At last week’s Love Book Bar, we heard about traditional Welsh love practices, and while researching this, I made an interesting discovery: Narberth had its own distinctive style of Valentine card, the Arberth Valentine, or Pembrokeshire Valentine. It looks like Narberth may have already been a creative hub a couple of centuries ago.

On display in St Fagans museum, this design is featured in a fascinating book, Welsh Courting Customs by Catrin Stevens, from our Welsh interest selection:

The design, featuring hearts, birds and flowers, would have been made by folding a sheet of paper, then cutting out shapes in the same way you would make a paper doily. Love verse was then written on the paper, and the author gives this example:

‘Sweet Valentine, oh go quickly, Do not tarry at all anywhere, Descend on the post of the bed, Where my true love is sleeping’.

Demand for Valentine’s cards grew so quickly in the nineteenth century, that these artisan efforts got overtaken by mass produced, factory versions.

Some similar elements of design were used in crafting Welsh Love Spoons, with first examples of these dating from the seventeenth century. The more decorative the love spoon, the greater the declaration of love, and creators might reveal their occupations via design: anchors and ships from sailors, for instance.

Decoration could be symbolic, such as keys (symbolising the key to the man’s heart), wheels (I’ll work hard for you) and beads (showing the number of desired children). Pembrokeshire had its own distinctive style of lovespoon design, featuring double panels with a loop and suggesting ‘ we two are one’

We’ve a lovely selection of Welsh Love Spoons in stock, should you fancy a traditional and thoughtful gift this Valentine’s Day. To finish, here’s some artwork from a linocut workshop local artist Diana Book ran for us, a few years ago.