Destructive and non-destructive tests were performed to characterize clay bricks from 18th to 20th century from vernacular historic constructions placed at Ceará State, Brazil. The present work has as the main aim to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of Brazilian historical clay bricks, namely water absorption index, ultrasonic pulse velocity and compressive strength. In general, cases of ancient materials characterization out of Europe zone are rarely reported at the literature. For that, samples from vernacular constructions placed at different regions of the Ceará State were tested. The results point to similarities between the clay bricks analyzed, and an evolution in the quality of the properties analyzed. Additionally, the results of the present paper are good contributions to development of numerical models and as well to the understanding about the loading capacity of historic Brazilian masonries. Also, the results allowed to state a correlation between physical and mechanical characteristics of the Brazilian clay bricks based on ultrasonic pulse velocity and the periods of the bricks manufacturing.