Object of the Week: Valentine’s Day card Calendar

12 Feb 2021

‘There will be another kick-up soon I can tell you for I’ll stand no more of your silly swank’

‘Oh! Gentle kicker of the ball, I pray you heed my warning,

(It comes from one who spends her days in sighing and in mourning).

If you don’t take a wife instead of going leather hunting,

You’ll spend your later days alone in grumbling and in grunting.

Quite free of any charge I give this truthful information,

There’s nothing in the field to beat female association.’

A Football Valentine card, sharing a comedic verse where the player is getting a slight warning from his perceived other half, to stop playing with his balls.

The rhythmic poem introduces humour and longing, whilst the football player looks quite preoccupied.

This card was acquired by the museum in 1997. The object is not currently on display in the museum but can be found displayed on our website.

The museum has a large collection of obscure objects, as well as the show-stoppers such as Pele’s World Cup shirt, but in objects like this, we see how connected football is in all aspects of our lives, not only in the stadiums. Through this card and similar memorabilia, we see objects created often through fans and this has grown intensely since this card would have first circulated.

There are a vast amount of different keepsakes and trinkets that reflect on the everyday-ness of the sport, also on the public’s desire to obtain objects like these, which has continued to grow.

No matter what you are doing or who you are with, we wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day.