Edwardian Valentine Greeting Card with Children & Flowers

The card's message of mutual affection is undermined entirely by its imagery: a towering woman in billowing white and a massive bonnet clutches a single rose with the energy of someone who's already decided this suitor is beneath her — because he literally is, being approximately half her size and dressed in a tiny blue colonial-era suit and tricorn hat. The pint-sized Romeo hauls an enormous armful of roses and heart-decorated stems toward her with the desperate optimism of a man who has made several poor financial decisions this Valentine's Day. The text — 'Sweetheart excuse the liberty I take, and Accept this nosegay for friendships sake' — is doing heroic work trying to reframe what is clearly a one-sided courtship between a Regency-era giantess and a miniature founding father. A potted arrangement of pansies watches from the corner, the only witness to this humiliating transaction.