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.
Depicts a bald eagle clasping the American coat of arms above the unfinished "Capitol at Washington." Bricklayers work in front of the Capitol., Title supplied by cataloguer., Partially obscured copyright statement on verso., Gift of S. Marguerite Brenner.
Creator
Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834
Date
[c1809]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Birch Country Seats - pl 1b [P.9057.55.1a]
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..
Stamped on verso: International Electrical Exhibition Building, 32nd & Market Sts., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date
[ca. 1880]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Saunders [P.2006.20.42]
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.
Depicts seven masons, including two African American men, posed at an outside worksite in front of a partially completed brick wall. They stand on wood scaffolding and look at the viewer. Most hold tools of the trade, including trowels. Bricks, buckets, and other equipment are on the scaffolding around the worksite., Title supplied by cataloger., Purchase 2001., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[ca. 1910]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department group portrait photographs - occupations - masons [P.9985.3]
Cartoon reflecting the fear among Northern white workers of job competition with free African Americans. Depicts African American men bricklayers, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in vernacular, on a construction site giving orders to white laborers in a reversal of roles. The laborers work on a large multi-storied brick building fronted by scaffolding and a ladder. The African American supervisors hold trowels and stand at the top of the scaffolding. They hurl orders and abuse at white workers exclaiming: "Bring up the mortar you white rascals" and "You bog-trotters, come along with them bricks." An African American man standing on the ground, attired as a dandy, exclaims, "White man hurry up them bricks." A white man climbs the ladder and two white men work on the ground shoveling and picking up bricks. Another white man stands and says, "Sambo hurry up the white laborers.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[ca. 1835]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Political Cartoons - 1835 - Res [5780.F.1]
