The Real Story of Sailor’s Valentines

Curious scholars wondered how sailors could have used all the components and equipment needed to create a shell mosaic aboard a ship, including large quantities of tiny shells, wood, nails, cotton, glue, wax, cardboard, newspaper, colored paper, varnish, glass, hinges, screws, hooks and eyes, paint and gilding.

And then, of the hundreds of thousands of species of shells in the world, only about thirty-five -all native to the West Indies- appear in these valentines. While scrimshaw artifacts were diverse and varied, there appeared to be a standardized form to these sailors valentines. How could sailors on different ships, sailing different seas, create something so alike?

In later years (need a time period here) When owners of antique sailors valentines began to repair their pieces, they uncovered scraps of paper used as backing for the artwork. Remnants included pages from The Barbadian, dating back to 1835. Folklore that sailors created these shellworks was revealed to be a myth when researchers verified sources in Barbados, not the sailors themselves, as the makers of sailors valentines. 

At the easternmost part of the West Indies, Barbados was a center of supply and distribution to ships in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and a final port of call for many sailors heading home to either New England or Europe.

[map of Barbados] [image of Belgrade ad]

On the last stop before home, sailors gathered provisions, repaired their vessels, and strolled the streets to shop for souvenirs to bring home to loved ones. Brothers George Gordan and Benjamin Hinds Belgrave, who owned Belgrave’s Curiosity Shop in Bridgetown, Barbados, catered to this market. Barbados was densely populated and while most found work in the sugarcane industry, some local merchants and other islanders worked in cottage industries supplying the tourist trade. The Belgrades employed island women who used native shells to produce the valentines for sale, roughly during the time period between 1830 and 1880.

The unique beauty of these shell souvenirs delighted recipients (sweethearts, wives, and other family members) back home and inspired new, elaborate forms of shell art.

Belgrave’s Curiosity Shop, Bridgetown, Barbados.

Spyglass Scenes and Nautical Fantasies: An Artistic Collaboration

How did Ralph and Martha Cahoon come to love and make the Sailors Valentines in the Cahoon Museum Collection? 

Ralph and Bernie

Together between 1977 and 1982, Ralph Cahoon (1910-1982) and Bernard Woodman (1920-1986) created dozens of delicate and charming sailors valentines, combining Bernie’s beautiful shellwork with Ralph’s whimsical, nautical fantasies. In one piece, a sailor and a mermaid dance by the sea, encircled by floral rosettes.

Their artistic collaboration served as a diversion from personal struggles in their lives at this time. Bernie and Ralph had met each other in Alcoholics Anonymous. The men developed a close and supportive friendship which -while it helped them stay sober- was built on creative interests far more than their mutual struggle with alcohol.

Bernie remembered being inspired as a child by an antique Sailors Valentine owned by his mother. During his childhood, beginning at the age of five, he developed a progressive type of arthritis that caused serious damage to his joints. His hips and shoulders were affected and the joints in his spine fused together, until -by the time he was fifty- his spine was completely rigid.

As an adult, he worked as a machinist, toolmaker, and a professional scale model maker. But by 1970, Bernie stated that he was “unemployable, uninsurable, and totally and permanently disabled.” Fortunately, he still retained the use of his hands. In 1977, he started researching and making sailors valentines as a hobby. He recollected that “after making four of them, I showed them to Ralph Cahoon who was a Cape Cod artist famous for his primitive style paintings of whimsical, nautical fantasies. Ralph had more than an average knowledge of Sailors Valentines since he previously had been involved in the antique business. He purchased one of my valentines and then proceeded to encourage me to improve my expertise.”

Together, Bernie and Ralph visited antique shops, auctions, and resources such as the New Bedford Whaling Museum to view authentic Victorian examples and spent many hours researching the art form. The men soon realized that small paintings would make excellent centerpieces for the valentines, and they combined their talents to create sailors valentines with Ralph’s paintings at the center, surrounded by thousands of shells carefully arranged by Bernie. The joint effort was not seamless at first. “We almost became enemies at the beginning,” Bernie explained, as each had an idea of how the designs should work, but ultimately Ralph “realized they were both artists and neither should attempt to tell the other what to do.” Bernie recollected, “I lost a wonderful friend when he passed away in 1982.”

Bernie’s Workshop 

Bernie described himself as a “self-taught designer and craftsman.” He created his own techniques and designs for making sailors valentines. He bought thousands of shells in gallon containers from wholesale suppliers in Florida and California, which he painstakingly sorted by size, color, and type. He also made his own wooden boxes in sizes from six to twenty inches across.

Bernie’s process began with a stack of clear plastic discs. He formed the flowers layer by layer, using tweezers or a beeswax-tipped toothpick to pick up the tiny shells. Both fast-setting clear glue and hot wax glue were used to hold them in place, and he gently lifted the completed flower from the cap when it was dry. He made more than twenty varieties of flowers in various hues, ranging from the most-often-used pale pink to white, reds, yellows, and darker colors.

He sketched his original designs in pencil onto the bottom of a wooden octagonal box, outlined the various shapes in braid, and set to work filling in the spaces with shells. Bernie did a “dry run” first to make sure the contrast and blend of colors was correct and then glued the flowers and shells in place. Each valentine was Bernie’s own creation, but he preferred purely traditional designs.

“There is no way I can say how long it takes me to make one of these valentines,” Bernie explained, “because I work a little and sit a little. Sometimes I get up at three in the morning because I’m in pain, and I sort shells or start gluing to keep my mind occupied.” He said that he did not make a profit on the valenties he sold, because they took so much time and money. “My success has been artistic rather than financial,” Bernie stated, “but I enjoy making these Sailors Valentines so much that it doesn’t really matter.”

The Tradition Continued…

Martha’s Rondels and the Cahoon Sailors Valentines

After Ralph died in 1982, Bernie commissioned Martha Cahoon to paint spyglass scenes for his valentines. He typically encircled the paintings with a ring of shell flowers, choosing maybe three or four varieties from the more than twenty he taught himself to make.