Finding unexpected stories in humble objects is one of our favorite parts of collecting. We love old Valentine boxes, and this one was in a flat we scored years ago at an estate auction. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that we went through our items and opened the box to find a collection of dance cards and other ephemera.

We arranged them in chronological order, and they ranged from February 1938 to May 1941. The precious part was the progression of the love of this couple evident by the names written on the pages. In the first dance card, a variety of gentleman danced with Marjorie, but Kermit had the honor of three dances. Then in later dance cards, his name is a diagonal signature across all of the lines. Every dance was reserved for him!

Of course we had to research them; they were married over 50 years. Both are deceased now, but their precious love story is preserved in a sweet vintage Valentine’s chocolate box, and we are honored to be its caretakers.