Here is an exceedingly interesting blog about marks of punctuation and their often odd histories, where you are all but guaranteed to learn far more about the subject than you could ever have imagined … http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/
A sample excerpt:
”
Emoticons are, it turns out, rather older than I had thought. Last month the photo blogRetronaut posted images of an 1881 issue of Puck magazine depicting proto-smileys constructed from parentheses, stops and other typographic marks, just like their modern counterparts.
I find “Melancholy” to be almost ineffably sad, though the perky can-do attitude of “Joy” acts as a fortunate counterweight. Perhaps the Victorians were not quite as dour as we imagine them to be.”
This is an eye-opener! I had not realized that emoticons had such a long history. The samples you provided are quite elaborate by today’s standards.