Quality

November 28

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (November 28, 1775).

“He will engage to make Looms for the weaving of Linen an[d] Woollen.”

At the same time that David Poe advertised that he “set up … the business of SPINNING WHEEL Making” in Baltimore in November 1775, Fergus McIllroy took to the pages of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette to inform the public that he “will engage to make Looms for the weaving of Linen an[d] Woolen.”  Both artisans responded to demand for equipment for making textiles that arose in response to the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement devised by the First Continental Congress to leverage commerce as a means of achieving political goals.  The text of the pact stated that it would remain in place until Parliament repealed duties on tea and the Coercive Acts that punished Boston for the destruction of tea in what has become known as the Boston Tea Party.  It also issued a call to “encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”

Many colonizers, both men and women, wanted to do their part in producing domestic manufactures as alternatives to imported textiles and other goods, but they needed materials and equipment.  McIllroy reported that he “repeatedly had the opportunity of hearing several of the inhabitants of this country, complaining that they cannot get LOOMS made properly, for carrying on of the Linen and Woolen Weaving-business.”  Although he currently worked as a “House Joiner,” he claimed that he “has experience of making upwards of 200” looms before he migrated to Baltimore.  That being the case, he pledged that his looms were “as good as any made in the North of Ireland.”  Yet prospective customers did not have to take his word for it: “there is many Weavers in the country that has seen his Looms in Ireland, and can answer for their goodness.”  For good measure, he added that he was a “master” when it came to making looms and “there is not a man in the Continent capable to exceed him.”

In addition, McIllroy noted the “many ways that he can make them,” so he had “models of all the different kinds, so as his customers may please themselves.”  Furthermore, they could supply the materials for constructing their looms or leave it to McIllroy to provide the materials.  In the latter instance, customers had to pay a deposit of twenty shillings before McIllroy would make their loom.  He also outlined the conditions for visiting homes to “set them up properly.”  If a town within sixty miles of Baltimore wished to order twenty or more looms, he offered to do the work there to avoid transporting the new looms over long distances.  McIllroy stood ready to contribute to the American cause with his “Industry” that in turn “promote[d] … the Manufactures of this Country,” joining with other artisans who vowed to do the same.

September 24

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

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

New-York Journal (September 21, 1775).

“EARTHENWARE … equal to the best of any imported from Philadelphia, or elsewhere.”

As fall arrived in 1775, Jonathan Durell took to the pages of the New-York Journal to advertised “EARTHENWARE” that he made locally and sold “at the well-known House called Katechemet’s Mead-House” on the outskirts of the city.  The potter offered a variety of items, including, “butter, water, pickle and oyster pots, porringers, milk pans of several sizes, jugs of several sizes, chamber pots,” and “a variety of other sorts of ware, too tedious to particularize.”  Durrel promoted these items as “far superior to the generality, and equal to the best of any imported from Philadelphia, or elsewhere.”  He also reported that he had migrated to New York from Philadelphia.

Mentioning Philadelphia twice in his advertisement was intentional.  When Durell compared the quality of his earthenware to items imported into New York, he did not refer only to goods arriving from English manufactories, though looking to alternatives would have been on the minds of consumers while the Continental Association remained in effect.  Colonizers who wished to purchase “domestic manufactures” in support of their political principles knew that Philadelphia was an important center for pottery production.  Deborah Miller, an archaeologist, notes that Philadelphia Style earthenware “became recognized across the colonies for its quality and durability” by the middle of the eighteenth century.  Citing Durell’s advertisement, Edwin Atlee Barber states that “it would appear that even before the Revolution the wares made in Philadelphia had acquired a reputation abroad for excellence.”[1]  Durell’s pottery was not made in Philadelphia, but he had resided there and presumably used the same techniques to produce his earthenware.  As both consumers and “city and country store-keepers” sought goods made in the colonies, he presented an attractive option.

To increase his chances of making sales, Durell mentioned the “reasonable rates” he charged for his earthenware and provided a convenient service.  In a nota bene, he declared, “The purchaser of twenty shillings, or upwards, may depend on having it delivered in any part of this city, without charge.”  The potter hoped that free delivery would entice customers to take a chance on earthenware that he asserted matched any others, including products from Philadelphia, in its quality.

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[1] Edwin Atlee Barber, The Pottery and Porcelain of the United States: An Historical Review of American Ceramic Art from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893).

