What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“WAS STOLEN … A SILVER MILK URN.”
The woodcut depicting a crown suspended above a large cup likely drew attention to Thomas Shields’s advertisement. After all, it was the only visual image that appeared in the September 12, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post. Not even the masthead featured a woodcut. In the advertisement, Shields lamented that “A SILVER MILK URN, of an oval form, with a lid and spout,” had been stolen from his shop on September 4. He gave further details to help identify the stolen merchandise. It “weighed about nine ounces,” was “engraved with a cypher MR,” and had been “made in England.” Shields offered a reward to anyone who helped him recover the urn, whether intact (three pounds) or “cut to pieces” (four dollars). At the very least, he wanted the silver back even if the thief had destroyed it in hopes of selling the silver.
What did that have to do with the image that accompanied Shields’s advertisement? It did not correspond to his description of the stolen urn. Including it increased the price of running the advertisement since it took up more space. Some readers may have realized that Shields was a goldsmith who ran his shop “at the Golden Cup and Crown.” He previously ran an advertisement giving that address in the Pennsylvania Gazette in the fall of 1771. That advertisement happened to include the same woodcut of a cup and crown that appeared in his advertisement about the stolen milk urn five years later. Shields had commissioned a woodcut for his exclusive use, one that corresponded to the sign that marked the location of his shop. He apparently collected the woodcut from the printing office when he discontinued his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette and tucked it away in case he wished to use it again in advertisements in that or any other newspapers. Although Shields did not mention his shop sign in his notice about the stolen urn, he likely figured that a visual image of any sort (and especially one associated with his business) would draw attention to his advertisement and increase the chances that readers would assist in recovering the milk urn (or the silver).