Valentine for Mary Holer

Date1832

Attributed to Reuben Bowers (1804 - after 1879)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Shenandoah County

MediumWatercolor and ink on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 16 1/16 x 11 1/16in. (40.8 x 28.1cm)

Credit LinePartial gift of Monique Fong Wust in memory of Klaus Wust; acquisition partially funded by Samuel Anderson, Merle and Barbara Glick, and Ann Allen

Object number2008.305.4

DescriptionA circular reserve is placed within a bordered square at the bottom of a rectangular, vertical-format sheet. The reserve encloses numerous lines of script, with a name at the bottom in large, open-block letters. Flower sprigs and quarters of hearts fill the four corners of the square. In the top margin, a bird stands beneath a vine-covered arch at far left; in and to the right of center, stand three bare-limbed blue trees; and at far right, are several sprouting blooming flowers.
The 3/4-inch scoop-molded, brown-painted frame with gold-painted liner received on the Valentine was a modern replacement that the seller requested be returned to her (which was done 7/8/2008).

Label Text"Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you." Did you think this bit of doggerel was propagated by modern-day greeting card salesmen? It appears in the body of Mary Holer's 1832 Valentine, as do other familiar phrases of affection. Read the entire inscription, and you may be surprised to find that many commonplace expressions are older than you thought. (The four-line verse at the top of this paragraph actually derives from lines in Sir Edmund Spenser's epic poem of 1590, "The Faerie Queene").
Mary Holer (1810-1861) grew up on Stony Creek near Edinburg in Shenandoah County, Virginia, one of many descendants of the tide of German-speaking emigrants who settled in the state's rich Shenandoah Valley. Mary's charming missive was almost certainly made by Reuben Bowers (1804-after 1879), another descendant of German-speaking emigrants living in Shenandoah County. Mary and Reuben married August 8 the same year the Valentine was made. With little doubt, the couple was bilingual. The Valentine illustrates Reuben's mastery of English and is atypically literate for a farmer and carpenter of the time.

InscribedIn script in brown ink in the central, circular reserve of the design is:

"The 14th of February it was my lot for to be mery/the lots were cast and one I drew[.] kind foretune [sic] smiled and/gave me you, I Cast you out from a[ . . .correction made, intended lettering uncertain] many the rest the rea/son why I Loved you best, Some Chase by yess and some by lots/And some gets them that they love not, But I Chase you to my/hearst [sic] Content[.] The Sun shall freeze if I repent. So shure as the/grape grouse [i.e., grows] on the vine[,] So Shure your [sic] are my valentine, So Shure/as the feather grows on the dove, So Shure you are my own true Love ---/Round is the ring that hath no end[.] So is my Love to you my friend ---/If you love me as I love you, No knife Can Cut our Love in two And when/our hearts be joint together [,] Like these then our minds will be at ease. The/rose is read the violets blue. Suger is sweet and so are you[.] If I had gold/you should have part & have my Love with all my heart[.] When first/I saw thy Lovely Eyes then I was struck with great surprise[.] But when/I kist the Lovely Cheeks Sudden Love my heart did reach[.] Such Love/I never felt before[.] It is for you I do a dore [sic]. As I Lay slumbring [sic]/on my bead [sic] these verses did come in my head[.] As when day Light/it did appear I Confessid this to my dear[.] And if you take this/in good pard[,] Send me an answer from your heart[.] but if the/Same you do refuse[,] Pray burn the paper and me Excuse. But/if these few Lines you do Except[,] your sweet kisses I/should Expect ----- 1832." The name "MARY HOLER" appears below the foregoing and is written in open-block lettering in brown ink filled in with yellow watercolor.
ProvenancePurchased by Monique Fong Wust (CWF's source) and her husband, Klaus Wust, at an auction in Jerome (Shenandoah County), Virginia, in, probably, early 1974.