An Unusual Advertisement

The Philadelphian  (Philadelphia, PA).  February 1846.

489331_0001This is a scarce monthly publication filled with stories, tidbits of information, and small jokes for the entertainment and amusement of the reader.

489331_0002What makes this particular issue interesting is an advertisement on page 2 that takes up almost two-thirds of the page.  It is for drugs, medicines, chemicals, paints, oils, glass, and dyes by Edward Coly.  Rather than being printed in black letterpress like the rest of the newspaper, it is made up to look like a handwritten letter from Coly and printed in blue ink.  The sheet of paper had to go through two different types of presses to achieve this effect. The advertisement was printed by lithography.  The printer had to leave space for the letter when setting type.   It would have been slow and not cheap, but the advertisement certainly is eye-catching and effective.

There are other examples of lithographed serials and serials with lithographed plates tipped in.  We even have a newspaper from San Francisco with the English text set in type on one side and Chinese text in lithograph on the other. But this is the only newspaper I know where there is a lithographed advertisement co-mingled with letterpress text on the same page.

Published by

Vincent Golden

Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals, American Antiquarian Society

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