Before computers and talking greeting cards, people of the past would celebrate Valentine’s Day with paper valentines. Many vintage valentines were made by hand with exquisite attention to detail. Without the distractions of the modern world, our ancestors had plenty of time to fashion and craft truly special valentines for their loved ones.
Vintage Valentine Postcard
It can be difficult for the collector or dealer to find choice valentines from circa 1740 through 1840 as most of these treasures are in museums. Different types of valentines flourished during different eras and trends and styles changed with the times.

Those early American valentine crafters used not only paper and ink, but other embellishments as well. It was not unusual for valentines of the past to have pinpricks, cutouts, watercolors and sketches to make them unique and interesting. Other adornments that can be found on some vintage valentines are semi-precious stones, a lock of hair, dried flowers and scraps of yarn and cloth.
Vintage Valentine Greeting Card
From the years of 1895 to 1915, popular valentines were often a stand up card along with a base. A valentine with 3-dimensional layers that folded out was especially prized. So were valentines that were made of honeycomb paper puffs. These opened to resemble many shapes such as hearts, fans, bells as well as hearts. Valentine postcards flourished during this era as well.

Mechanical valentines became all the rage around this time. Victorian mechanical valentines had trains, ships, automobiles or other scenes that would allow the recipient to get the card moving with the touch of a paper lever. Because of the amount of play and movement the card encouraged, these intricate valentines are a rare find today. Those mechanical valentines that were manufactured well into the 1930s were not as fancy nor as elaborate as the earlier cards made in the elaborate Victorian era.

Collectible Vintage Valentine Card
A valentine from the past can evoke powerful emotions from the collector, especially if there is a handwritten note contained inside. As much as things change from era to era, the one thing that remains constant is romance and expressing your love with a special valentine.

Alana Morgaine
Our Valentines

The hobby of collecting old milk bottles is on the rise. In the early 1900s, the American economy was heavily agricultural. At that time, one town might have had several local dairies because local delivery was the most common way to have fresh milk available for your family. Dairy wagons would deliver fresh milk directly to your home from the dairy. The bottles were eventually crafted with the names of each local dairy to help identify them.
Old milk bottles from America’s early years are an icon of American culture. They represent what family life was like at the turn of the 20th Century. Nostalgia for that bygone era can lead to reminiscences of one’s childhood and remembrances of fresh milk deliveries and visits from horse-drawn wagons. Many collectors associate milk bottles, and their labels and designs, with pleasant memories from their younger days.

History
Before milk bottles, milkmen filled jugs owned by the customer. The first patent for a “milk container” was by Lester Milk Jar in 1878. The first glass milk bottle, containing a small glass lid with a tin clip, was patented by Lewis P. Whiteman in 1880. The details of exactly when the first milk bottles started appearing in delivery use are a little sketchy, but the New York Dairy Company is generally credited with the manufacture of the first milk bottles.
Attributes of value
Collecting old milk bottles is a huge past-time and there are specific characteristics that can make some bottles more valuable than others. Special features enticing to collectors include having the name of the dairy embossed on the bottle, the picture and amount of color, if any, that remains in the image and/or name, and the overall condition of the bottle. The most cherished milk bottles are embossed or pyroglazed with the name of the local dairy. Pyroglazing is a technique used after the 1930s, which is also called Applied Color Label. Before the 1930s, what is called a “slug plate” was used to produce the embossing on the bottle.

The average life span of a milk bottle was estimated to be 22.5 trips. The need to identify milk bottles with the name of the dairy came from the desire to re-use the bottles. To re-use them, they needed to be returned to the dairy from whence they came. Originally, milk bottles were plain and their affiliation with a specific dairy was provided only on the caps. This method didn’t last long, however, as the plain bottles were easily stolen for re-use by competitors and the caps were easily lost. Milk bottles before the 1930s were round in shape; in the 1940s, a bottle with a square shape replaced it.
Link to ancestry
One of the reasons collecting old milk bottles has grown in popularity recently is due to the number of people interested in tracking their family history. Genealogical research has gotten much easier over the past several years with the convenience of the internet and the number of resources available online to help you trace your ancestry. Many people are discovering that their ancestors owned a dairy business at one time, and they are searching for milk bottles which could possibly be a family link.

