John Elliott

May 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 8, 1776).

“It hath been a noted and good-accustomed store for looking-glasses near 14 years.”

At the same time that John Elliott promoted a “CONSIDERABLE assortment” of looking glasses available at his store on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, he also aimed to sell the entire business to an entrepreneur who would purchase his complete inventory and the location that had been familiar to residents of the bustling port for more than a decade.  To draw attention to his advertisement in the May 8, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, he included a woodcut depicting “the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass” that, according to previous advertisements, marked his location.

Among his inventory, Elliott had “Pier and Sconces GLASSES” as well as “a large choice of neat Dressing GLASSES, together with a great number of smaller sizes.”  He made retail sales, but he also hoped to supply “country stores and shopkeepers” who would make wholesale purchases to augment the merchandise they had on hand in their towns and villages.  The consumer revolution, after all, extended far beyond major urban ports, reaching eager consumers in the countryside.  Elliott hoped that the enthusiasm for acquiring goods would convince someone to purchase his entire store, despite the uncertainty of the war.  After all, even if consumers shifted from purchasing imported textiles and accessories to homespun fabrics, they still wanted to assess how they appeared in looking glasses.  As fashions changed, due to either tastes or politics, consumers continued to strive to make themselves presentable to others and depended on looking glasses in their efforts to do so.

That made selling looking glasses an attractive venture.  At least Elliott hoped that was the case.  He announced that he planned “to sell the house he lives in, which is properly fitted up for carrying on the LOOKING-GLASS business, particularly for quicksilvering.”  A prospective buyer did not need to have previous experience peddling looking glasses. Elliott declared that he was “willing to communicate to any person who may purchase” his house, store, and “the remaining stock on hand” the methods of the “art” of quicksilvering and “all other instructions for carrying on said trade.”  To sweeten the deal, he also assured prospective buyers that the location “hath been a noted and good-accustomed store for looking-glasses near 14 years.”  Elliott offered an opportunity for an entrepreneur interested in running their own business to take over a successful enterprise, one that he would “sell very low.”  For a small investment, a new owner could benefit from all the advantages that Elliott accumulated over the years.  Did those advantages outweigh the risks? Elliott tried to convince prospective buyers that they did.

January 19

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (January 19, 1769).

“For HOGS BRISTLES, Ready Money, and best Price, is given.”

Relatively few advertisements in eighteenth-century newspapers featured visual images, making those that did particularly notable. Along with their type, many printers had a limited number of stock images to accompany certain kinds of advertisements, including houses for real estate notices, ships for notices about vessels seeking freight and passengers, and horses for notices offering stallions “to cover” mares. In addition, many printers also supplied nondescript depictions of people to accompany advertisements concerning runaway servants, runaway slaves, and enslaved men, women, and children for sale. Most of the time they matched the sex seen in the image with that of the subject of an advertisement, but not always. For each sort of image – houses, ships, horses, people – the woodcuts were used interchangeably in advertisements placed for the corresponding purpose. Any woodcut of a house could accompany a real estate notice. Any woodcut of an enslaved man could appear in a runaway advertisement.

Some shopkeepers and artisans, however, commissioned their own woodcuts to represent their businesses in the public prints. Those woodcuts belonged exclusively to the advertiser; they did not appear in any other notices. Sometimes they replicated a shop sign, as was the case with a woodcut of a mirror on a decorative stand and a bell enclosed in a frame in John Elliott’s advertisement that once again ran in the January 19, 1769, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Elliott directed prospective customers to “his Looking-glass store, the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass, in Walnut-street.” He also mentioned a second location “at the Three Brushes, in Second-Street,” but did not include an image of that shop sign. The “Bell and Looking-glass” had circulated so widely in Philadelphia’s newspapers that it served as Elliott’s iconic image.

In the same issue, John Wilkinson, a brushmaker, placed an advertisement dominated by a woodcut depicting a boar. The visual image occupied more than twice as much space as the copy of the advertisement, a stark contrast to the notices comprised solely of text, all of them densely formatted, on either side of Wilkinson’s advertisement. Wilkinson called on readers to provide him with “HOGS BRISTLES” that he could then use in making brushes of “all Sorts and Sizes.” His woodcut depicted the source of his materials rather than the final product. When it came to the copy of his advertisement, the brushmaker adopted a less-is-more approach, depending on the woodcut to attract attention and distinguish his advertisement from the dozens of others in the Pennsylvania Gazette.