Abel Buell

March 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Connecticut Journal (March 4, 1774).

“50 Stands of FIRE-ARMS, with Bayonets.”

The image distinguished the advertisement from most of the others that ran in the March 4, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Journal.  A woodcut depicting a gun adorned Abel Buell’s advertisement for “50 Stands of FIRE-ARMS, with Bayonets, Cartridge Boxes, Belts, Straps, and Cases completely finished.”  Only two other images appeared in that issue, a post rider on a horse in the masthead, as usual, and a house in an advertisement in a real estate advertisement.  Printers supplied stock images of houses, horses, ships, and enslaved people when they matched the contents of the notices in their newspapers.  Advertisers interested in other images, including those that replicated their shop signs or represented their merchandise, commissioned the woodcuts and then had exclusive use of them.  In some instances, such advertisers in towns with more than one newspaper sometimes collected their woodcuts from one printing office and delivered them to another when they chose to advertise in multiple publications.

Buell’s woodcut was noteworthy for other reasons.  Not especially sophisticated to modern eyes, it was a rarity in the Connecticut Journal.  Newspapers in urban ports tended to carry a greater number of images commissioned by advertisers, but Thomas Green and Samuel Green in New Haven did not handle that many special orders.  That made Buell’s woodcut all the more innovative and eye-catching in that particular newspaper.  In addition, it did not correspond to his trade.  In previous advertisements, he described himself as a “GOLDSMITH in New-Haven” and listed a variety of jewelry available at his shop.  Yet as spring approached in 1774, he marketed dozens of “the best English made Pieces, proper for Hunting, as well as Military Use.”  Buell made an investment in a woodcut unrelated to his primary occupation, though he may have produced it himself rather than commissioning it.  His skills included engraving.  A decade earlier, according to the Library of Congress, he “used his skill as an engraver to produce counterfeit colonial paper currency, a crime for which he was tried and convicted.”  Following that incident, he put his skills to better use, producing “the very first map of the newly independent United States compiled, printed, and published in America by an America.”  Perhaps along the way he made a woodcut to enliven his advertisement for firearms in the Connecticut Journal.

January 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Journal (January 24, 1772).

“Garnet topaz amethyst and emeral’d ring stones.”

Abel Buell, a goldsmith in New Haven, placed advertisements in the Connecticut Journal to promote his business in the early 1770s.  He made brief appeals to quality and price, pledging that his wares were “all of the best sort” and that he sold them “very reasonably,” but he devoted much more space to listing his merchandise.  Advertisers throughout the colonies often did so, demonstrating the range of choices available to consumers.

Yet that was not the only purpose of publishing such lists.  Advertisers also sought to help prospective customers imagine the possibilities, hoping that would entice them to make more purchases.  Buell, for instance, could have simply stated that he had on hand a variety of jewelry certain to satisfy the tastes who visited his shop.  Instead, he listed “ROUND, square and oval cypher’d button cristals with cyphers, cypher’d and brilliant ear-ring tops and drops, round oval and square brilliant button stones, paste ear-ring tops and drops, cypher’d and brilliant paste for buttons, garnet topaz amethyst and emeral’d ring stones, mock garnets for rings and buttons, [and] garnet cristal and paste ring sparks,” along with other items.

That list served as Buell’s catalog.  Each entry introduced prospective customers to yet another item they might acquire. As readers perused the list, they likely imagined themselves wearing many of the items.  Buell intended for the list to cultivate desire for various buttons, earrings, stones, and other jewelry as consumers made quick decisions whether they might wear each item.  In many cases, they may not have given much thought to certain items until presented with the possibilities that Buell described.  Offering choices, such as “garnet topaz amethyst and emeral’d ring stones,” encouraged prospective customers to imagine which they desired the most, which might look best on them, or which complemented other items they already owned.  That likely brought consumers one step closer to making purchases.  Buell probably intended for his list to make the possibilities more vivid and more tangible to prospective customers who could be convinced to make purchases with a little bit of encouragement.