Decorative Border

August 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (August 4, 1775).

“Thomas Tileston, HAT-MAKER from BOSTON.”

Thomas Tileston, a hatmaker, ran an advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette for several weeks in the summer and early fall of 1775.  He published it to inform prospective customers that “he has taken a Shop In WINDHAM, … Where he intends the carrying on his Business in all its Branches.”  He currently had in stock the “Best of Beaver, Beaverett, Castor and Felt HATS.”  Tileston promised exemplary customer service, asserting that they “may depend on the best Usage” and promising to undertake all orders “with Fidelity and Dispatch.”

As a newcomer to the area, Tileston introduced himself as a “HAT-MAKER from BOSTON.”  Advertisers often indicated where they previously conducted business or received their training, but this detail had new significance.  Tileston’s arrival in Windham coincided with the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord and the ensuing siege of Boston. General Thomas Gage, the governor, and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress negotiated an agreement that permitted Loyalists to enter the city and Patriots and others to depart.  After enduring the closure of the harbor a year earlier via to the Boston Port Act and the hardships that resulted, Tileston may have decided to take what might have been his last opportunity to leave the city and establish himself elsewhere before the situation deteriorated even more.  Windham was certainly a small town compared to Boston, yet Tileston did not merely suggest that he brought an elevated sense of fashion with him.  He likely expected that readers might consider him a refugee and hoped that they would believe that he merited support from consumers in his new town.

Given the stakes, Tileston went to additional lengths to draw attention to his advertisement.  A border composed of printing ornaments enclosed his notice, distinguishing it from other advertisements that appeared in the Connecticut Gazette.  Week after week, Tileston’s notice had that distinctive feature, making it easy for readers to spot.  The hatmaker would have had to make special arrangements with the printer for his advertisement to receive such treatment.  Perhaps he even had to pay more for it.  Tileston apparently considered it worth the investment as he sought to establish his business in a new town.

November 20

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (November 17, 1774).

“NATHANIEL PATTEN, BOOK-BINDER & STATIONER.”

The decorative border that enclosed David Nevins’s advertisement for hats and hat trimmings in the Norwich Packethelped in distinguishing it from most others in that newspaper, yet it paled in comparison to the use of ornamental type in Nathaniel Patten’s advertisement.  Patten, a bookbinder and stationer, commissioned a border for his notice, but he arranged for something much more elaborate than the relatively simple borders for Nevins’s notice and another placed by clock- and watchmaker Thomas Harland.

For some readers, the border for Patten’s advertisement may have evoked a highboy chest or other large piece of furniture.  It may even have been intended as a bookcase and secretary desk that would have held the various books and stationery listed within the border.  For the lower portion, the left, right, and bottom of the border were composed of a single line of decorative type, just like the borders in the other advertisements, while in the upper portion the left and right sides had three lines of even more intricate type.  Those sides rose into an arch composed of other kinds of detailed printing ornaments.  The compositor even created five finials, one each on the left and right at the bottom of the arch and three clustered together at the top.  The year, 1774, appeared within a pendant inside the arch, much like a piece of furniture would have an engraving.  If the type remained set into the new year, Patten had the option to update the date.  The advertisement was massive, filling almost an entire column on the final page of the November 17, 1774, edition.  The first time that it appeared, it ran on the first page on November 3, that time occupying an entire column because of the amount of space required for the masthead.  The border appeared heavy, giving Patten’s advertisement more weight compared to others in the Norwich Packet.  The finished product does not reveal how closely Patten worked with the compositor in designing or approving the border.  Whatever the case, he almost certainly paid extra for it.

That newspaper had recently marked its first year of publication.  Throughout that time, it did not tend to incorporate visual images except for the packet ship that appeared in the masthead.  The printers did not make stock images of ships, houses, horses, indentured servants, or enslaved people available to advertisers, nor did advertisers commission woodcuts that represented their businesses.  However, the newspaper did regularly embellish advertisements with decorative borders, establishing a different kind of visual appeal to engage readers.

October 27

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

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

Norwich Packet (October 27, 1774).