September 4

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

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

Connecticut Courant (September 4, 1775).

“JAMES LAMB and SON, From BOSTON, … intend to carry on the TAYLOR’s business.”

James Lamb and Son used an advertisement in the September 4, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford, to inform the public “that they have opened a shop at the next door to the Golden Ball in Middletown.”  They listed dozens of items they stocked, mostly an assortment of textiles but also ribbons, buttons, buckles, thread, pins, sugar, indigo, and coffee.  Their inventory rivaled those that ran in newspapers prior to the Continental Association going into effect.  The Lambs did not mention when or how they acquired their wares.  Instead, the header for their advertisement focused on their origins, “From BOSTON.”  Like others “From BOSTON” who advertised that they opened shops in other cities and towns in New England in the summer and fall of 1775, the Lambs might have been refugees displaced by the siege of Boston after the battles at Lexington and Concord in April.  They could have left the city when they had an opportunity, taking merchandise with them in hopes of establishing themselves in a new place.

A nota bene indicated that they offered residents of central Connecticut the same quality and range of service that they previously provided to customers in Boston.  They were not, after all, shopkeepers but also skilled tailors who “intend to carry on the TAYLOR’s business in all its branches as usual in BOSTON.”  That last phrase meant “as they had in BOSTON,” signaling to prospective customers that the Lambs had experience as tailors.  As newcomers, they needed to start building their reputation; for the moment, their own account of their experience substituted for local clients familiar with their work.  Yet that did not prevent them from making bold claims.  “Any Gentlemen who will favour them with their custom,” the Lambs proclaimed, “may depend on having their business done with fidelity and dispatch.”  In addition to exemplary customer service, the Lambs promised the highest quality.  They “warranted” their work “as complear as can be done any where in America.”  The tailors “From BOSTON” asserted that their garments rivaled any from Charleston, New York, Philadelphia, or any other city or town in the colonies.  They hoped such claims would attract customers as they began building their business in Middletown in the first year of the Revolutionary War.

August 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 26, 1775).

“ALL sorts of PLANES … as compleat as any made in London.”

Robert Parrish inserted an advertisement in the August 26, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger to advise the public that he made and sold “ALL sorts of PLANES, suitable for carpenters, joiners, cabinet-makers, coopers,” and other artisans at “his house in Third-street, a few doors above Arch-street, and nearly opposite the Golden-Swan Tavern” in Philadelphia.  Parrish was no stranger to advertising in the public prints.  He previously ran an advertisement for “DUTCH FANS” and “ROLLING SCREENS,” both used for separating wheat from chaff, in the Pennsylvania Chronicle.

That notice featured two images, one of each kind of equipment that Parrish made and sold.  A woodcut also accompanied his new advertisement, this one depicting a carpentry plane.  It almost certainly drew attention to his advertisement since it was the only image of any sort, except for the coat of arms of Great Britain that always appeared in the masthead, in that issue of the Pennsylvania Ledger.  Parrish stated that “continues to make Dutch-Fans, as usual, and various machines for grist-mills, such as the rolling screen improved,” yet he did not include either of the images that accompanied his previous advertisement.  Perhaps he never reclaimed them from the printing office when William Goddard ceased publishing the Pennsylvania Chronicle in 1774 … or maybe he considered it too expensive to purchase the necessary space to feature two images.  His copy, after all, was significantly longer than in that earlier advertisement.

Parrish insisted that the planes made and sold at his shop were “as compleat as any made in London,” an assurance that the quality of construction matched imported tools.  American artisans frequently made such claims, though such promises had even greater significance with the Continental Association in effect.  The First Continental Congress devised that nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement in response to the Coercive Acts.  It also called for producers and consumers to support domestic manufactures, goods produced in the colonies, as alternatives to imported items.  Parrish signaled that he did his part to support the American cause by supplying carpenters, joiners, cabinetmakers, and coopers with the tools they needed to earn their livelihoods.

August 22

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (August 22, 1775).

“BEST Scotch and Rappee Snuff … warranted good in quality and as well manufactured as any from Great Britain.”

