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In this graphic, the title Valentine Sale is centred, with the dates 1st to 14th February specified below. The background is pastel pink with a border of white lace, and a red version of the Sheldrake logo is featured underneath the text.

Your Funny Valentine

Written by Sheldrake Editor on . Posted in News.

To add humour to romance, we are offering you a free Heath Robinson Valentine Card with any of our books. And, for the next two weeks, all our titles will be discounted by 15%. Purchase one here using the code VALENTINE26 and we’ll pop a card in with your order.

In this black-and-white line drawing, Heath Robinson imagines a couple sharing a stool, easel, canvas and palette as they paint en plein air.
Hold that pose!

Although not much is known about Heath Robinson’s courtship of his wife, he enjoyed covering the topic of romance in his work. The charming scene of togetherness on this Valentine card comes from How to be a Perfect Husband (1937) on which he worked with his regular collaborator, K. R. G. Browne.

Entitled L’Art Mutuel, Heath Robinson’s evocation of two people happy in each other’s company is rendered charmingly ridiculous by the fact that they are painting a cow. Whatever the human activity, Robinson never could resist poking fun. In his world view, absurdity was always lurking just under the surface.

I have been ill and frightfully bored and the one thing I have wanted is a big album of your absurd beautiful drawings to turn over.
– H. G. Wells to W. Heath Robinson

Dating Simplified

Predating Hinge and Tinder, Robinson conjured up all sorts of ingenious ideas for getting people together. He imagined a slot machine that would pair you up for a date. And if you were nervous about getting on the dance floor with a prospective partner, he designed a robot to give you ballroom lessons. Back in Robinson’s day, it was considered improper for unmarried couples to be alone together, so of course he devised a machine to warn lovers if someone was about to interrupt their secret liaison. Through these cheeky comics, Robinson was able satirize the dating conventions of his lifetime, allowing modern viewers a window into romantic norms of the past.

You can see these and hundreds of other funny drawings in Very Heath Robinson, a big album in which two avowed fans, Adam Hart-Davis and Sir Philip Pullman, introduce you to the artist and his world.

Add Humour to Romance Now

If you’d like to give a comical card to a loved one, order any of our books now using the code VALENTINE26 and we’ll get both the book and card to you in good time for St Valentine’s Day. See Books and also Gifts for options at a wide range of prices. You can find a preview of the Heath Robinson Valentine Card here.

In this brightly coloured cartoon depicts a couple embrace on a sofa with a cat on the mat in front of them. Behind them is a machine, created from bits of string and pieces of furniture balanced precariously, which connects to the door. If somebody starts to open the door, a huge crash will warn them to disengage.
A courting couple have set up a machine that will warn them in no uncertain fashion if they’re about to be disturbed.