“HATS … of as good a Quality and at as low a Price as they are sold in New-York and Boston.”

The use of decorative type as a border certainly distinguished David Nevins’s advertisement from other content in the October 27, 1774, edition of the Norwich Packet.  It appeared in the final column on the third page along with several other advertisements.  News items filled the facing page as well as the first two columns of that page, each of them in relatively small type compared to some of the fonts in the advertisements.  The compositor used printing ornaments to separate those news items, but nothing as extensive as the border that surrounded Nevins’s advertisement.

Some of the advertisements featured larger fonts to draw attention to consumer goods and services and their purveyors and providers, including “THOMAS COIT” and “Drugs and Medicines” in one, “FLAX SEED, SMALL FURRS, BEES-WAX” in another, and “PUBLIC VENDUE” in a third.  The same was true in Nevins’s advertisement, with his name, “Musquash Skins,” and “HATS” each centered and in larger fonts.  Yet Nevins did not deploy those fonts alone in his effort to draw the attention of readers.  He must have submitted a request for the decorative border along with the copy for his advertisement when he contacted the printing office.

Even with that visual advantage, Nevins also devised copy intended to sell the hats that he produced at his shop.  In addition to hats made of musquash or muskrat pelts, he promoted others “Of all Kinds” that customers could depend on being “of as good a Quality and at as low a Price as they are sold in New-York and Boston.”  Norwich was a small town compared to those major urban ports, yet that did not mean that consumers had to settle for second best or inflated prices. Nevins consistently mad that point in his advertisements.  In February, he “warranted” his hats “to be of the best Quality, and as cheap and fashionable as can be purchased in Boston and New-York” in an advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette.

Other advertisers who placed notices in the Norwich Packet may or may not have made requests about the design elements.  In writing the copy, they may have assumed that the compositor would select certain words to capitalize, center, and print in larger font without providing instructions to do so.  After all, that was a common feature of advertisements in that newspaper.  Nevins, on the other hand, almost certainly stated that he wished to enhance his advertisement with a decorative border to aid in highlighting the appeals he made in his copy.

July 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Essex Journal (July 6, 1774).

“Hour and Half-hour Glasses … of the neatest sort.”

Simon Greenleaf advertised “VERY neat brass box Binnacle Compasses for Ships” and hourglasses “of the neatest sort” for sale at his store “on the Long-Wharf” in Newburyport in the summer of 1774.  He also hawked a “few barrels of Carolina PORK” in his advertisement in the Essex Journal.  Readers likely considered the decorative border that enclosed Greenleaf’s notice the most distinctive aspect of his marketing efforts.  It certainly distinguished his notice from the other advertisements in the July 6 edition and had done so since its first appearance on June 22.

Greenleaf apparently made a request when he submitted his copy to the printing office or met with the printer, Henry-Walter Tinges, to work out an arrangement for this enhancement to his advertisement.  Tinges and Isaiah Thomas commenced publication of the Essex Journal seven months earlier, with Tinges running the printing office in Newburyport while Thomas continued publishing the Massachusetts Spy in Boston.  Had Thomas overseen the Essex Journal, Greenleaf might not have managed to have the border included in his advertisement.  In the past, Thomas seemingly had not been amenable to such flourishes in the Massachusetts Spy, even when advertisers managed to have borders included with their notices published simultaneously in other newspapers.  Ultimately, graphic design depended not only on the imagination of advertisers and compositors but also the preferences of printers who published colonial newspapers.

For the Essex Journal, Greenleaf’s advertisement was a milestone.  It was the first that incorporated decorative type.  Tinges had experiments with using ornaments to as dividers between news items and in the headline for the “POETS-CORNER” on the final page of the newspaper.  Occasionally, he placed the first letter of the first word in an article or letter within a decorative border, but this was the first time that a border enclosed any content, whether news or advertising.  In addition, Tinges did not provide any of the common stock images, such as ships or houses, for the use of advertisers.  Throughout the publication of the Essex Gazette to that point, the only visual images appeared in the masthead, the coat of arms of the colony on the left of the title and a packet ship on the right.  That made Greenleaf’s advertisement even more noteworthy and memorable when readers encountered it since its appearance differed from anything else in that newspaper.

