Vintage Valentine's Day Postcard

Perfectly printable as-is, or incorporate this pretty photograph in your next project. As you can see, it already has a bird on it.

Fancy Victorian Valentine's Day Card

This is a lovely dimensional Victorian card. The background was die-cut, and then layered with different lacy papers atop a colorful chromolithographic insert.

Antique Wedding Photograph

The Victorian bride in this photograph is wearing a beautiful white dress, made popular by Queen Victoria at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.  The resulting tradition, along with the ceremony and rituals associated with traditional European-style weddings has become known as a “White Wedding”, as described further in this entry on Wikipedia.

The bride in the following antique photograph looks either frightened or sad. Is it a future of darning socks and raising little shavers that saddens her so? Or is she just in awe of the solemn occasion? We may never know.

Antique Wedding Photograph of a Sad Victorian Bride

These pictures are from my own cache, I will post more old wedding photographs and romantic images of couples so be sure to check this website often!

Antique CDV Photograph of Two Sisters Holding Hands Brother. Photo Credit: MissMary.com

The ghost of a beloved departed mother returns to console her children, who are habitually beaten and abused by their evil stepmother in this Gothic Victorian poem.

A Folk-Lore Legend

By Catharine Allan, Peterson’s Magazine, 1884

“Come back to us mother,” the little ones cried;
Come back to us, mother dear.”
And they flung themselves on the grave at her side:
“There’s nobody loves us here.”

“The stepmother beats us, and starves us for food;
Come back to us, mother dear.
Do you slumber so deep—oh! We’ll be so good—
So deep that you do not hear?”

The mother she came in the dead of the night,
She washed them, and combed their hair,
And gave them to eat of the wheaten bread white,
And dressed them in garments fair.

They climbed in her lap, and they sang at her feet,
They kissed her with laughter gay.
She sang them to sleep with a lullaby sweet,
Till cock-crow called her away.

And though ev’ry night they lie smiling in bed,
With tears on their lashes fair,
Think not they are sad—they are happy instead:
Their mother is with them there!

About the Photograph: There is a hidden sadness to this antique photograph. The young girl on the left looks sickly to my eyes. There was no information on the reverse of this CDV. We’ll never know how these anonymous children fared, but hopefully they had a better life than the poor children in this Victorian poem.

Gothic Victorian Clip Art Devil and Fallen Woman

Why Are You Weeping, Sister?

Why are you weeping, Sister?
Why are you sitting alone?

I’m bent and gray
And I’ve lost the way!
All my tomorrows were yesterday!
I traded them off for a wanton’s pay.
I bartered my graces for silks and laces
My heart I sold for a pot of gold–
Now I’m old.

Why did you do it, Sister,
Why did you sell your soul?

I was foolish and fair and my form was rare!
I longed for life’s baubles and did not care!
When we know not the price to be paid, we dare.
I listened when Vanity lied to me
And I ate the fruit of the Bitter Tree–
Now I’m old.

Why are you lonely, Sister?
Where have your friends all gone?

Friends I have none, for I went the road
Where women must harvest what men have sowed
And they never come back when the field is mowed.
They gave the lee of the cup to me
But I was blind and would not see–
Now I’m old.

Where are your lovers, Sister,
Where are your lovers now?

My lovers were many but all have run
I betrayed and deceived them every one
And they lived to learn what I had done.
A poisoned draught from my lips they quaffed
And I who knew it was poisoned, laughed–
Now I’m old.

Will they not help you, Sister,
In the name of your common sin?

There is no debt, for my lovers bought.
They paid my price for the things I brought.
I made the terms so they owe me naught.
I have no hold for ‘t was I who sold.
One offered his heart, but mine was cold–
Now I’m old.

Where is that lover, Sister?
He will come when he knows your need.

I broke his hope and I stained his pride.
I dragged him down in the undertide.
Alone and forsaken by me he died.
The blood that he shed is on my head
For all the while I knew that he bled–
Now I’m old.

Is there no mercy, Sister,
For the wanton whose course is spent?

When a woman is lovely the world will fawn.
But now when her beauty and grace are gone,
When her face is seamed and her limbs are drawn.
I’ve had my day and I’ve had my play.
In my winter of loneliness I must pay–
Now I’m old.

What of the morrow, Sister?
How shall the morrow be?

I must feed to the end upon remorse.
I must falter alone in my self-made course.
I must stagger alone with my self-made cross.
For I bartered my graces for silks and laces
My heart I sold for a pot of gold–
Now I’m old.

By Herbert Kaufman in Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls, or, War on the White Slave Trade, 1911

Flower Sentiments from the Victorian Era.

