What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“Remarkable old Spirits, West-India Rum, and Brandy.”

Thomas Batt advertised his “WINE and SPIRIT STORE” in the Pennsylvania Gazette for three months in 1774.  He stocked a “large and valuable Collection” that included “Old genuine Madeira, Lisbon, Mountain and Teneriffe Wines; remarkable old Spirits, [and] excellent Claret.”  He pledged to “sell any Quantity, from a Pipe [a large barrel] to a Gallon” to suit the needs of his customers.

When it ran on March 23, 1774, Batt’s advertisement appeared in the Supplement to the Pennsylvania Gazette rather than in the standard issue for that week.  Colonial newspapers typically consisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and then folding it in half.  On occasion, printers had more news, letters, advertisements, and other content than would fit within four pages.  Sometimes they inserted notices that material which they did not publish that week would appear in the next issue.  Other times, however, they had enough content to justify publishing a supplement, either two or four pages.

In this instance, the printers opted for a four-page supplement, doubling the content they distributed to subscribers and other readers that week.  The revenue generated from advertisements likely made the supplement a viable endeavor since paid notices filled ten of the twelve columns.  Those advertisement had not merely been displaced to the supplement by news that appeared in the standard issue.  News items accounted for slightly less than six of those twelve columns.  Overall, that meant that the standard issue and the supplement carried eight columns of news and sixteen columns of advertising.  More than one hundred paid notices, including Batt’s advertisement for his “WINE and SPIRIT STORE,” occupied two-thirds of the space in that issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette and its supplement.  Quite often, eighteenth-century newspapers served as vehicles for delivering advertising even more so than for disseminating news.