Vintage Valentine Museum

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Professions - Office Work, Accountants, Secretaries: Office-ial Lovers

To My Valentine - What is a Valentine? I'm Smart.

2 5/8" x 3 7/8"
circa 1920s, 1930s
Flat
marked: Printed in Germany

Ledger Feb 14th You're ONE in a MILLION - One in a Billion - To My Valentine.

3 3/4" x 5"
circa 1940s
Mechanical Flat
made in USA

Let me BALANCE your love My Valentine.

Figure with Ledger
circa 1930s, 1940s
Pop-Out

You're mine - I'm giving you the STAMP of approval.

4 1/4" x 3 1/4"
circa 1940s
Flat
made in USA

Saturday, March 1, 2014

At the Garden Gate - Fences and Gates

To my Valentine.

2 3/4" x 3 3/4"
circa 1920s, 1930s
Flat with fold out stand along bottom
marked: made in USA

It's so hard to Decide.

4 1/4" x 5"
circa 1920s, 1930s
Mechaincal Flat
No publisher's marks

To My Valentine

Boy on Gate or Fence
circa 1920s, 1930s
Standing Fold-Out
made in Germany

Loving Greetings Valentine

4 3/4" x 3 1/2"
circa 1920s, 1930s
Pop-Up
made in USA
Part of a series
marked: 1306 Val. Cut Outs 6 Des.

Turn over a new LEAF, and LEAVE your heart for me, Valentine.

5" x 6"
circa 1930s
Standing Fold-Out
made in USA

Maker - Beistle: Maker of Paper Puff/Honeycomb Cards

A Token of Love

Standing Paper-Puff
circa 1920s
Made in USA
by Beistle

Beistle was founded in Pittsburg, Pennsylvannia by Martin Luther Beistle in 1900. He began with a small stock of wooden toys, calendars and artificial plants. Operations moved to Shippensburg, Pa by 1907. As the company grew the nature of their inventory changed. They found great success with their paper puff products and soon were making decorations featuring it for a variety of holidays. They did also create flat decorations. The company is still in business today with plenty of decorations to choose from, but their production of honeycomb valentine cards ended long ago.

Valentine Greetings

Standing Paper-Puff
circa 1920s
Made in USA
by Beistle

Their most sought after items are their old decorations for Halloween. The company is currently making reproduction decorations based on those popular vintage Halloween items - lots of great cats and pumpkins and even some neat honeycomb detailing in the collection.

No Text

Standing Card with Paper-Puff Heart
circa 1930s
Made in USA
by Beistle

It was in 1925 that Beistle began making valentines. The first ones were all the pull-down style and featured a little rounded paper puff which they called a rosette hidden in the fold.

Loving Greetings

Standing Paper-Puff Basket
circa 1920s, 1930s
Made in USA
by Beistle

The 1930s saw the beginning of the production of large honeycombed hearts. Those were made into the 1950s while Beistle stopped production of their cards in 1939. They did continue to make holiday decorations, including ones for St Valentine's Day. In the 1950s they produced mainly centerpiece displays and hanging decorations in the 1960s. Today they offer an eclectic mix of centerpieces, garlands and personal accessories.