June 5

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

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

Norwich Packet (June 2, 1774).

“CABINETS, CHAIRS, and a variety of useful and ornamental FURNITURE.”

Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and John Trumbull had been publishing the Norwich Packet for less than a year when Abishai Bushnell, “CABINET AND CHAIR-MAKER,” ran an advertisement with distinctive graphic design elements.  One of the printers or one of the compositors who worked in the printing office enclosed Bushnell’s copy within a border comprised of decorative ornaments.  That set it apart from other content, both news and advertising, in the Norwich Packet.  Bushnell may have also arranged to have his advertisement printed separated to use as labels for the “CABINETS, CHAIRS, and a variety of useful and ornamental FURNITURE” he made in his shop.

Except for the packet ship carrying letters from one port to another depicted in the masthead, the Norwich Packet did not usually feature visual images, neither to accompany news nor to adorn advertisements.  That included woodcuts of ships, houses, horses, indentured servants, and enslaved people, stock images that many printers made available to advertisers.  Yet the compositors did make liberal use of printing ornaments to indicate where one news item or editorial ended and another began and, especially, to separate advertisements from each other.  An intricate border also enclosed the first letter of the first word in the first article on the first page of each edition of the Norwich Packet, a design that changed every few weeks.  The masthead also made use of decorative type above and below the date of the newspaper, though that was a more recent innovation as the compositor experimented with the appearance of the front page.

Apparently, that was enough to convince Bushnell that Robertson, Robertson, and Trumbull could produce an advertisement that would attract attention with an ornate border that made it unlike anything else that appeared in the pages of the Norwich Packet.  The cabinetmaker almost certainly placed a special order or gave specific instructions about how he wished his advertisement to look.  After all, even though the compositor incorporated a lot of decorative type into each edition of the newspaper, no other advertisements received such treatment.  Bushnell did not opt for a woodcut of a chair or other piece of furniture representing his trade, but he did find a way to make his advertisement more visible and more memorable.

Decorative borders enclosing the first letter of the first word in the first item on the first page of the Norwich Packet (left to right: March 24, 1774; April 21, 1774; April 28, 1774; May 5, 1774; May 12, 1774).

March 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Supplement to Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (March 3, 1774).

“All kinds of Windsor Chairs.”

On and off for several months, Thomas Ash, a “WINDSOR CHAIR MAKER, At the Corner below St. Paul’s Church, In the Broad Way,” adorned his advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer with a woodcut depicting the item that he made and sold.  In contrast to Abel Buell’s advertisement featuring an image of a gun in the Connecticut Journal, Ash’s woodcut was not the only woodcut commissioned by an advertiser to appear in the March 3, 1774, edition of Rivington’s newspaper.  Elsewhere in that issue, Nesbitt Deane once again ran an advertisement featuring a tricorne hat with his name on a banner unfurled beneath it.  George Webster, “GROCER, AT THE SIGN OF THE Three Sugar Loaves & Scales,” included an image of three sugar loaves, two shorter ones flanking a taller one, enclosed within a simple border.

Those were not the only visual flourishes intended to draw attention to some of the advertisements in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  Decorative borders became a trademark of that newspaper.  In the March 3 edition, five advertisements had such borders, including those placed by Richard Sause for merchandise at his “Hardware, Jewellery and Cutlery Store, John Siemon, a furrier, for muffs and tippets, John Simnet for cleaning and repairing watches, and S. Sp. Skinner for rum distilled in New York.  Except for Simnet, all those advertisers had experience running other notices with decorative borders, as the links indicate.  Simnet previously placed an identical advertisement, including the border. Sause and Siemon also sometimes ran advertisements with woodcuts tied to their businesses.  Indeed, Siemon did so in the New-York Journal published the same day, choosing one method of adding visual interest in one newspaper and another method in the other.  Webster was the fifth advertiser to use a border of decorative type, taking advantage of both methods in a single newspaper notice.

All the woodcuts and borders in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer made its pages more vibrant than those in the Connecticut Journal.  Advertisements with woodcuts and borders still stood out from others since most did not have either of those features, yet they collectively contributed to a cohesive look that distinguished newspapers published in busy ports from those printed in smaller towns.

