Victorian Valentine Card with Boy & Mailbox 1890s

A sullen Victorian child wearing period dress stands rigidly beside a mailbox, letter in hand, flanked by his small white dog witness and an excessive abundance of flowering shrubs. This boy clutches his valentine with the energy of someone filing a strongly-worded complaint rather than confessing love, positioned within enough embossed lace and scattered heart motifs to suggest the card designer was being paid by the ornament. The verse cheerfully announces that Cupid is dead ('flies no more they say') before pivoting to 'but he's still bringing your heart to me,' which is either a charming workaround or mildly threatening depending on how you feel about unsupervised children handling your vital organs.