What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“Sundry pieces of furniture, of the best mahogany.”
Both Adam Galer and Thomas Burling made and sold furniture in New York in the mid 1770s, yet they took different approaches when they advertised in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer. Their advertisements appeared one after the other in the August 25, 1774, edition, not by design but rather by coincidence since printers and compositors did not classify or organize paid notices by genre or purpose. The proximity of the advertisements made the differences in their marketing efforts even more stark.
For his part, Galer, a “WINDSOR CHAIR-MAKER,” made an image of a Windsor chair within a decorative border the focal point of his advertisement. That device filled about two-thirds of the space, immediately drawing attention. Having recently arrived in New York from Philadelphia, Galer may have considered it worth the extra expense of commissioning the woodcut to enhance his visibility in the public prints. In the copy, he gave his location and advised “gentlemen” and “masters of vessels” that they could acquire Windsor chairs “upon reasonable terms.”
Thomas Burling, on the other hand, relied exclusively on advertising copy without any images. In that regard, his notice resembled the vast majority of newspapers advertisements. He informed readers that they could find him “At the Sign of the Chair, in Beekman-Street, commonly called Chapel-Street,” indicating that he deployed visual images in other formats to promote his nosiness. Burling, a “Cabinet and Chair-Maker,” produced a wider array of furniture than Galer, declaring that he “EXECUTES with neatness and dispatch the different articles in his branch.” He reinforced his appeal to quality when he described the material, “the best mahogany,” and his own skill as an artisan. He linked the latter to the price: “he proposes to sell at the lowest rate good work sells at.”
Burling may have benefited from the proximity of the two advertisements if readers took note of the image in Galer’s notice and then happened to continue reading the notice that followed. Still, both artisans likely felt that they were in a better position than if they had not advertised at all. Their direct competition in the public prints gave them an advantage over other competitors who did not advertise at all.
