What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Essex Gazette (January 5, 1773).
“Strangers among us who import and sell English Plate, to the great Hurt and Prejudice of the Townsmen who have been bred to the Business.”
During the first week of 1773, Daniel Henchman, a silversmith, launched an advertising campaign intended to encourage consumers to support what colonizers called domestic manufactures. In other words, he wanted them to purchase goods made in the colonies rather than items imported from England. To disseminate his message to prospective customers “in Town & Country,” he placed a notice in the January 4 edition of the Boston Evening-Post and the January 5 edition of the Essex Gazette, published in Salem.
Henchman explained that he “makes with his own Hands all Kinds of large and small Plate Work, in the genteelest Taste and newest Fashion.” By invoking both taste and fashion, the silversmith primed readers to think of his work as equivalent to imported goods before he even mentioned “English Plate.” He also underscored the quality of his work, stating that it “has hitherto met with the Approbation of the most Curious.” Furthermore, Henchman challenged others to compare his work to imported items, proclaiming his confidence that “he shall have the preference, by those who are Judges of Work, to those Strangers among us who import and sell English Plate.” Only then did he cast aspersions on the importers, asserting that their actions caused “great Hurt and Prejudice [to] the Townsmen who have been bred to the Business.” Consumers had a duty, Henchman suggested, to support their neighbors and to bolster the local economy through the choices they made in the marketplace.
To that end, the silversmith pledged to do his part if given the opportunity. He declared that “he will make any Kind of Plate [his customers] may want, equal in Goodness and cheaper than any they can import from London.” If his other appeals did not sway them, Henchman hoped that low prices would seal the deal with prospective customers. He deployed some of the most common marketing strategies in use during the era of the American Revolution, making appeals to price, quality, and fashion, while also enhancing them within the context of supporting domestic manufactures.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-London Gazette (April 24, 1772).
“All Kinds of Goldsmith, Silversmith, and Jewelry Work.”
John Champlin, a goldsmith, advertised in the New-London Gazette on April 24, 1772. He advertised “all Kinds of Goldsmith, Silversmith, and Jewelry Work.” He considered being skilled in all three areas very useful, but working with silver was the most prestigious. According to Frances Gruber Saddord, silversmiths worked in “towns up and down the eastern seaboard” in the eighteenth century, but “the three leading cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia remained the major centers of silver production throughout the colonial period, for the trade flourished primarily in a thriving urban environment.” In addition, “colonial craftsmen relied for their success on a network of family and business ties” since “there were no guilds” in the colonies. As a result, “[i]ntermarriage within the craft was common and many apprentices were related to their masters.”[1] Working as a goldsmith or silversmith could be very profitable. Sometimes families involved in the trade rose in the social ranks.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
The advertisement that Turner selected provides evidence of the network of business ties that provided support to artisans in early America. Although Champlin promoted “all Kinds of Goldsmith, Silversmith, and Jewelry Work” that he produced in his shop, that was not his primary purpose in placing an advertisement in the New-London Gazette. Instead, he wanted readers and prospective customers to know that an employee in his shop did “Clock and Watch making, mending, cleaning and repairing in the very neatest Manner.” Champlin offered assurances to “Any Gentlemen favouring him with their Custom” that they “may firmly rely on its being done with Alacrity and Dispatch.” The goldsmith, silversmith, and jeweler likely believed that diversifying the services available in his shop by adding clock- and watchmaking “in its several Branches” helped in cultivating a larger clientele and generating additional revenue.
Champlin pursued that strategy over the course of several years. In December 1769, James Watson, a clock- and watchmaker “late from London,” placed an advertisement in the New-London Gazette to inform prospective customers that he “removed from Mr. Robert Douglass, silver smith’s shop, to Mr. John Champlin, silver smith’s shop.” Watson acknowledged that he was “a stranger” to the community, one who relied on Champlin to vouch for him. The silversmith did so, “strongly recommend[ing] him to all his customers.” Champlin also stated that he “will warrant [Watson’s] ability and fidelity in any thing he shall undertake in said business” of watch- and clockmaking. A couple of years later, Champlin once again formed a partnership with a fellow artisan, leveraging his resources – his reputation and his shop – for the benefit of both. Former customers who had previously employed Watson could decide for themselves how much stock they put in Champlin’s endorsement of a new clock- and watchmaker. For his part, the smith seemed confident that he had established a good record in that regard.
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[1] Frances Gruber Safford, “Colonial Silver in the American Wing,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41, no. 1 (Summer 1983): 8.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
South-Carolina Gazette (March 21, 1771).
“Encouragement from those who are Well-wishers to the MANUFACTURES of THIS Province.”
