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| Your Carte de Visite Comic Valentine Greeting Card, c. 1870, English The Victoria & Albert Museum |
The carte de visite was a type of small photograph which was first developed by Louis Dodero, but was patented in Paris, France by the famed photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854. Each photograph was the size of a calling card, and such photograph cards were traded among friends and visitors. These popular items gave rise to the publication and collection of photographs of celebrities and prominent people. Special albums for the collecting of these cards were produced and could be found in almost any Victorian parlor. By the 1870s, cartes de visite were replaced in popularity by larger cabinet cards.
This Valentine which dates to about 1870 is entitled "Your Carte de Visite." It features an image of a scruffy, terrier which, frankly, I initially mistook as a lion. However, having lived with a terrier for many years, I can tell you, that they exhibit lion-like tendencies, so the mistake is a natural one.
One of two almost identical cards stored at the V&A, this is the work of an unknown artist and publisher.
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