January 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Courant (January 4, 1774).

“Loaf and Brown Sugar, Coffee, Chocolate, Peeper, Spices.”

In the fall of 1773 and into the winter of 1774, Samuel Wescote ran advertisements in the Connecticut Courant to promote a “fresh & fashionable Assortment of Dry Goods, both for Gentlemen and Ladies.”  He gave directions to his store “a little Eastward from the Court-House in HARTFORD,” informed the public that he had recently imported his inventory from Europe, and insisted that he offered such a selection that the “particulars are too tedious to Name” in a newspaper notice.  Prospective customers needed to visit his store to see for themselves!  In addition to dry goods, he stocked “most sorts of Hard Ware, Cutlery, and Crockery” as well as sugar, coffee, and spices.  Wescote pledged to sell his wares “at the very lowest Rate,” but he did not extend credit.  “CASH ONLY,” he advised.

The contents of Wescote’s advertisement replicated what appeared in others that ran in the Connecticut Courant and newspapers throughout the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Its format, however, differed from most others.  A border comprised of a variety of printing ornaments surrounded the notice.  The compositor did not choose a single decoration but instead incorporated many in a seemingly random order.  Most other advertisements did not feature a border, though William Beadle of Wethersfield did opt for a border around his advertisement for a “good Assortment of GOODS suitable for the present Season” that ran in some of the same issues as Wescote’s advertisement.  Where did Beadle and Wescote get the idea to request borders for their advertisements?  Maybe they noticed the borders around Caleb Bull’s advertisements when they perused the Connecticut Courant … or perhaps all of those advertisers took inspiration from another newspaper that circulated in the colony, Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, or the Connecticut, New-Jersey, Hudson’s-River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser.  In the summer and fall of 1773, decorative borders became a signature feature of advertisements in that newspaper.  Rivington and others who labored in his printing office certainly did not invent that particular style, but they utilized to an extent previously unknown in colonial American newspapers.  As advertisements with borders increased in number and frequency in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer they also became more common in many newspapers printed in the region served by that newspaper.  Printers, compositors, and advertisers in towns beyond New York seemed to take note of a format that became popular in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.

December 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (December 14, 1773).

“He is determined to sell so low as to give every Purchaser full Satisfaction.”

Nathaniel Sparhawk emphasized all the choices available to consumers when he advertised a “general Assortment of English and India GOODS” in the December 14, 1773, edition of the Essex Gazette.  To demonstrate some of those choices, he listed some of his merchandise.  His inventory included a “Beautiful assortment [of] superfine, middling and low priced Broad-Cloaths of the most fashionable colours,” “Ribbons of all sorts,” “MEN’s black & cloth colour’d worsted Hose,” “Women’s black, white and cloth-colour’d silk Gloves and Mitts,” “black and white gauze Handkerchiefs,” and “Silk & worsted Knee Garters.”  To further entice prospective customers, Sparhawk pledged to “sell so low as to give every reasonable Purchaser full Satisfaction.”  The shopkeeper intended for the combination of low prices and wide selection to draw customers to his shop in Salem.

In addition to those appeals, Sparhawk used graphic design to attract the attention of readers of the Essex Gazette.  His advertisement was the most visually striking of those that appeared in the December 14 edition.  A border composed of florettes enclosed the entire advertisement, setting it apart from news articles and other advertisements.  It was the only item that featured that sort of adornment on that page or anywhere in the issue.  George Deblois once again published his advertisement promoting a “fine Assortment of ENGLISH and HARD-WARE GOODS.”  It appeared in the column next to Sparhawk’s advertisement.  Both entrepreneurs enumerated many of their goods, but Deblois listed his wares in two dense paragraphs.  Sparhawk, in contrast, opted to divide his advertisement into two columns and list only one or two items on each line.  That likely made it easier for readers to peruse his notice.  In addition to the florettes that surrounded this advertisement, a line of other printing ornaments ran between the two columns, further enhancing its visual appeal.  Sparhawk stocked much of the same merchandise as Deblois and other competitors, but he leveraged graphic design in his advertisement to distinguish his business from the others.