In an advertisement that appeared in the March 21, 1771, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette, Thomas You described himself as a “WORKING SILVERSMITH” who ran a workshop “AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN CUP” on Queen Street in Charleston. That he was a working silversmith, as opposed to a purveyor of imported wares, was important to both You’s identity as an artisan and his marketing efforts. He declared that he “carried on the GOLD and SILVERSMITH’s Business in their different Branches,” making claims about his expertise in his craft. He also confided that “his Dependance is entirely in the working Part.” In other words, he earned his livelihood through making what he sold, a shift in his marketing compared to his earlier advertisements that incorporated goods imported from England.
For readers of the South-Carolina Gazette, that proclamation resonated with the politics of the period. Gary Albert traces You’s advertising over several years, noting that before the Stamp Act crisis, the silversmith “advertised six times that he sold goods ‘just imported from London,’” but “You did not advertise recently imported British goods from the enactment of the Stamp Act in the fall of 1765 through the repeal of the Townshend Acts in 1770.” Albert underscores that You embedded politics in his advertisements in the late 1760s and early 1770s: “On six occasions during the term of the Townshend Acts You made a point to tell his customers that his shop was manufacturing silversmith products, not retailing imported goods.”
In so doing, You challenged consumers to practice politics when making choices in the marketplace. He stated that he “hopes he may meet with Encouragement from those who are Well-wishers to the MANUFACTURES of THIS Province.” He argued that he did his part for the American cause as a “WORKING SILVERSMITH,” but his efforts as a producer required recognition by consumers and commitment on their part in selecting domestic manufactures as alternatives to imported goods. In making that proposition, he echoed appeals made in newspaper advertisements throughout the colonies as artisans, shopkeepers, and others encouraged consumers to “Buy American” several years before the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
South-Carolina Gazette (December 6, 1770).
“Hopes he may meet with Encouragement from those who are Well-wishers to the MANUFACTURES of THIS Province.”
For several years in the 1760s and 1770s, silversmith Thomas You operated a workshop at the Sign of the Golden Cup in Charleston. According to his newspaper advertisements, that does not seem to have been a fixed location. Instead, the sign moved with You, serving as both marker and brand for his business. For a time in the mid 1760s, the Sign of the Golden Cup had adorned his workshop on Meeting Street, but in 1770 it marked his location on Queen Street. You also updated the iconography in his advertisements. He was one of the few advertisers in Charleston who enhanced his notices with images related directly to his business. He previously included a woodcut that depicted a smith at work at an anvil. That image gave way to a cup that corresponded to the sign that identified his shop. Consumers now saw similar images in the public prints and on the city streets when they encountered You’s business. You’s advertisement on the front page of the December 6, 1770, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette was the only one in the entire issue that incorporated an image other than a house, a ship, or an enslaved person. Those stock images belonged to the printer rather than the advertiser.
The silversmith deployed this unique image to attract attention to an important message. He called on “those who are Well-wishers to the MANUFACTURES of THIS Province” to employ him and purchase his wares. In so doing, he joined the chorus of advertisers and others throughout the colonies who advocated for the production and consumption of “domestic manufactures” as alternatives to goods imported from Britain. Such measures boosted local economies and addressed a trade imbalance, but they also served a political purpose at a time when Parliament sought to regulate commerce and charge duties on imported goods. Most of duties from the Townshend Acts had been repealed earlier in the year, but the one on tea still remained in place. Even though most towns suspended their nonimportation agreements in the wake of that news, colonists continued to debate whether they should have done so since Parliament did not capitulate to all of their demands. A notice at the top of the same page that carried You’s advertisement advised that “The GENERAL COMMITTEE desire a FULL MEETING of the SUBSCRIBERS to the RESOLUTIONS of this Province, at the LIBERTY-TREE” to discuss “IMPORTANT MATTERS.” You did not need to go into greater detail when he expressed his “hopes he may meet with Encouragement from those who are Well-wishers to the MANUFACTURES of THIS Province.” Such appeals were part of a discourse widely circulating and broadly understood among prospective customers.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (May 1, 1769).
“A compleat set of gold and silver smith’s tools.”
On May 1, 1769, this advertisement in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury informed the public that there would be a public sale of household and kitchen items at the house of Nicholas Roosevelt, deceased. Roosevelt was probably a silversmith since the advertisements included “a compleat set of gold and silver smith’s tools.” Silver was used to create many items like teapots, silverware, plates, and bowls. Silversmithing was a notable occupation in colonial America, often seen as more of an art than a trade, according to the historians at Colonial Williamsburg.
In order to create a simple silver bowl, a silversmith needed to heat silver to 2000 degrees in a graphite and clay crucible. This liquid silver was then be poured out into a large sheet which would be hammered and molded into the desired shape. This was a difficult process because the silver would be extremely fragile while in this cooling state. To keep the silver malleable the smith repeatedly heated it and then plunged into an acid bath while it was being worked. This was a long process that required many different hammers – a “compleat set” – to achieve a perfectly smooth bowl.