Victorian Scrapbook Clipart: A Basket of Flowers.

• Acacia, Yellow = Concealed Love
• Acanthus = Art
• Almond = Heedlessness
• Amaranth = Immortality
• Alyssum = Worth beyond Beauty
• American Star Wort = Welcome to a Stranger
• Anemone, Garden = Forsaken
• Auricula = Painting
• Aspen Tree = Lamentation
• Azalea = Romance
• Bay Leaf = I change but in dying
• Bell Flower, Pyramidal = Gratitude
• Bilberry = Treachery
• Black Poplar = Courage
• Blue Canterbury Bell = Constancy
• Borage = Bluntness, or Roughness of Manners
• Bundles of Reeds = Music
• Bramble = Remorse
• Carnation, Yellow = Disdain
• Candy Tuft = Indifference
• Cherry, Winter = Deception
• Cinquefoil = Parental Love
• Convolvulus Minor = Night
• Crown Imperial = Pride of Birth
• Crocus = Cheerfulness, Smiles
• Columbine = Desertion
• Clematis, English = Traveler’s Joy
• Corchorus = Impatience of Absence
• Coboea = Gossips
• Coreopsis = Love at First Sight
• Cross of Jerusalem = Devotion
• Cypress = Death
• Daisy = Innocence
• Daisy, Michaelmas = Farewell
• Dandelion = Coquetry
• Dead Leaves = Sadness
• Evergreen = Poverty
• Eglantine or sweet briar = Poetry
• Eupatorian = Delay
• Fig Marygold = Sacred Affection
• Geranium, Mourning = Despondency
• Guelder Rose = Winter
• Hackmetack = Single Blessedness
• Hawthorn = Hope
• Heath = Solitude
• Helenium = Tears
• Houstonia = Content
• Honeysuckle, Trumpet = I have dreamed of thee
• Hydrangea = Heartlessness
• Hyacinth = Grief
• India Cross = Resignation
• Ivy = Friendship
• Laburnum = Pensive Beauty
• Larkspur = Fickleness
• Lettuce = Cold Hearted
• Locust = Affection beyond the grave
• Love in a Mist = You puzzle me
• Linden Tree = Matrimony
• Lilac = First Emotion of Love
• Live Oak = Liberty
• Lucern = Life
• Marygold, French = Jealousy
• Meadow Saffron = My best days are gone
• Moss = Maternal Love
• Mountain Pink = Aspirings
• Milfoil, Common = War
• Moonwort = Forgetfulness
• Myosotis, or Mouse Ear = Forget me not
• Nasturtium = Patriotism
• Nettle = Slander
• Nightshade = Dark Thoughts
• Oleander = Beware
• Olive = Peace
• Pansy, or Heart’s Ear = Think of Me
• Passion Flower = Religious Fervor
• Pea = An appointed Meeting
• Peach, Blossom = This Heart is Thine
• Periwinkle = Sweet Remembrances
• Petunia = Thou art less proud than they deem thee
• Persimmon = Bury me amid Nature’s beauties
• Pheasant’s Eye, or Flos Adonis = Sorrowful Remembrances
• Phlox = Our souls are united
• Poplar, White = Time
• Primrose, Evening = Inconstancy
• Poppy = Consolation of Sleep
• Primrose = Early Youth
• Pride of China = Dissension
• Pink, Red = Woman’s Love
• Pine = Pity
• Pine Spruce = Hope in Adversity
• Pine Apple = You are perfect
• Ranunculus = You are radiant with charms
• Rose = Beauty
• Rosemary = Remembrance
• Saffron Flower = Excess is dangerous
• Snap Dragon = You are dazzling, but dangerous
• Snow Ball = Thoughts of Heaven
• Stramonium, Common = Disguise
• Sorrel = Wit
• Spindle Tree = Your image is engraven on my heart
• Syringa = Memory
• Thrift = Sympathy
• Tiger Flower = For once may pride befriend thee
• Tulip = Declaration of Love
• Tulip, Tree = Rural Happiness
• Venus’s Looking Glass = Flattery
• Venus’s Fly Trap = Have I caught you at last?
• Virgin’s Bower = Artifice
• Wall Speedwell = Fidelity
• White Lily = Purity
• Weeping Willow = Melancholy
• Woodbine = Fraternal Love
• Wood Sorrel = Joy
• Wormwood = Absence

Victorian Children Ice Skating Clip Art

Enjoy this beautiful Victorian era chromolithograph and make up a winter tale of your own. Printable as-is or incorporate it into your next craft project.