Richard Lowden

October 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Oct 14 - 10:14:1768 New-Hampshire Gazette
New-Hampshire Gazette (October 14, 1768).

“A suit of Broad Cloth, full trim’d.”

By the time he “opened a Taylors Shop” in Portsmouth late in the summer of 1768, Richard Lowden was already familiar to many colonists in New Hampshire. More than a year earlier he had advertised that “the Co-Partnership between him and Robert Patterson … was Dissolved,” but Lowden “still continues to carry on the Taylors Business.” At the time, he had his own shop “near the Town-School in Queen-street.” He apparently changed locations in 1768, through he remained on Queen Street, his shop “almost adjoining to that of Messi’rs Williams and Stanwood, Barbers.” Although in a news shop, he continued to pledge that his clients “may depend on being faithfully and punctually served.”

The format of Lowden’s advertisement made it stand out from others published in the same issue of the New-Hampshire Gazette, particularly a table that listed the prices for several of the garments he made. Prospective customers could expect to pay one pound for “A suit of Broad Cloth, full trim’d,” but only eighteen shillings for “A plain suit of Cloaths” and nine shillings for “A Coat only.” These prices set the baseline for children’s apparel. Lowden charged “in the same proportion” for those items.

Relatively few advertisers who offered consumer goods and services published prices in the 1760s, though general appeals to low prices were among he most common marketing strategies throughout the eighteenth century. Sometimes merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans highlighted special prices for particular items, but rarely did they specify how much they charged for everything listed in their advertisements. Taking this approach may have given Lowden an advantage over other tailors in Portsmouth. Publishing his prices served as a guarantee of sorts, a maximum price that prospective clients could expect to pay. This also presented opportunities for Lowden to bestow bargains on some customers, both those who loyally visited his shop and others who negotiated for better deals. Lowden could underscore to both constituencies that they received a deal, though he could also hold the line with the latter by stating that the published price were the final prices.

Advertisers throughout the colonies realized that making appeals to price made their goods and services more attractive to consumers. Lowden further experimented with that concept, inserting the prices for his garments in order to engage potential clients. He transformed vague assertions about price into specific amounts that he charged for the garments made in his shop.

March 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , ,

GUEST CURATOR: Daniel McDermott

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

Mar 13 - 3:13:1767 New-Hampshire Gazette
New-Hampshire Gazette (March 13, 1767).

“He makes all Sorts of Gentlemen’s Wearing Apparell.”

In this advertisement, “Richard Lowden, Taylor from LONDON, hereby informs the Public, that the Co-Partnership between him and Robert Patterson … was dissolved.” At the end of the advertisement, Lowden reassured “all Persons who favor him … may depend on being faithfully and punctually served”

The role and importance of tailors in colonial and Revolutionary America was different than today. According to Ed Crews, early Americans bought most of their clothing from tailors. Unlike today’s system of buying clothes, early Americans did not simply walk into stores and pick from a range of mass produced styles in predetermined standard sizes. Instead, people from all different social classes bought handmade clothing from tailors. However, tailors still produced different types of clothing for different people. The price varied, mostly dependent on the style and material used by the tailor. In addition, tailors made clothing to exact specifications for each customer.

Tailors played an important role in the everyday lives of all different sorts of Americans in the eighteenth century. According to Crews, even George Washington was self-conscious about what his fashion style represented. In “Fashion and the Culture Wars of Revolutionary Philadelphia,” Kate Haulman further details the political and cultural importance of fashion in Revolutionary America.[1] Colonists were socially self-aware how they dressed reflected their values politically and culturally, furthering supporting the idea that tailors played an important role in colonial life.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes

In the process of researching and writing about today’s advertisement, Daniel grappled with a common misconception about clothing production in early America. Many people assume that colonists wore garments primarily produced in the colonies due to the efforts of women who worked at spinning wheels and looms in their homes and then made clothing from the textiles they produced. Such domestic production accounted for some of the clothing worn by colonists, but not all of it. Among the advertisements that filled newspapers in the decades before the Revolution, shopkeepers placed countless notices that listed a vast array of imported textiles and adornments for making clothing. As Daniel notes, tailors, seamstresses, mantuamakers, and others in the clothing trades transformed imported fabrics into garments, frequently advertising their services.

Compared to newspapers published in larger port cities, the New-Hampshire Gazette had less advertising. Still, the choices available to residents of Portsmouth and its hinterland found their way into the public prints. In the same issue that Richard Lowden advertised that he made “neat, cheap, strong and fashionable garments,” shopkeeper John Adams announced that he sold “A General Assortment of English GOODS.” Adams’ inventory almost certainly included textiles that Lowden hoped they would bring to him over “any Taylor in Town.”

Given the tensions and ongoing suspicion of Britain in the wake of the Stamp Act and its repeal, colonists sometimes made a point of opting for homespun fabrics, those produced by women as an alternative to imported English textiles. However, they also had other options. Andrew Nelson, a “WEAVER from SCOTLAND,” placed an advertisement announcing “that he has set up that Business” in Portsmouth. He promised that he “weaves all Sorts of Linnen” that customers could depend on being “equal to any imported.” Whether they acquired textiles from Adams the shopkeeper or Nelson the weaver, readers of the New-Hampshire Gazette likely visited Lowden the tailor or one of his competitors.

Today the process of purchasing clothing has been streamlined for the convenience of consumers. Custom made clothing is not a remnant of the past, but visiting a tailor or seamstress is no longer practically a necessity like it was in colonial and Revolutionary America. Daniel notes that Lowden concluded his advertisement by stating that customers would be “faithfully and punctually served,” a promise that might sound strange to modern consumers. In the eighteenth century, however, it was a means of offering some of the convenience that today consumers barely notice when they select readymade garments off the rack.

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[1] Kate Haulman, “Fashion and the Culture Wars of Revolutionary Philadelphia,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 62, no. 4 (October 2005): 625-662.