These silver items had to be perfect not only because of the expensive materials used, but because they were sold to elite buyers. Silver teapots, bowls, and other items were very expensive commodities that only the upper class could afford, which they would then use to show off their affluence to their guests.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
The same day that the advertisement concerning the sale of items from Nicholas Roosevelt’s estate appeared in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury it also ran in the New-York Gazette: Or, the Weekly Post-Boy. The copy was exactly the same, though the compositors for the two newspapers made slightly different decisions about the format. The executor certainly sought to achieve maximum exposure for this sale, having previously advertised in the New-York Journal on April 27. The copy for that advertisement, however, deviated from what appeared in the other newspapers. The first portion was consistent, but the notice did not include the second half that offered the tools of Roosevelt’s trade for sale.
What explained this difference? Usually when advertisers invested the time and expense in placing notices in multiple newspapers they submitted identical copy to the printing offices. Why did the executor expand on the original advertisement from the New-York Journal when it ran in other newspapers a few days later? Perhaps the circumstances for settling Roosevelt’s estate changed. Maybe the executor had arranged for a buyer for the tools but then the deal fell apart, prompting a revised version of the advertisement.
Whatever the reason for adding the tools to the second iteration of the advertisement, the executor did not consider it necessary to update the original advertisement when it made a subsequent appearance in the New-York Journal on May 4. It ran just as it had the previous week, without mention of the “compleat set of gold and silver smith’s tools.” With the revised advertisement slated for publication in the other two newspapers one more time on May 8, the executor may have considered that sufficient visibility for attracting buyers. Alternately, the executor may not have considered it worth the expense to tinker with the wording of the advertisement in the New-York Journal since the type had already been set. The executor may have already received special consideration when placing that advertisement. The colophon listed a fee to run advertisements for a minimum of four weeks with additional fees for each subsequent insertion, yet this advertisement ran only twice.
Collating advertisements that appeared in multiple newspapers sometimes produces fairly definitive conclusions. For instance, identical copy with variations in format strongly suggests that advertisers were responsible for generating copy and compositors responsible for graphic design. The variations in the advertisements concerning Roosevelt’s estate, however, raise questions about decisions made by advertisers and business practices in printing offices, questions that elude answers when examining only eighteenth-century newspapers. They may also elude answers when consulting printers’ records and other sources, but the questions themselves do provide direction for another stage of research on advertising in early America. As the guest curators in my Revolutionary America class reach the end of the semester, this is another important lesson: no matter who much we have learned in this process, there is still so much more to discover. Seeking answers sometimes leads us to far more questions.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (August 16, 1768).
“CHARLES HARRIS, WORKING SILVERSMITH, FROM LONDON, (Last from Mr. JONATHAN SARRAZIN.”
Like many other artisans who advertised in colonial newspapers, Charles Harris, a silversmith, provided his some of his credentials in the notice he inserted in the August 16, 1768, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. He first asserted his connections to London, the cosmopolitan center of the empire, as a means of assuring prospective customers that he was indeed aware of the current tastes and styles. Invoking his London origins gave the silversmith cachet while simultaneously suggesting his familiarity with “all sorts of new fashioned bottle-stands” and “cruet frames after a new fashion.” He paid attention to the smallest details, even when making “table spoons, feathered on the handle.”
Yet Harris had not just arrived in Charleston directly from London. His advertisement indicated that he had already spent some time in the colony, employed in another workshop before establishing his own. Even though he had migrated “FROM LONDON,” Harris informed readers that he was also “(Last from Mr JONATHAN SARRAZIN),” a jeweler who ran a shop at the corner of Broad Street and Church Street. Harris’s former employer, who had recently published a series of advertisements in all three newspapers published in Charleston, was now one of his competitors. Harris took advantage of their former affiliation to market his own wares. Prospective customers who had previously secured Sarrazin’s services had likely acquired items that Harris took a hand in producing. Rather than his work being completely unknown in the local marketplace, as was the case for artisans newly arrived from London, some of his wares had already found their way into the hands of local consumers. This allowed Harris to piggyback on the reputation that Sarrazin had cultivated among residents of Charleston.
Harris deployed his advertisement as his résumé. He included vital work history that allowed prospective customers to determine if they wished to consider availing themselves of his services. Establishing that he had already made contributions to his trade in the local marketplace gave Harris additional credibility in his pledge to potential clients that they “may depend on having their work done to their satisfaction, and with the quickest dispatch.”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-York Mercury (April 27, 1767).
“I will work for the following prices.”
Charles Oliver Bruff, “Gold-smith and Jeweler,” was in a price war with “three different Silver-smiths” in New York. Bruff frequently advertised in the New-York Mercury, but he departed from his usual description of his merchandise and promises to provide good service to “the Gentlemen and Ladies of this city and country” to address a problem created by some of his competitors. He accused those “three different Silver-smiths” of undervaluing his work, making it seem as though he charged unreasonable prices.