The partnership of Cary and Somervell stocked and sold “a general Assortment of DRY GOODS” at their store in Baltimore in the summer of 1775, but that was not their primary reason for running an advertisement in the August 22 edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  Instead, they wished to advise the public that their firm “Manufactures and Sells … BEST Scotch and Rappee Snuff, High Toast and Blackguard [snuff], Saffron and Shag Cut, Plug, Pigtail and Hogtail Tobacco.”  Cary and Somervell offered tobacco users an array of choices of familiar products.  They also paid “the highest price for empty Snuff Bottles,” encouraging prospective customers to offset the cost of their purchases by trading in bottles that they no longer needed.

In promoting the tobacco products that they made in Baltimore, Cary and Somervell published promises about their wares: “warranted good in quality and as well manufactured as any from Great Britain.”  That was a familiar aspect of “Buy American” advertisements prior to the American Revolution, yet it had greater resonance once the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774, and, especially, following the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, called for “encourag[ing] Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promot[ing] Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country” as alternatives to imported goods.  Thus, the nonimportation agreement also outlined the responsibilities of both producers and consumers in the colonies.  Such civic duties gained even greater urgency in the wake of battles fought in Massachusetts.

Even without taking current events into consideration, Cary and Somervell issued a familiar challenge when they asserted that their tobacco products were as “good in quality and as well manufactured as any from Great Britain.”  How would consumers know unless they tested Cary and Somervell’s snuff and tobacco for themselves?  The partners used a bold assertion to entice prospective customers to sample their products and become the final arbiters of whether they, the consumers, agreed with the claims made in the newspaper advertisement.

March 5

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

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (March 2, 1775).

“PARCHMENT … Made and sold … [in] Philadelphia.”

In the early 1770s, Robert Wood made and sold parchment in Philadelphia, yet he did not confine his marketing or distribution of his product to that city and its hinterland.  As spring approached in 1775, he ran an advertisement in the supplement that accompanied the March 2 edition of the New-York Journal, advising prospective customers that they could acquire his parchment from local agents.  John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, and Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, each stocked Wood’s parchment along with books, stationery, and writing supplies at their printing offices.  In addition, Joseph Dunkley, a painter and glazier, also supplied Wood’s parchment at his workshop “opposite the Methodist Meeting House.”  The New-York Journal circulated beyond the city, so some prospective customers would have found it more convenient to acquire Wood’s parchment from Isaac Collins, a printer in Burlington, New Jersey.  According to previous advertisements, Collins had been peddling Wood’s parchment to “friends to American Manufactures” for several years.

Wood asserted that the “Demand for this Parchment [was] much increased of late,” though he left it to readers to imagine why that was the case.  Most would assume that the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement that went into effect on December 1, 1774, played a role in increased demand for parchment produced in the colonies.  Wood likely intended for prospective customers to draw the conclusion that the quality of his product, not merely its availability, contributed to the demand.  He declared that “those who have tried it … esteemed [it] superior to most imported from England.”  He was bold enough to resort to superlatives, claiming that customers considered his parchment better than any imported to the colonies, yet he offered firm assurances about it quality.  Wood had recently met with so much demand for his parchment that he “extend[ed] his Works … to be able to supply his Customers in a manner more satisfactory than heretofore, without Fear of a Disappointment.”  In other words, he stepped up production to expand his inventory so every customer who wished to purchase his parchment could do so.  Wood answered the call of the eighth article of the Continental Association with his own “Industry” in producing “Manufactures of this Country” as alternatives to imported goods.

March 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (March 4, 1775).

“WATCH MAIN SPRINGS MADE in Philadelphia.”

The headline proclaimed, “WATCH MAIN SPRINGS.”  Matthia Eyre, “SPRING MAKER from London,” hoped that would draw attention to his advertisement in the March 4, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  He informed readers, especially “Watchmakers in this and the neighbouring Provinces,” that he sold spring he produced in the colonies at the house on Third Street in Philadelphia.  In addition, watchmaker John Wood also stocked Eyre’s watch springs at his shop on Front Street.

Eyre asserted that “Watchmakers and others may be supplied with any Quantity of Springs much cheaper than can be afforded when imported from England.”  The price in combination with the “good Quality of the Springs” prompted the “Manufacturer” to suggest that he merited the “Encouragement” of watchmakers who needed parts.  Eyre likely composed his advertisement with confidence that both prospective customers and the public would consider his appeals in the context of current events, including the nonimportation agreement currently in place to protest the Coercive Acts.

