James Youle

January 20

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

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (January 20, 1774).

“JAMES YOULE, CUTLER FROM SHEFFIELD, At the Sign of the GOLDEN KNIFE.”

James Youle, a “CUTLER FROM SHEFFIELD,” ran a shop “At the Sign of the GOLDEN KNIFE” in New York in the 1770s.  He advertised a “LARGE and general assortment of HARDWARE, CUTLERY and JEWELLERY” in the January 20, 1774, edition of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  In addition to the dozens of items he listed in that notice, Youle declared that he “makes and grinds razors, and all kinds of cutlery.”  Even given the length of Youle’s advertisement, many readers likely considered the woodcut that adorned it the most significant feature.  It depicted more than a dozen items that the cutler made or sold at his shop, including shears, a fork, a table knife, a pocketknife, and a sword.  The image rivaled the decorative borders that enclosed other advertisements in the same issue.

Youle had some experience incorporating similar woodcuts into his advertisements.  Nearly three years earlier, the partnership of Bailey and Youle included a similar image in their advertisements in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury in March 1771.  In the summer of 1772, Youle updated the image to feature his name alone.  The partnership having dissolved, Bailey ran advertisements for his own shop “At the Sign of the Cross Swords.”  The woodcut that accompanied his advertisement showed several items arrayed around two crossed swords.  In the early 1770s, other cutlers in New York, including Richard Sause and Lucas and Shephard, devised similar images for their advertisements, apparently deciding that remaining competitive in their trade required visual images in their notices as well as skill in their shops.

When he returned to pairing advertising copy with a woodcut in 1774, Youle revived the image that he first used when partnered with Bailey and later on his own, though he made one significant alteration.  The cutler added a large knife, perhaps a machete, below the sword.  The blade bore the name “YOULE,” just as Richard Sause previously included his last name on the blades of both a knife and a sword in his woodcut.  Perhaps this new addition was the “GOLDEN KNIFE” from Youle’s sign, a new means of identifying his shop since his earlier advertisements with woodcuts.  The cutler may have crafted the woodcut himself.  Near the end of his advertisement, he noted that he “cuts Gentlemen and ladies names for marking linen or books.  He may have applied the same skill to enhancing his own newspaper advertisements.

July 27

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

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (July 27, 1772).

“J. BAILEY. Cutler. from Sheffield.”

In the early 1770s, cutlers in New York competed with each other not only for customers but also in producing elaborate images to accompany their advertisements in the city’s newspapers.  It began in the spring of 1771 with Bailey and Youle, “Cutlers for Sheffield,” running an advertisement with a woodcut depicting more than a dozen items made and sold at their shop, enhancing their list of “surgeons instruments, … knives, razors, shears, and scissors.”  Not long after, Richard Sause followed their lead with an advertisement featuring a woodcut depicting more than a dozen items available at his shop.  Two items, a knife and a sword, had his name on them, suggesting that he marked his wares so consumers would recall who produced them and, if satisfied with the quality and durability, buy from him again.  In that regard, Sause improved on the image distributed by Bailey and Youle, although his competitors may have also marked their cutlery even if the woodcut in the newspaper did not indicate that was the case.

When Bailey and Youle dissolved their partnership a year later, Youle retained the woodcut and modified it to remove any reference to his former associate.  Not long after Youle disseminated that image in the public prints, Lucas and Shephard, WHITESMITHS and CUTLERS, From BIRMINGHAM and SHEFFIELD,” published their own advertisement with a woodcut showcasing many of the items they made and sold.  Bailey apparently considered that strategy effective for attracting customers (or at least not losing them to his competitors) because he devised his own woodcut that enclosed “J. BAILEY.  Cutler.  from Sheffield” and several cutlery items within a decorative border.  The copy of his advertisement gave his location as “the Sign of the Cross Swords, the Corner House opposite the Merchant’s Coffee-House.”  A pair of crossed swords appeared at the center of the woodcut.  A second woodcut appeared at the end of the advertisement, under a nota bene that advised that Bailey “has now for sale fullers shears.”  The cutler used the additional image to distinguish his notice from those of his competitors.  All three advertisements ran in the July 27, 1772, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (Bailey’s on the third page, Youle’s on the first page of the supplement, and Lucas and Shephard’s on the second page of the supplement).  Given the prevalence of images in advertisements placed by his competitors, Bailey may have considered it imperative to get his own woodcut depicting his wares into circulation among consumers in New York.

Left: New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (March 4, 1771); Right: Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (July 27, 1772).