Valentine's handkerchief

Taffeta handkerchief, embroidered using the "pé de flor" (flower stem) stitching and zig zag technique, topped with lace. At the center, a steamboat with the Portuguese pavilion, surrounded by floral motifs.

Above the boat, the following quatrain is written: "My [boyfriend] Manel goes to Brazil / I also travel in that steamboat / Kept within the heart / Of the one I love". One of the characteristics of this type of Portuguese traditional valentine's gifts are the spelling mistakes, which appear in many of the embroidered texts that usually reproduce love related quatrains, proverbs, or other dedications to the loved one.

Evidence of the transcription of local oral popular formulae into writing, such errors were not made intentionally and resulted evidently from the low literacy in rural areas. But since the mid-20th century, when illiteracy started disappearing from rural areas and, the same time, this type of textile production greatly shifted from a local and family-based tradition to a semi-mass production supported by the growing touristic demand in the region of the Northwest of Portugal, such "traditional" spelling mistakes are intentionally made in the texts embroidered in valentine's handkerchiefs, as sign of their authenticity.