To protect his reputation and avoid losing more business to his unscrupulous competitors, Bruff went to the rather extraordinary measure of listing his prices for the entire community to see, assess for themselves, and compare to the rates charged by other “Gentlemen of the trade.” He specified nine prices, including “For making a silver tankard, 3s. per ounce,” and “For making a soop-spoon, 20s.”
Bruff may not have been the innocent victim that he tried to portray himself. His initial prices may have been inflated, but he could not admit to that in his advertisement. Instead, he offered an alternate narrative that depicted his competitors as lacking in sound judgment when it came to assessing the quality of his work and the value of products in their trade more generally. At the same time, he lowered his own prices, seemingly forced to do so in order to continue to attract clients. As a result, new customers would receive quite a bargain since Bruff did not wish to “hurt myself for others” by charging full value for his workmanship only to be undercut by competitors. He concluded his advertisement by stating definitively that he would “work as cheap as any in this city.” Even if Bruff had overcharged in the past, intentionally or not, potential patrons need not worry about that happening if they now chose to deal with him.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 16, 1766).
“Sucking Nipples, which has been the Means of raising many an Infant.”
Thomas You, a “WORKING GOLD-SMITH, SILVER-SMITH, JEWELLER and ENGRAVER,” made and sold a variety of items that men in his occupation commonly listed in their newspaper advertisements, including shoe buckles, punch bowls, coffeepots, teapots, and silverware. He also offered a device rarely mentioned by other smiths: “sucking Nipples, which has been the Means of raising many an infant.” You did not offer explanations or justifications of any of his other merchandise, which suggests that he felt the “sucking Nipples” merited additional promotion. After all, most colonists considered breastfeeding the best and most effective means of nourishing infants.
Indeed, You’s advertisement for “sucking Nipples” put him in competition with women who offered their services as wet nurses. Very few employment advertisements concerning women appeared in eighteenth-century newspapers, either by women seeking jobs or by employers interested in hiring women. When employment advertisements involving women were inserted in newspapers, they most often fell in two categories: domestic servants and wet nurses. One such advertisement appeared on the previous page of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal: “A Woman, with a good young Breast of Milk, who has lately lost her Child, would be willing to take one to suckle. Her character will bear the strictest examination. Apply to the Printer.”
You’s “sucking Nipples” provided conveniences that hiring a wet nurse did not, especially eliminating exposing infants to women from outside the household. That the woman who advertised her services as a wet nurse found it necessary to state that “Her character will bear the strictest examination” demonstrates that she understood the concern potential employers might have when it came to putting their infants in such close contact with strangers. In England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Fred Weinberg notes, “[m]any people believed that a wet nurse might transmit ‘her evil passions and vicious inclinations’ to the infant through her milk.”[1] Even if such fears had faded in the English colonies by the 1760s, “sucking Nipples” still had several advantages over wet nurses. They were likely less expensive, available upon immediate demand once purchased, and did not introduce an outsider into the household.
By underscoring that “sucking Nipples” had been “the Means of raising many an Infant” You simultaneously sought to expand the market for a product he sold while competing with one of the few occupations for women that regularly appeared in newspaper advertisements.
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[1] Fred Weinberg, “Infant Feeding through the Ages,” Canadian Family Physician 39 (September 1993): 2016.
James Geddy “became Williamsburg’s best-known colonial silversmith,” according to the entry detailing his silversmithing and retail business by Colonial Williamsburg. His advertisement in the Virginia Gazette did not offer much by way of introduction, but Geddy may have believed that he could rely on the reputation he had established and did not need to promote his “neat assortment of JEWELLERY, with GOLD and SILVER WORK” beyond selling it “at the lowest rates.”
It appears that Geddy placed this advertisement as part of an effort to expand his business and gain customers in a new market beyond Williamsburg, up the James River in New Castle in Hanover County (the vicinity of Richmond today). He did not set up a shop or workshop of his own in that town; instead, he “LEFT” his wares “at Mr. Bennett White’s, who keeps a publick house of good entertainment in Newcastle.” In addition, Geddy also accepted orders via White, either to repair damaged items or create new ones to specification. In choosing a partner in New Castle, Geddy likely valued the high volume of patrons who frequented White’s tavern. Rather than attempt a partnership with a local smith or retailer (neither of which would have appreciated a competitor from Williamsburg attempting to siphon off potential customers), Geddy chose an establishment that likely had greater foot traffic, both locals and travelers. White may have earned commissions on his sales and orders, making the arrangement mutually beneficial to the silversmith and the tavern keeper.
Learn more about Geddy and his business by visiting the original James Geddy House and the reconstructed James Geddy Foundry at Colonial Williamsburg.
