A thin young man vomits in an alley. He holds a burning cigar in one hand. "Valambrosa's leaves" is a reference to ""Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks / In Vallombrosa where Etrurian shades / High over-arch'd embower." in John Milton's "Paradise Lost.", Text: Vain, vapid youth, who, with cigar, / Upon the promenade a star / Of manhood would’st appear, / Think’st thou we know not what befalls, / When thou dost make such sudden calls / To by-ways dark and drear? / There, desperate qualms thy frame dismay / And tribute thou to earth dost pay / As Neptune oft receives, / When pale land-lubbers, reeling sick / Bestrews the waves with filth as thick / As “Valambrosa’s leaves.”, Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man's head is attached to a barrel of gin. He is smoking an oversized cigar. The valentine criticizes the recipient's overconsumption of alcohol and tobacco and their poor effects on his health., Text: You pasty-faced unwholesome lout, / You’re always soaked with rotten gin, / And smell so rank of vile cigars, / To strangle you would be no sin. / You’ve drank and smoked until you’ve grown / A dried-up mummy lank and thin, / A sample of the dire effects / Of bad tobacco mixt with gin., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A stablehand wears patched trousers and smokes a pipe. He carries a broom and is sweeping up after a horse. A pitchfork leans against the wall behind him., Text: Ugliest of the ostler crew, / Why do you make so much ado, / About the stable as you rush / Armed with curry-comb and brush? / The horses tremble with affright / When you approach them, day or night., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man with simian features kneels in the grass and smokes a cigar., Text: Here your portrait you may see, / Drawn as like as like can be, / Your features coarse, your frightful shape, / You may behold, you ugly ape! / A glance from you, you horrid churl, / The life would frighten from any girl., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man stands in front of a fence smoking a cigar. He wears a fez and a pocket watch. The valentine suggests he is overly impressed with his physical appearance., Text: Why, here’s your portrait ready done, / Now don’t suppose I’m making fun. / ‘Tis like as like you must admit; / I’m sure you’ll highly value it., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A boy wearing a cap and short jacket is smoking. He stands in front of a house. His toes are turned in and his elbows stick out. The valentine criticizes the recipient for smoking and having a ridiculous appearance., Text: Pug-nosed smoking boy, look here, / How quaint your visage, and how queer, / With turned in knees, and turned in toes, / Rach little boy cries “There he goes.” / And so you may, my little man, / Try all you think, do all you can / Mixture of man, and boy, and swine, / Now don’t you think you look divine?, Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A teamster is seated on his box and holds the reins and a whip. He is smoking a pipe. The valentine accuses him of being overly reckless., Text: As a teamster you’re putting yourself on such a high air, / You are a team in yourself, and a donkey to spare; / Like a show-man’s vain monkey you sit on the seat, / And run smash and bang ‘gainst all things on the street; / A team of blind horses could better go through / And come off more safe from a smash-up than you., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man walks and smokes a cigar. He carries an umbrella and wears a top hat. The valentine criticizes him for caring too much about following fashions., Text: To be out of fashion is to be out of the world, ‘tis said, / So you adopt the jacket, smoke, and are by fashion led, / In fashion, if you will waste your thread of life, / No Woman of sense, will ever become your Wife., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
Text: What, my chap about town! I certainly thinks, / That the vulgate, ex-homo, a fellow who stinks, / And the heat that we know, of so filthy a spark, / The nuisance is traced, in the twilight—or dark., Published by A. Park, 47, Leonard Street, Finsbury, London, 171, Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man stands in a garden smoking a cigarette or cigar. He wears a top hat, glasses, and patterned trousers. He also has a moustache and muttonchops. The valentine chides him for focusing too much on dress and following fads., Text: To be out of fashion is to be out of the world, ‘tis said, / So you adopt the jacket, smoke, and are by fashion led, / In fashion, if you will waste your thread of life, / No Woman of sense, will ever become your Wife., Cf. Valenitne 16.42, Provenance: Helfand, William H..
Two moustached men are shown with identical top hats, canes, and cigars. The man on the left is how he sees himself, the man on the right is how others see him. The text suggests that by drawing attention to himself with fine clothes, he seems even more ridiculous., Text: Upon the left we here portry / The way you think you look, you jay, / While there is shown upon the right / Your aspect in the public's sight. / You see the difference is not small / And if you'd any sense at all, / You would be careful not to wear / So pompous and absurd an air., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
