St Bride's Tribute to Love

Miss Tiffany — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:48:10 -0800

A tribute to love:
five centuries of heartfelt design

Illustrated talk, Thursday 31 January 2008 at 7pm

Admission, including a glass of wine: £5, £3 concessions.
(You can view our exhibition documenting the work of Charles Mozley beforehand).
Venue: Bridewell Hall, St Bride Foundation

From the earliest tokens of affection – perhaps a feather, a flower, a shell, or a fern frond – evolved the paper gifts we cherish today. Objects given with respect, admiration, friendship, or love continue to reflect our most sincere emotions. As handmade missives evolved, and demand increased, allied printing and manufacturing industries developed, technical achievements inspired new forms of accessible personal expression, and modern postal systems enabled them to be widely distributed. Each aspect of this history of personal communication is integral to a fascinating chronology.

Nancy Rosin has been a passionate collector of Valentines and Expressions of Love for nearly forty years. Her collection of more than 10,000 items encompasses the full range of this theme – from birth, friendship, love and marriage, to mourning – and has become a formidable research archive. Nancy’s ultimate goal has always been to elevate this as a social documentary, that it may achieve the scholarly recognition it merits. While her primary focus has always been the Valentine, each passionate acquisition added another dimension, and the collection became even more important than ever envisioned.

Nancy is a Director of the Ephemera Society of America, and Vice-president of the National Valentine Collectors’ Association. She has written extensively, and appeared on numerous television programs – enthusiastically sharing the beauty and history of these wondrous objects. Five books, recently created for the scrapbook industry, bring her ephemera into contemporary society, where reproduction and digital formats are able to reach a new audience. Most recently, speaking at New York’s American Museum of Folk Art, she felt that she had, at last, brought Valentines – from Liebesbrief to Scherenschnitte – into the mainstream art world. She is honoured to have been invited to share her passion in London, bringing ‘home’ many familiar British images. Designers, printers and Valentines enthusiasts will find that this passionate American collector shares their affection for the seductive charms of ‘the ephemera of love’.

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St Bride's Tribute to Love