subs. (vagrants’).—A standing patterer: see quot. Also: SANDWICH MAN (q.v.).
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I., 251. I have no doubt that there are always at least twenty standing patterers—sometimes they are called BOARDMEN—at work in London. Ibid., p. 248. They endeavour to attract attention to their papers, or, more commonly, pamphlets … by means of a board with coloured pictures upon it, illustrative of the contents of what they sell … (This) is what is usually denominated in street technology ‘board work.’
