"Brush Away Just Like Old Boots..." (A Vinegar Valentine) by Anonymous - 1875

S. l. : S. n., 1875. First Edition. Very good. A vinegar valentine, n. d. (ca 1875); single sheet, folded, 6 1/2 x 4; pp. [4]; embossed margin of first leaf; engraved, hand-colored illustration with a four-line poem below; a crease to margin of second leaf; small spot to pp. 3; very good condition.Comic valentines, later to become known as vinegar valentines, began to flourish in the US and Britain in the 1840s. Unlike the pretty, sentimental, conventional ones, the former were cheap, teasing, or even downright mean and insulting, and they usually made fun of traits, physical characteristics, or professions. Although produced in tremendous quantities, given their popularity, not many of the early ones have survived, as people naturally got rid of the nasty notes. The current one depicted a dapper gentleman, holding a boot, standing next to a work table with shoe-polishing equipment and read: "Brush away just like old boots, / Now's your time or never, / Follow up your own pursuits / I cut you altogether."