72 
House & Carden 
Rurpa^ Seeds 
Burpee s Sweet Peas 
Pni* we will mail one 
r or regular 10-cent 
packet (40 to 50 seeds) each of 
Cherub, rich cream edged bright 
rose; King White, the finest pure white; Margaret Atlee, best 
cream pink; Rosabelle, a large deep rose; Wedgwood a lovely 
light blue. Also one large packet (90 to 100 seeds) of the Bur¬ 
pee Blend of Superb Spencers for 1917. The finest mixture of 
Spencers ever offered. 
Six Standard Spencers 
For 25 c regular 10-cent packet each of the 
following: Dainty Spencer, pure white, edged 
with pink; Florence Nightingale, charming shade of lavender; 
Irish Belle, lovely shade of rich lilac; Mrs. Cuthbertson, finest 
pink and white bicolor; Mrs. Townsend, white edged and flushed 
blue; Stirling Stent, bright salmon, orange self. 
pQM 5b0c collec- 
tions named above, and a 
15-cent packet of Rosy Morn, the new 
early-flowering Spencer introduced in 
1917. 
Burpee’s Annual for 1917 
THE LEADING AMERICAN SEED CATALOG 
is bigger, better and brighter than ever before. 
204-p,'iges. Thirty (30) varieties illustrated in 
colors. It is mailed free. Write for it today, 
and please mention House and Garden. 
W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO. 
Burpee Buildings Philadelphia 
by having your architect install 
CRANE 
VALVES and fittings 
They are the backbone of 
a company that has enjoyed 
61 years of continuous prog¬ 
ress, and they may be 
found in the better homes, 
hotels, clubs, theatres, 
churches, offices, and other 
public and private buildings. 
or Catalogue 
R. T. CRANE, 1866 
ME CO. 
Old-Time Valentines for the Modern Collector 
(Continued from page 70) 
valentines. The demand for these has 
always been tremendous though of 
late years the hideous “comic” valen¬ 
tine which two decades ago seemed 
enthroned in supreme insolence, has, 
happily for the record of progress, 
nearly disappeared from civilized 
communities and from the windows 
of the higher-class shops. Many a 
sensitive heart have these atrocities 
wounded, many a cruel “jest” have 
they perpetrated. There were, how¬ 
ever, many “comics” of the early Vic¬ 
torian period that good-naturedly 
enough burlesqued the fashions and 
foibles of the times, and the collector 
of old valentines will be glad to add 
any such examples to his collection 
of valentines as those gathered by 
Mr. Frank Flouse Baer, of Cleve¬ 
land, to whom the writer is indebted 
for many courtesies in forming his 
own collection. It may be of interest 
to note, in passing, that Mr. Baer’s 
collection is probably the most exten¬ 
sive in the world. The comic valen¬ 
tine writers have been at their happi¬ 
est in burlesquing fashions contempo¬ 
rary with their own day. These 
“comics” run back to 1820. 
French and German Valentines 
Valentines have been as popular in 
France as in England. Back in the 
days of the First Empire the famous 
stationers of the time sold embossed 
and scented letter sheets on which the 
love-smitten might celebrate their 
passion. A little later cupids and 
other decorative designs found their 
way into favor on the valentine 
sheets. A. Lcleux of Calais was one 
of the foremost stationers in the field 
with such decorated papers of spe¬ 
cial occasion. 
Of course, the home-made valentine 
preceded the printed, engraved one. 
Perhaps it was merely written, or 
written and decorated. Certain Ger¬ 
man 18th Century calligraphers pro¬ 
duced marvellous feats in penman¬ 
ship, excursions that would seem to 
make Spencerian attempts pale before 
their scrolled doves, cupids and altars 
of Hymen. How the sharpened quills 
of a dulled goose could ever have 
produced such intricacies is a matter 
for the antiquarian’s wonderment, 
and fortunate, indeed, will be the 
valentine collector who comes across 
one of these early scroll-decorated 
love missives. One of the most prized 
valentines in the writer’s collection 
comes within the class of the home¬ 
made valentines done in watercolor. 
