The earliest known Valentine message dates from the fifteenth century, but it was in the 1800s that sending cards on Valentine's Day became a popular pastime. Victorian valentines often depicted popular symbols of love such as cupids and hearts; however they also showed contemporary figures.

This valentines depicts Edward VII when Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and his wife, the future Queen Alexandra, and was collated by Queen Mary. The paper lace card shows the Prince of Wales' feathers on the front, with portraits of the Prince and Princess printed inside accompanied by a poem:

Though his bride may be greeted with deafening cheer.
To prove she's beloved by each Briton, -
No Queen or Princess could be to me so dear
As the darling to whom this is written.