Valentine with lace paper and faux pearls

Esther Howland

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exquisite lace paper produced by MANSELL is used in copious layers to create a Valentine with numerous delicate lift-up flaps and openings. Each lace page or flap is edged in gold paint. The top layer is edged in gold, and the lace is further highlighted in gold. A central area of paper has been removed and replaced with blue satin fabric. At the center is a magnificent rosette of folded white satin ribbon, which is dotted with gold paper stars, and six pearl pendants. In the center is a die-cut scrap of a rose and forget-me-nots. The next layer has a bouquet of tiny fabric flowers, with a bright gold Dresden paper die-cut bow. Another layer has a watercolor bouquet, and poetry written in ink. The final layer, consists of two pieces of lace, attached as doors, each with a silver dove affixed, and closed with a silver die-cut of a kneeling Cupid. The doors open to reveal the chromolithographed image of a loving couple, framed with embossed gold. The embellishments and style lead to the conclusion that this, although unsigned, is from the workshop of Esther Howland.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art