Victorian Cherub Valentine Card with Hearts and Violets

The decision to pack an entire wooden box with red hearts as though hearts were a commodity to be exported raises immediate questions about Victorian-era organized crime's most adorable smuggling operation, especially when framed by a wrought-iron garden gate dripping with purple wisteria. Two winged cherubs — one in a pink dress clutching an armful of hearts, one in white crouching over the stuffed chest — both wear the dead-eyed thousand-yard stare that Victorian illustrators apparently believed conveyed 'love' but actually conveys 'I have buried several people in this garden.' The heart-stuffed box with its little handle suggests the whole operation is mobile, which only raises further questions about where these cherubs are going and who ordered this many feelings in bulk.