Vintage Valentine's Postcards by Samuel L. Schmucker

Schmucker's Valentine Cards with Decorative Borders

The influence of Art Nouveau is clearly seen in this series of Valentines. A beautiful girl (Samuel Schmucker's wife Katharine Rice) with a fancy hat is portrayed on the vibrant background. She is surrounded by a decorative border. There are a lot of curvy lines and, of course, red hearts.

The artist not only used the same model, but we also saw exactly the same design with different colors for the background. Let's check it up, this time with the back of the card, where it's clearly seen the relief print.

Unique Valentine Postcards with Bricks!

Although the symbolism of bricks is very strong, most people are not aware of it. Bricks are used to build and support. They can be the basic elements of a house, but in this case, they are building a relationship.

Another interesting approach to making Valentine's postcards more unique is movable parts. Here are examples of Valentine's greeting cards with a closed window, an open window, and the back of one of them to get a better idea of the looks.

Happy Valentine's Day Cards with Spider's Web by Samuel Schmucker

Spider's web is another important symbol, which we still often meet at Halloween cards, but not for St. Valentine's Day. Still, we need to understand the meaning of the web, catching the 'victims' of Cupid's arrows into love loops. Again, one picture, two different designs.

A bit different approach is seen below. The same picture with and without a spider's web. Are you lovesick? Does anybody need a nurse?

It's time to meet the culprit.

Cupid's Valentine's Cards

Cupid is the god of affection, attraction, desire, and love in different shapes. He is the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. His favorite pastime is shooting arrows at people. Anybody hit inevitably falls in love.

We started with the most simple designs. Just the basic elements - Cupid, a heart, and a pretty lady as Schmucker's signature sign. They can be easily transformed in Valentine's coloring pages.

Cupid can play with your heart or steal it. There's nothing you can do to prevent it.

Now we are dealing with much more complex designs. This type of Samuel Schmucker's works is especially popular among the collectors. Decorative borders with roses and hearts, interesting textures as a background, fresh combinations of pink in different shades with green colors,... If you are looking for great vintage Valentines, you'll hardly find anything better.

Schmucker used the same approach for vertical Valentines. Essentially, nothing new, but amazingly fresh and lively even a full century after creation.

Antique Valentine's Greetings with Flowers

Flowers are intertwined with romance even before the word romance existed. They are beautiful, they smell lovely, and they are gentle and delicate, just like the tender feelings we are often trying to express. Not to mention their powerful symbolic messages. Samuel L. Schmucker created a lot of Valentine's cards with flowers and here they are.

Again, we can enjoy a few more simple designs. Both Valentine's postcards below were published around 1915.

Still not enough? How about a few greetings for St. Valentine's Day with flowers AND hearts?

Vintage Valentine's Heart Cards

For many centuries people believed the heart is the center of emotions. Now we know that emotions are created in our brains. Still, the expression of experiencing pain in one's heart when being unhappily in love is not just an imagination. The heart is not just a pump. Emotions can really influence it.

Stripes were quite popular for some time. Next designs used them as a background. You'll also notice, Cupid is not the only one who can play with a heart. A pretty lady can use it as a football. Or hang it up as a trophy!

Using golden color for the heart, instead of red, is an interesting choice. But not so original, if we think of the expression of 'having a golden heart', right? Samuel Schmucker was a great artist and craftsman.

Kids' Valentine's Cards

Children are a less common motif in Valentine's greeting cards, but we managed to find a couple of examples by Schmucker.

As you may expect, Schmucker combined kids with beautiful young women, too.

Are you ready for a surprise? Here we have ...

Vintage Valentine's Cards with Pilgrims

You read it right. Pilgrims are not only portrayed on Thanksgiving cards. At least in this case, Schmucker included them in his Valentines, as well.

Did you notice that these cards, although designed for the American market, were printed in Germany? The printing technology was way better and printed cards were imported to the USA.

We presented over 50 Valentine's cards by Samuel Schmucker. All designs are in the Public Domain and perfect for sending by e-mail to your sympathy. Spread the word about this beautiful work and happy Valentine's Day!