The First Continental Congress devised the Continental Association in the fall of 1774.  The first article of that pact prohibited importing “any such Goods, Wares, or Merchandise, as shall have been exported from Great Britain.”  The eighth article, in turn, called for “encourag[ing] Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promot[ing] Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  Eyre offered an alternative to the watch springs that colonizers were no longer supposed to import, making it easier for them to abide by the Continental Association.  They could do so without sacrificing the quality of the parts they used in their work.  In addition, they had a duty to support a local “Manufacturer” in those troubling times.

Yet those “Watchmakers in this and the neighbouring Provinces” were not the only colonizers who read Eyre’s advertisement.  The spring maker enhanced his reputation in his community while simultaneously providing an example of American industriousness that answered the challenges of that tense political moment.  Readers could hardly peruse Eyre’s notice without having the Continental Association in mind.  He signaled to them that he answered the call, one of many artisans prepared to serve the American cause through his efforts in his workshop.

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 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (July 21, 1774).

“The quick sale their fish met with here last season … being a convincing proof of their goodness.”

Bennet and Company offered a superior product that consumers did not want to miss.  That was their claim in an advertisement for “RED HERRINGS” that first appeared in the July 21, 1774, edition of the New-York Journal and continued for several weeks.  Bennet and Company began by comparing their herrings to imported alternatives, asserting that whether customers purchased them “for home consumption, or for shipping,” they would find them “as good as any imported from Europe.”  They were so confident in that claim that they “will warrant them” as such, extending a promise and a nonbinding guarantee.

Yet prospective customers did not have to take their word for it.  Bennet and Company offered other evidence to convince readers to choose their herrings over others.  They emphasized the “quick sale their fish met with here last season, both for exportation and present use.”  In addition, “the accounts received from the different parts of the West Indies … being a convincing proof of their goodness, they need no farther recommendation.”  Apparently, herrings from “BENNET and Co.’s Manufactory” in New York arrived in ports in the Caribbean at the same time as “Yarmouth red herrings” and consumers preferred the former over the latter.  Bennet and Company sought to build on that reputation.

To further make their case, they reported that “numbers of people were disappointed in the last season in being supplied with red herrings from this manufactory.”  Bennet and Company sold out before they could meet the demand for their product.  Keeping that in mind, they “acquaint[ed] the public in general, that we have a very large quantity for sale, and desire those that have occasion for any, to apply in time.”  In other words, Bennet and Company wished to serve as many customers as possible, but they could do so only while inventory lasted.  Readers had a limited time to purchase red herrings from Bennet and Company, the amount of time determined not by the producers themselves but by the speed of sales as consumers clamored for the popular product.  The advertisers highlighted demand as a strategy for inciting even greater demand.

July 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (July 9, 1774).

“MAKES all Sorts of Gentlemens and Ladies Saddles, in the neatest and best Manner.”

John Sebring, a “Saddler and Cap-Maker, from London,” once again took to the pages of the Providence Gazette in the summer of 1774.  As had been his practice in the past, he deployed solely his last name as a headline for his advertisement, presumably believing that a mononym gave him greater cachet with prospective customers.  He declared that he “MAKES all Sorts of Gentlemens and Ladies Saddles, in the neatest and best Manner” as well as “all Sorts of Saddle Bags, Bridles, Holsters, Half Covers, Velvet Jockey-Caps,” and other items.  He intended for readers to associate quality with the name Sebring.

In addition to the mononym, Sebring apparently believed that his experience in London enhanced the image he presented to the public, though it had been some time since he resided and worked in that cosmopolitan center of the empire.  When they proclaimed that they were “from London,” artisans often linked those origins to superior training or more intimate knowledge of current styles or both.  Sebring did in his previous newspaper notices.  By the time he placed his advertisement in the July 9, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette, however, he had been in that town for at least twenty months.  That may have caused him to place less emphasis on his supposed knowledge of London fashions.  In previous advertisements, he used the phrase “newest Fashion” to describe the saddles and other items he made in his workshop “At the White Horse, near the Great Bridge,” implying that his connections to London gave him insight into the latest styles there.  He even included the phrase twice in a notice he ran the previous summer.  In this advertisement, however, he focused on quality instead of (rather than in addition to) fashion.  Perhaps Sebring realized that many prospective customers knew he had not worked in London recently so his familiarity with the styles there came secondhand.  The training and experience he gained in London, however, did not change as time passed, making it worthwhile to continue to remind prospective customers of his origins.