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

“The manufacturing of all sorts of Sugar Wares.”

In the spring of 1775, Sebastion Muffler, “COOK, and CONFECTIONER,” ran a newspaper notice to promote his “manufacturing of all sorts of Sugar Wares” at a new location on Third Street in Philadelphia.  Customers would no longer find him in Cherry Alley.  Muffler joined the ranks of confectioners who advertised their services in American port cities, including Peter Lorent in Boston, Frederick Kreitner in Charleston, and P. Lenzi in New York.  Like most of his counterparts, he touted his prior experience on the other side of the Atlantic.  To that end, Muffler proclaimed that he earned “his credentials from the different Courts of Europe, (where he had the honour to serve …)”  That experience, he asserted, “will testify both in his abilities, and conduct.”  The cook and confectioner hoped that would entice “Ladies, and Gentlemen” to hire him.  Upon doing so, they could depend on being “duly waited on, [and] treated in the most genteel manner, suitable to their direction.”  Furthermore, Muffler declared himself “perfectly acquainted with all the various and extensive parts belonging to the art of cookery.”  Accordingly, his clients should anticipate dining “agreeable to the nicest Palate.”

Despite this depiction of his mastery of “the art of cookery” and “manufacturing of all sorts of Sugar Wares,” Muffler apparently depended on a side hustle to earn his livelihood.  He advised readers of the Pennsylvania Journal that he “continues to wash Silks, of all colours,” and other items “in as compleat a manner as is now done in France, and restored to their former new state.”  That was an impressive feat, but not a service directly related to his primary occupation.  In the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the colonies, Muffler needed to supplement the income he earned as a cook and confectioner by providing unrelated services.  Perhaps he hoped that he could eventually establish himself well enough to cultivate a market for his culinary services that made cleaning fabrics unnecessary.  Until then, he included his other occupation in his advertisements.  He hoped that his secondary headline, “COOK and CONFECTIONER,” would attract attention, using it to direct prospective customers to both related and unrelated services.