Counterfeit Almanac

January 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (January 13, 1774).

“People in the Country are already cautious of Counterfeits.”

On behalf of his partners, Richard Draper, printer of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, placed an advertisement in the January 6, 1774, edition to inform the public that “Ames’s Almanack For the Year 1774, Is now in the Press, and will be ready for Sale” two days later, “on Saturday next.”  Customers could acquire copies from Draper, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, and Benjamin Edes and John Gill.  On the following Monday, the Fleets, printers of the Boston Evening-Post, ran an updated version in the January 10 edition of their newspaper, announcing “THIS DAY PUBLISHED. Ames’s Almanack For the Year 1774.”  That advertisement also listed all three printing offices.  Edes and Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, ran a similar advertisement on the same day.  Often competitors, those printers collaborated in publishing, advertising, and distributing the popular almanac.

Just a few days later, however, Draper published a very different notice in the January 13 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  “Some Pidlers,” he warned, “have patched up an Almanack under the Name of Nathaniel Ames, to impose upon the Public.”  Someone not affiliated with those printing offices produced and disseminated counterfeit almanacs!  Draper was especially concerned about the impact that would have on sales to retailers who purchased in volume to stock in their shops.  “Those who purchase by the dozen,” he cautioned, “are desired to be careful to see that the Almanacks are printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & J. Fleet, as none other are true.” To encourage such vigilance, Draper asserted that “the People in the Country are already cautious of Counterfeits.”  In other words, retailers better not think they could pass off the false almanacs to their customers because, according to Draper, those consumers knew which printers produced the authentic version and would not accept any other.

Although the notice did not indicate who printed the “Counterfeits” sold by the peddlers, Draper, the Fleets, and Edes and Gill faced competition for almanacs supposedly authored by Nathaniel Ames from printers in Boston (“Printed and Sold by E[zekiel] Russell”), Hartford (“Reprinted and Sold by Ebenezer Watson”), New Haven (“Reprinted and Sold by Thomas & Samuel Green”), and New London (“Printed and Sold by T[imothy] Green”).  It was not the first time the partners encountered other printers attempting to infringe on what they considered their product to market exclusively.  A year earlier, they advertised widely that they printed the “only true and correct ALMANACKS” by Ames, inserting a testimonial to that effect into their newspaper notices.  The partners showed a similar concern for the effect on sales to retailers, directing “Purchasers, especially by the Quantity, … to be particular in enquiring whether they are printed by” Draper, the Fleets, and Edes and Gill.  Several years earlier, on the other hand, they had been the counterfeiters.  Almanacs generated significant revenue for early American printers, prompting them to print, to reprint, and to counterfeit the most popular titles.

December 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (December 28, 1772).

“The only true and correct ALMANACKS from my Copy, are those printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & [J.] Fleet.”

As 1772 came to an end and the new year approached, Richard Draper, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, and Thomas Fleet and John Fleet continued their efforts to direct prospective customers to the edition of Nathaniel Ames’s almanac for 1773 that they collaboratively printed and sold.  The final issues of the Boston Evening-Post, the Boston-Gazette, and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy for 1772 once again carried advertisements with a note from the almanac’s author that warned against counterfeit editions and proclaimed that the “only true and correct ALMANACKS from my Copy, are those printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & [J.] Fleet.”

None of those newspapers featured the extended version that ran in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on December 24.  The Fleets even ran a streamlined version in the Boston Evening-Post, eliminated the introductory lines that declared “THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED, And TO BE SOLD by R. DRAPER, T. & J. FLEET, and EDES & GILL” as well as the final lines that advised “Purchasers, especially by the Quantity, are requested to be particular in enquiring whether they are printed by the above Printers, of whom ALMANACKS may be had at the cheapest Rate.”

The version of the advertisement in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy remained unchanged, as did the version in the Boston-Gazette.  Edes and Gill did not include any fanfare about “JUST PUBLISHED” the first time they inserted the note from Ames in the Boston-Gazette.  They positioned that note just below local news, implying that it was just as much a piece of newsworthy information as an advertisement for an item they sold.  Those printers pursued a similar strategy the next time they ran the notice.  This time it did not serve as a transition from news to advertising.  Instead, it was the only advertisement that appeared on second page of the December 28 edition of the Boston-Gazette, running immediately below news from Warsaw.  That made it even more likely that anyone carefully perusing the news would encounter the notice from the printers.  Taking advantage of their access to the press to shape how information was disseminated to reader-consumers, Edes and Gill continued their practice of treating counterfeit almanacs that competed with their “true and correct” almanacs as news the community needed to know.  As part of their marketing efforts, they used the placement of the notice on the page to enhance their insinuation that consumers had a duty to choose the “true and correct” copies over any counterfeits.

