The bricklayer applies mortar to a brick and stands behind a brick wall., Text: You're a very nice fellow, no doubt, / To lay up the wall of a cellar; / If it rained very hard I'd not pout, / Should you offer to hold my umbrella. / But I don't think that mortar could stick / Your heart or your hand unto mine; / 'Twould be laying it on rather thick, / To call you my own Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The mason holds a trowel and a bottle marked "brick." The text refers to his putting a brick in his hat on Saturday night (slang for getting drunk). The border features a woman embracing a man; the pair resemble Commedia dell'arte characters. At the bottom is a pack of matches marked "Lucifer's matches.", Text: Among the brick the mason revels. / With his trowel and line, his levels and bevels, / He bricks up this, and he bricks up that, / And, on Saturday night, puts a brick in his hat., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A bricklayer holds a level to a wall of bricks and a trowel in his other hand. "Hod" means a trough used to carry bricks or coal., Text: With plummet and rule, here's a bricklaying fool; / A can's his delight, and a trowel's his tool-- / And just as the plummet consists of hard lead, / Even so are the brains that you have in your head; / Oh Cupid beware, or perchance you grow sick, / To see such a gulpin pile brick upon brick, / Go man of the hod, I prithee go quick, / Your mould is all crooked, your mortar won't stick., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A bricklayer with a hod on his shoulder is mounting a ladder. The valentine warns the recipient that his concumption of alcohol is interfering with his job. It plays on the word "drop" as a synonym for liquour, then to refer to the possibility that he might fall from his ladder under the influence of alchohol and finally that his drunken ways may get him into trouble with the law and then be hanged., Text: Leering, drunken, dissipated, / Oft I see you elevated, / Not alone upon the ladder, / But in a way that is much sadder, / Your fondness for a “DROP” is such / That you may get a DROP too much / By falling from the ladder top, / Or at the gallows “take a drop.” / A fate that doubtless will be thine, / So, go, be hanged! my Valentine., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A Bricklayer wearing a smock and paper hat stands beside a wall and holds a trowel., Text: I vow to me it would be torture / To wed with one besmear’d with mortar; / In blessed singleness I’ll pine, / Rather than be your Valentine., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A bricklayer climbs a ladder and carries his hod on his shoulder. The valentine chides him for being slow at his work., Text: Like an ape dressed in breeches / you creep up the wall, / Or like a slow tumble bug / pushing his ball, / If anyone calls you to hurry up quick, / You are down upon them, / ‘like a 1000 of bricks,” / You think you’re a brick, / but you’re but a brick bat, / With mud in your hod / and with bricks in your hat., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man holding a trowel lays bricks. The valentine urges the recipient to amend his behavior so that he will not be considered "shabby," or someone who plays mean tricks., Text: If you aint the best of good fellows, / Or constantly up to your tricks, / I think you'll be put down as shabby, / Though you're daily surrounded with Bricks., "31", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
