Edwardian Valentine Card: Inclination Cupid Love Poem 1900s

Like a Sears catalogue crossed with a restraining order, this 1909 card features a magnificently hatted woman in a fur stole clutching roses while a small, nearly-naked cherub trudges beside her looking like he's been told 'no' approximately forty times. She's waving something white in the air — handkerchief? surrender flag? eviction notice for the cherub? — while gazing into the middle distance with the serene detachment of someone who has fully disassociated. The acrostic poem spells out 'C.W.T.O.' with its first letters, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting to justify the word 'Inclination' rendered in full illuminated-manuscript drama, as if possessive delusion deserves a gothic drop cap. Copyright 1909 H. Wessler, who apparently thought 'Think she's mine' was a perfectly normal thing to needlepoint onto romantic correspondence.