by Jay Mark 

I know I missed it by a month, but Happy Valentine’s Day. Why mention it now? Because, I’d like to propose that February also be recognized as “Valentine” month. As in Jeanne Valentine Month. 

Never heard the name before? Hopefully, you will grow to appreciate her after I relate the story of this remarkable mid-century artisan. 

Jeanne Cecile Valentine was born in France about 1900. We don’t know much about her early life, except, in 1926 she immigrated to the U.S. The records don’t indicate an occupation. By 1940, while living in Greenwich, Connecticut, she emerged as a fashion designer.

Ultimately, her Mexican & French casual fashion creations caught the attention of prominent firms like Neiman-Marcus and Christian Dior. 

During the 1940s, we lose track of Valentine until she emerges in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in the 1950s. This 16th century city was ideal for her artistic bent. Akin to the style of Taos, NM, the highland’s city filled with artists, restaurants and coffee houses, showed a strong European influence in its architecture and cobblestone streets.

By the late 1950’s, her dress fashions had an international audience. A 1960 article described Jeanne Valentine as “an outstanding French designer of sportwear, dresses, etc. She also has beautiful hand-decorated sweaters and unusual objects of art.”

A tireless innovator, by 1959, Valentine had entered an entirely new artistic field. Likely drawing on a French art-form, acquired during her early years in France, she began producing a “stream of delightfully crafted, sophisticated papier-mâché creations” that were soon “found in the most elegant shops of New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Paris and London.”

While her artistic talents remained concentrated on fashion design, she called on her talented son who was trained in the arts in San Miguel, and later built a successful career in New York, in his mother’s words, “…as a leading theatrical designer, excellent painter and sculptor.”

Nicholas Schlee, his mother said, “…can design anything.” It was he who created most of the objects that would be transformed into colorful, playful, imaginative papier mâché objects for which the Jeanne Valentine name became most famous.

The ancient French craft art of papier mâché, is an exacting process. It involves plaster molds, scrap newsprint, glue, string, paste, and lacquer combined to create an objet d’art. In order to accomplish the expansion of her business, Valentine specially trained 125 artisans who performed the special skills of papier mâché.

That involved creating plaster molds, applying layers of paste-soaked newspaper into the molds, “removing dried, thin sections of paper from the molds, assembling them into sculpted forms, delicately accenting them with string patterns textured on the surface, painting the complete figures or the final skilled effect – ‘antiquing’ with stains and flying fingers.”

This is where I confess that I have been in love with Jeanne Valentine’s remarkable papier mâché work for decades. Back in the 1970’s when we had a specialty store called Zoo…Whooo?, we discovered her pieces in a small art shop in Nogales, Sonora. We were thrilled to feature them in our little store. 

Over the years, after we transitioned into the antiques business, we lost track of Jeanne Valentine and her work. Only to be recently reminded of renewed interest, not only of her fashions, but particularly her papier mâché figures. 

A recent survey of eBay, the ultimate arbiter of popular taste and interest surprised me. A number of her mid-century papier mâché pieces were listed, some priced at levels that certainly demonstrate a genuine “appreciation” of her work. 

Auction houses have also been featuring Jeanne Valentine. A recent sale of a signature tiger hammered for $2200. A charming cat sold for $500. Another was offered for $5500. While some pieces are beyond most pocketbooks, if you look carefully, you might just find an adorable mid-century figure in a range of $30 to $100.

Although little has been written about this special contributor to the advancement of the mid-century art movement, you can find more information on the Jeanne Valentine Facebook page.

If all this inspires you to start collecting Jeanne Valentine, then now maybe you can understand why I think such a remarkably talented artist, whose work has endured for decades, should be honored every February as Jeanne Valentine month.

Virtually an antique himself, or maybe a collectible, Jay Mark, has more than a half-century experience in the antiques business. He is president of Those Were The Days!, an online specialty bookstore. A recognized historian, he also teaches, lectures and frequently writes about antiques and history. Reach him at jaymark@twtdbooks.com                                                                         

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