, snakes, tigers, or hissing cats. The receiver of the Valentine paid the postage initially, so the receipt of these cards must have been doubly hurtful.