November 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (November 25, 1773).

“WATCHES justly valued for those who are about to buy, or swop elsewhere.”

John Simnet, who billed himself as the “only regular London watch-maker here,” regularly advertised in the newspapers published in New York.  As November 1773 came to a close, he inserted notices in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, the New-York Journal, and Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  Over the years, he gained a reputation for his cantankerous advertisements in which he feuded with his competitors.  Such aggressive strategies did not account for the only appeals that the watchmaker made to the public.  In many of his advertisements, he listed his prices, demonstrating the deals available at his workshop to prospective clients who did some comparison shopping.  Simnet asserted, for instance, that he performed “every particular in repairing [watches] at HALF the price charg’d by others.”  Furthermore, he “will keep them in proper order in future, gratis,” a valuable service for his customers.  He also did appraisals: “WATCHES justly valued for those who are about to buy, or swop elsewhere.”

Those appeals, along with his colorful personality, helped to distinguish Simnet’s advertisements from those placed by other watchmakers.  In the November 25 edition of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, another aspect of his advertisement attracted attention.  The watchmaker joined the ranks of advertisers who decided to have a decorative border enclose his notice.  In recent months, that became a style associated with New York’s newest newspaper.  Simnet ran the same copy that appeared in the New-York Journal on the same day and a few days earlier in the November 22 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, but only his notice in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer featured a border.  Simnet joined six other advertisers who opted for that visual element to enhance their notices and attract the attention of readers.  Like most other advertisers, he devised the copy on his own, but entrusted the format to the compositors in each printing office.  In this case, however, he apparently made a request to incorporate a border after observing so many other advertisements in that newspaper receive that treatment.  Considering how much Simnet craved attention, arguably even more than most advertisers, readers familiar with his reputation and his previous notices may have been surprised that it took him so long to run an advertisement with a visual element gaining in popularity.

November 12

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

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

New-London Gazette (November 12, 1773).

“A COMPLEAT and ENTIRELY NEW Assortment Of the best PRINTING MATERIALS.”

Timothy Green, the printer of the New-London Gazette, made an important announcement about his business in the November 12, 1773, edition of his newspaper.  He proclaimed that he “Has just IMPORTED from LONDON, A COMPLEAT and ENTIRELY NEW Assortment Of the best PRINTING MATERIALS.”  New type and other equipment would enhance not only the newspaper, making it more attractive for both subscribers and advertisers, but also books, pamphlets, almanacs, and blanks produced in his printing office.  In addition, he sought orders for broadsides, handbills, and other job printing.  With the arrival of these “best PRINTING MATERIALS,” Green “hopes that the kind of Encouragement of the PUBLIC will not be wanting.”  He was ready to serve clients, giving “his constant Attention to please them.”

The savvy printer just happened to place the most ornate of all the advertisements in that issue of the New-London Gazetteimmediately below his own notice.  A border made of decorative type enclosed an advertisement in which David Gardiner, Jr., offered cash for “Small Furrs, Bees-Wax, old Brass, Copper, and Pewter” and hawked a “good ASSORTMENT of Ship-Chandlery Ware, Groceries of all Kinds, an Assortment of Glass and Stone Ware,” and other merchandise.  The distinctive advertisement demonstrated to prospective clients that they could place their own notices that featured visual elements designed to attract attention.  It also presented possibilities for broadsides, handbills, catalogs, billheads, blanks, and other job printing orders.

New-London Gazette (November 19, 1773).

Gardiner’s advertisement ran in the next issue of the New-London Gazette, but it was no longer the only one with a decorative border.  In a new advertisement, Peabody Clement promoted imported goods “JUST COME TO HAND.” Green or one of the compositors in his shop selected different printing ornaments for Clement’s advertisement than those in Gardiner’s notice.  That distinguished the notices from each other, while also displaying some of the range of new types in Green’s printing office.  Perhaps Clement saw the printer’s announcement and Gardiner’s advertisement in the November 12 edition and that helped convince him to place his own notice and influenced his decision about the format.