From my collection of "Creepy Valentines", of which there are a surprising number historically speaking, comes my vote for Creepiest Valentine Ever: this German die-cut from the 1920s.
These two little girls seem to be enjoying their pop-up Demon-in-a-Box for Valentine's Day... the only thing I can guess is that this is related to the Krampus, the Germanic black devil figure who accompanies St. Nicholas on his Christmas gift-giving route and acts as his "enforcer". If this is him, I've no idea what he's doing on a Valentine.
And on that note, I'll end this month's Valentine show & tell!
Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day, and if you didn't, well,
at least no one sent you this.
This card is a real stumper... And definitely creepy. One of the Postcard Friendship Fridays participants featured jack in the boxes on her blog. She talked about the history of the toy- Very fascinating. The gist of it was either it derived from the coco clock or a far darker past-
ReplyDeleteAs in a slave being placed in a box and children poking through the holes making him yell. Eventually the slave would burst out of the top of the box. I'm not sure if this is true or not but def spooky and sinister...
This card would definitely not be appropriate for today... But a very interesting historical look.