The dress maker wears the paper forms used to make a dress pattern. Her sleeves say "sleeve latest style" and "sleeve pattern." The dress bodice says "body pattern front" and "saque front pattern," and the skirt says "le mode de paris," and "cored skirt pattern." She stands in front of a store window that reads "Madame Slasher from Paris. Dress maker/ Parisian fits." Hickory shirts were worn by workers, and the valentine uses provincialisms to mock the dressmaker's pretensions., Text: Be jabers, its a useful insitution that ye are, / Wid yer 'gores," an' "waists," an' "boddice, an' skirts / An' if I had a few dirt paper collars to spare, / I'd try ye wid a dozen of good hickory shirts. / Do you stick up your nose at the shirts? Bellamalee. / Jist the thing! I'm after a lady so mighty fine / She'll be one thing to the public but another to me, / And won't I be illigant as her own Valentine!, Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
