Sailors Valentines.

 Sailor’s valentines were gifts from sailors to their sweethearts that often included affectionate sayings with their designs. For many years, collectors and scholars thought that sailors made these decorative objects during their long voyages at sea. While sailors made items such as scrimshaw and woolworks aboard their vessels, they definitely did not make valentines on board ship.

They would have had to have access to the variety of shells, paper, glass and wood necessary and they would have had to have a designated space where things would remain in an unfinished state while being worked on intermittently. Obviously, the movement of the ship on the sea would not have afforded a reliable workshop and it was doubtful that the ships’ captains would have allowed a “valentine room” on bard their ships. Research has shown that valentines were specifically made for the souvenir trade, mainly in the West Indies.