Preservation
Along with milk bottle collecting clubs and associations, there are newsletters, conventions, and educational seminars to inform others about milk bottle news. Preservation of the milk industry history is a primary goal of collectors’ clubs.
Collecting old milk bottles is a wonderful way to remember past times and re-live a few childhood memories. They are educational, as well, as much information can be gleaned from them about America’s early period when local dairies were plentiful. Old milk bottles contain little pieces of history about America’s dairy entrepreneurship.
Alana Morgaine
Our Old Bottles Read the rest of this entry »

Collecting Theater Sheet Music and some of the more famous covers from the 1900s through 1950s
When reviewing a collection of theater sheet music and covers, it is as though you are taking a stroll through American history. You can relive each era, each decade’s foray into a unique phase of American culture that was central to that period of history. Illustrations on the covers that hold sheet music intact are exquisite and represent the essence of that moment in time.
Over 200 years of printed sheet music can be collected. These historical artifacts should be preserved as they chronicle our culture. The beauty of the covers, as well as the pages of sheet music, is something special to behold. Sheet music collectors often choose areas of personal interest as to the types of music and covers they desire to accumulate. You might decide to collect by composer, such as Scott Joplin, or by era, type of music (marches, jazz, or ragtime, for example), or by a particular theme, such as theater productions.

Some eras produced millions of copies of sheet music, so there is quite a number in circulation to be found and cherished. Over one million copies of a popular song in the 1900s, “After the Ball,” were sold. This score was used in stage productions that were touring the big cities at the time. It tells the tragic story of a couple whose love was never to be fulfilled. At a dance, the groom-to-be went to get a drink of water for his bride-to-be and upon his return found her kissing another man. Calling off the wedding then and there, he didn’t learn until after his would-be bride died of a broken heart that the man kissing her was her brother.
While some collectors are solely interested in the art work on the covers, the entire ensemble makes up the importance of the whole. Covers should never be separated from their sheet music; the collection of both is vital to the effort of preservation and distinguishing historical periods as they occurred. Through art on sheet music covers, as well as the musical score, you can trace American history through eras that grew our culture. The musical score is indicative of the cultural changes and choices made throughout American history.

You may decide to collect theater sheet music based on a particular era. In the 1900s, pianos were the instrument of choice as entertainment. Many homes in America had a piano and sometimes the piano was placed in an area of the home called the parlor, from whence came the term “parlor music.”
In the decade spanning 1910 to 1920, such music as “Over There” and “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” reflected the World War I years (1914-1918). The cover of the 1919 song, “Dear Heart,” used a photograph for a cover, which was seldom done in those days, while the artwork gracing the cover of “Peggy O’Neil” was taken from a painting. Pretty women and love were often the focal point of music and artwork.
After WWI, music adopted more casual themes such as “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” and “Let the Rest of the World Go By.” Covers for such sheet music as “Jelly Roll” and “Thanks for the Buggy Ride” from the 1920s featured charming drawings instead of pictures of pretty girls. The entertainment era of the 1920s and 1930s was one of jazz and frivolity.
Irving Berlin (1888-1989), an immigrant from Russia, had perhaps more influence on American popular music than anyone else at the time. The influx of immigrant musicians had an enormous impact on American musical culture. The cover of Irving Berlin’s 1925 “Always” bore only the name of the song as written by him and his signature.

The year 1931 saw “Blue Kentucky Moon” with a picture of Guy Lombardo on the cover and the sheet music for “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain” featured a picture of singer Kate Smith. In November 1931, “Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day” included Bing Crosby on the cover. Crosby chose this tune for the theme song of his radio show. In 1938, Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” was released in a movie with the same name and featured actors Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, and Alice Faye.
In 1940, “A Love Story – Intermezzo,” featured Leslie Howard on the sheet music cover playing the violin. It also lists “Introducing Ingrid Bergman in a David O. Selznick production” with the same name. In the early part of the 1940s, America was at war again. World War II brought such songs as “A Little on the Lonely Side” in 1944, where an element on the cover was “Buy War Bonds.” This attribute makes it especially collectible.

The decade of the 1950s saw such musical hits as “A Teenage Prayer,” (1955) with the cover featuring Gloria Mann. Hits by Eddie Fisher included “Bring Back the Thrill” (1950) and “Green Years” (1954). Fisher’s image was highlighted on the covers of those musical scores.
No matter how you choose to collect theater sheet music from the first half of the 20th Century, you will be amassing a collection of important periods in American culture. The art featured on the covers of some sheet music enhances its collectability and encompasses it as a true American art form. Collecting theatre sheet music, you are helping to preserve an American legacy.

Alana Morgaine
Our Sheet Music