December 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (December 24, 1772).

“There are some Almanacks with Dr. Ames’s Name thereto that are very erroneous.”

In the December 24, 1772, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, Richard Draper continued the efforts to inform the public about counterfeit editions of “AMES’s Almanack for 1773” that he, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, printers of the Boston Evening-Post, and Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, began three days earlier.  According to a note from Nathaniel Ames, the author of the popular almanac, “The only True and Correct Almanacks from my Copy, are those printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill and T. & J. Fleet.”

Draper expanded on the notice that previously appeared in other newspapers, advising readers and prospective customers that “there are some Almanacks with Dr. Ames’s Name thereto that are very erroneous.”  In particular, those counterfeits contained misinformation about “Roads and Stages,” but in the “true Almanack” those errors had been “corrected, amended and placed in a better Manner than in any Almanack heretofore published.”  Draper offered a justification not only for choosing Ames’s “true Almanack” over counterfeit editions but also for choosing it over any other almanacs advertised and sold in New England.

Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, advertised some of those almanacs on the same day that Draper published the extended version of the advertisement about Ames’s “True and Correct Almanacks.”  Under a headline that simply declared, “ALMANACKS,” Thomas listed “AMES’s, Lowe’s, Gleason’s (or Massachusetts Calender) and Sterne’s ALMANACKS” available at his printing office.  Thomas did not note whether he sold Ames’s almanac printed by Draper, the Fleets, and Edes and Gill, but his newspaper was the only one in Boston that did not carry the notice from those printers that week.

Postscript to the Massachusetts Spy (December 24, 1772).

In addition, the supplement that accompanied that edition of the Massachusetts Spy contained just one advertisement.  It advised prospective customers about “AMES’s Almanack, for 1773, just published and to be sold by Russell & Hicks, in Union street, next the Cornfield.”  Whether or not Thomas sold the counterfeit almanac at his own shop, he did not seem to have any qualms about generating revenue by running advertisements placed by the printers who published the suspect edition.  Given that households from the most grand to the most humble acquired almanacs each year, those pamphlets were big business for printers.  Rivalries in printing, marketing, and selling almanacs became a regular feature of newspaper advertising each fall and into the winter months.

December 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (December 21, 1772).

“Purchasers, especially by the Quantity, … be particular in enquiring whether they are printed by the above Printers.”

All three newspapers published in Boston on December 21, 1772, carried a notice concerning Nathaniel Ames’s almanac for 1773.  Two of them announced that the almanac was “JUST PUBLISHED” and “sold by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. and J. Fleet.”  All three contained a note from the author to advise consumers that the “only true and correct ALMANACKS from my Copy, are those printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & [J.] Fleet.”  Either Ames or, more likely, the printers added an additional note suggesting that “Purchasers, especially by the Quantity, … be particular in enquiring whether they are printed by the above Printers; of whom ALMANACKS maybe had at the cheapest Rate.”

In addition to the almanacs printed by Draper, Edes and Gill, and the Fleets, Ezekiel Russell and John Hicks produced and sold An Astronomical Diary; or, An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord, 1773 attributed to Ames.  They printed their edition in Boston.  Printers in other towns in New England reprinted Ames’s almanac from Boston editions, including Ebenezer Watson in Hartford, Thomas Green and Samuel Green in New Haven, and Timothy Green in New London.

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (December 21, 1772).

The printers who printed the “only true and correct” editions of Ames’s popular almanac each inserted the warning about counterfeit editions in their newspapers.  The Fleets ran in the Boston Evening-Post on December 21, the same day that Edes and Gill published it in the Boston-Gazette.  Richard Draper ran a more extensive version in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on December 24.  To disseminate the message even more widely, the printers arranged to have the advertisement also appear in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on December 21.  Of the five newspapers published in Boston at the time, only Isaiah Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy did not carry the notice.  Instead, it featured an advertisement for the version printed by Russell and Hicks on December 24.

The brief version of the advertisement devised by Draper, Edes and Gill, and the Fleets in the Boston-Gazette, the variation that did not announce the publication of the almanac, appeared immediately below news items and, unlike other advertisements, without a line to separate it from other content.  In making those choices about placement and typography, Edes and Gill implied that information about pirated editions was newsworthy rather than solely a notice directed at consumers.  Blending news and advertising, they sought to serve the best interests of prospective customers while simultaneously protecting their own interests.

It was an interesting turn of events considering that a few years earlier it had been Draper, Edes and Gill, and the Fleets who published a pirated edition of Ames’s almanac.