John Elliott and Company

March 20

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

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (March 20, 1775).

“The Proprietors being unwilling to deprive such as are desirous of seeing the factory, from the gratification of their curiosity.”

John Elliott and Company advertised items made at the “AMERICAN GLASS WARE-HOUSE” in Kensington, Philadelphia, as soon as the Continental Association went into effect in December 1774.  Nearly four months later, the company ran another advertisement that listed a variety of glassware – including “wine glasses of various sorts,” “tumblers of all sizes,” “hour glasses,” “tubes for thermometers,” “mustard pots,” and “lamps for halls, streets, chambers, shops, [and] weavers” – that “shop keepers and others in town or country” could purchase “as cheap [as] those imported.”  Some items were “much cheaper.”  Colonizers who abided by the nonimportation agreement did not have to pay more to acquire glassware made in the colonies; instead, they got a bargain!  Elliott and Company also informed apothecaries and others that they accepted orders and would follow patterns “left at the aforesaid Ware-house.”

Yet this enterprise did more than manufacture glassware.  Elliott and Company’s operation became a destination for the curious who wanted to witness the production of “AMERICAN GLASS” for themselves.  That had the potential to become disruptive, so the proprietors devoted the final paragraph of their advertisement to instructions for visiting.  They explained that they struck a compromise, “being unwilling to deprive such as are desirous of seeing the factory, from the gratification of their curiosity, but at the same time finding it necessary to endeavour, in some measure, to save the works from the disadvantage which must and does actually arise from the great resort of spectators.”  Accordingly, Elliott and Company charged “two shillings for each person’s admittance, expected at the gate.”  Even that fee, they claimed, “is very inadequate to the hinderance occasioned thereby,” yet, once again, the company offered a bargain.  In the process, Elliott and Company monetized visits to their production facility.  Perhaps it had not been as popular a destination as they implied.  Perhaps they exaggerated in hopes of drumming up interest in such a novelty, especially as the imperial crisis intensified and the Continental Association became even more meaningful to many colonizers.  An advertisement with instructions for visiting the factory, no matter how many people had previously been there, gave readers ideas about an outing they could make themselves.  Attracting visitors to see the works, after all, would likely translate into additional sales.

December 7

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (December 7, 1774).

“White and Green Glass Ware; Such as are usually imported from Great-Britain.”

A headline in capital letters and a large font proclaimed, “AMERICAN GLASS.”  In a secondary headline composed of font of the same size, John Elliott and Company promoted “White and Green Glass Ware” that they produced ay their “GLASS HOUSE” near Philadelphia.  That advertisement happened to appear in the December 7, 1774, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal, the first issue published since the Continental Association went into effect on December 1.  Throughout the colonies, retailers and consumers adopted that boycott of goods imported from Britain, some enthusiastically and some under pressure.  They hoped that measure would help convince Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party.

Ever since the boycotts inspired by the Stamp Act nearly a decade earlier, supporters of the American cause emphasized the importance of “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies.  Such products offered an alternative to imported wares while also bolstering local economies and creating jobs.  The Continental Association had the potential to disrupt consumption practice, but it also presented opportunities for American entrepreneurs, including Elliott and Company.

In their advertisement, the proprietors of the Glass House reported that they had “procured a sett of good Workmen” and the glassworks were “in blast.”  That meant that the public “may be supplied with most kinds of White and Green Glass Ware; Such as are usually imported from Great-Britain.”  Prospective customers did not need to worry about the quality or cost of this alternative.  Elliott and Company offered assurances that they produced glassware “in a neat manner, and at moderate prices.”  In their appeal to “the PUBLIC,” Elliott and Company did not address consumers alone.  They also hoped to entice retailers, noting that “Orders from store-keepers and others, both of town and country will be executed with care and dispatch.”  They hoped these various appeals would “induce the friends of their country, and their own interest, to promote the undertaking.”  It was a win-win-win situation for the protest against Parliament, for customers, and for Elliott and Company.