This particular one is on a piece of 
old post water-marked 18th Century 
paper, 7" by 9" in size. Two flaming 
hearts pierced by arrows rest beneath 
a tree, wreaths, roses, a flaming torch 
and other touches are not wanting to 
display the painter’s ingenuity. Final¬ 
ly, so his dear valentine may make no 
mistake as to the identity of the 
sender, he has written in tiny letters 
in the right-hand corner: “James, 
fecit.” How her heart must have 
thrilled—if James were at all a likely 
young man and to her fancy—when 
she read thus that “James made it.” 
Of course, she would know then that 
“James sent it” as well. There are 
extant a number—though not many 
—of home-made American valentines 
of the latter part of the 18th Century. 
To come across such as these would, 
of course, bring joy to the genuine 
collector’s heart. 
Lace Paper Glory 
About 1830 and following that time 
embossed valentines came annually to 
be more elaborate, and with the intro¬ 
duction of lace paper, valentines 
reached their heyday of elaborate¬ 
ness. llien as color printing by mod¬ 
ern processes advanced, designs were 
supplied by some of the foremost art¬ 
ists of the day. Kate Greenway and 
Walter Crane designed some very 
heaiitifnl valentines, examples of 
which every valentine collector should 
seek to possess. Well-known poets, 
too, were called on by valentine pub¬ 
lishers for verses, all of which raised 
the literary quality of these printed 
missives.of Cupid to an exalted plane. 
St. Valentine’s Day always has and 
always will hold an ardent place in 
the affections of artist and writer. 
Weatherproof Walls for the Timber House 
(Continued from page 55) 
while an opposite tendency finally 
results in an outward bulging of the 
board thus affected. Again, the uni¬ 
form wedge shape of these clap¬ 
boards is another point against them. 
For, in applying them to the wall, 
they neither lie flat against it, nor on 
one another. Great care must be ex¬ 
ercised in laying them, or there will 
be imminent danger of their being 
split by hard-driven nails. 
In the modern “rebated” clapboard 
illustrated at “B” in Sketch 2, these 
faults of the old style are eliminated. 
A notch is cut in the lower edge of 
the board so that it fits over, and 
holds firmly in place, the upper edge 
of the adjoining board. Therefore, 
only one row of nails—near the thick 
end—is necessary to hold each board 
securely to the wall, and they are 
free to contract or expand. Again, 
rebated clapboards lie flat against the 
wall, thereby escaping any danger of 
being split during the nail-driving. 
In the same sketch at “D” is shown 
another form of rebated siding, often 
termed “channel boarding,” because 
of the furrowed appearance of the 
finished wall surface. The boards 
are applied in the same manner as 
rebated clapboards. In fact, the only 
difference between the two is that the 
clapboards are wedge shaped in cross- 
section, while those boards are ver¬ 
tical-sided. 
Board-and-batten siding—so named 
because the joints between adjacent 
boards are covered by merely nailing 
other boards over them—should nev¬ 
er be applied horizontally for water 
will surely work its way into the un¬ 
protected joints between the battens 
and the lower under-lapping edges of 
the boards. This construction verily 
invites the entrance of water instead 
of repelling it. However, the out¬ 
ward effect of horizontal boards and 
battens is decidedly pleasing, particu¬ 
larly so. when they are mitered to¬ 
gether at the corners of the building 
so as to reveal the outstanding bat¬ 
tens in sharp relief. But to obtain 
this effect, and yet adhere to the prin¬ 
ciples of weather-excluding construc¬ 
tion, it becomes necessary to alter the 
cross-section form of the siding alto¬ 
gether, so that structurally it is no 
longer hoard-and-batten at all, hut 
simply a combination of shapes 
moulded to partake of that outward 
appearance. This combination is de¬ 
picted at “E” in Sketch 2. 
Where a uniform smoothness of 
surface is desired, the siding boards 
(Continued on page 74) 
