Selling (through) politeness: Advertising provincial shops in eighteenth-century England

Cultural and Social History

Volumn 5, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 309-328

  Stobart, Jon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Advertising; Eighteenth century England; Newspapers; Politeness; Trade cards

Indexed keywords

EID: 49749146744     PISSN: 14780038     EISSN: 14780046     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2752/147800408X331416     Document Type: Article

References (128)

1. Adams Weekly Courant, 28 November 1775.
2. See Peter Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town, 1660-1770 (Oxford, 1989)
3. Jon Stobart, Andrew Hann and Victoria Morgan, Spaces of Consumption: Leisure and Shopping in the English Town, c. 1680-1830 (London, 2007)
4. Paul Langford, Polite and Commercial People. England 1727-1783 (Oxford, 1989).
5. For fuller discussion of this idea, see Helen Berry, 'Polite Consumption: Shopping in Eighteenth-century England', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 12 (2002): 375-94.
6. Lawrence Klein, 'Politeness for Plebes: Consumption and Social Identity in Early Eighteenth-century England', in John Brewer and Anne Bermingham (eds), The Culture of Consumption: Image, Object, Text (London, 1995), p. 364
7. A. A. Copper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, ed. Lawrence Klein (Cambridge, 1999), p. 31
8. Maxine Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-century Britain (Oxford, 2005), pp. 6, 41, 234
9. Woodruff Smith, Consumption and the Making of Respectability, 1600-1800 (London, 2002), pp. 41-3.
10. Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England (New Haven, CT, 1998), P. 202.
11. See also Lawrence Klein, 'Politeness for Plebes', pp. 367-71
12. Philip Carter, Men and the Emergence of Polite Society, Britain 1660-1800 (Harlow, 2002), chapter 2
13. Berg, Luxury and Pleasure, pp. 219-46.
14. Roey Sweet, 'Topographies of Politeness', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 12 (2002): 355-7
15. Lawrence Klein, 'Coffeehouse Civility, 1660-1714: An Aspect of Post-courtly Culture in England', Huntington Library Quarterly, 59 (1997): 30-51
16. Borsay, Urban Renaissance, pp. 263-83.
17. Berg, Luxury and Pleasure, p. 233.
18. Robin Walker, 'Advertising in London Newspapers, 1650-1750', Business History, xvi (1973): 112-30
19. Neil McKendrick, 'George Packwood and the Commercialisation of Shaving: The Art of Eighteenth-century Advertising'. in Neil McKendrick, John Brewer and John Plumb (eds), The Birth of a Consumer Society (London, 1982), pp. 146-96
20. Hoh-Cheung Mui and Lorna Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth-century England (London, 1989).
21. Christine Ferdinand, 'Selling It to the Provinces: News and Commerce Round Eighteenth-century Salisbury', in John Brewer and Roy Porter (eds), Consumption and the World of Goods (London, 1993), p. 398
22. Hannah Barker, The Business of Women: Female Enterprise and Urban Development in Northern England, 1760-1830 (Oxford, 2006), pp. 78-9
23. Nancy Cox and K-arin Dannehl, Perceptions of Retailing in Early Modern England (Aldershot, 2007), p. 75.
24. Ferdinand, 'Selling It to, the Provinces', pp. 399-402
25. Barker, Business of Women, p. 80
26. McKendrick, 'George Packwood'.
27. Clemens Wischermann, 'Placing Advertising in the Modern Cultural History of the City, in Clemens Wischermann and Elliot, Shore (eds), Advertising and the European City: Historical Perspectives (Aldershot, 2000), p. 8.
28. For a brief discussion, see Wischermann, 'Placing Advertising', pp. 15-25.
29. More detailed analysis can be found in Thomas Richards, The Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 1851-1914 (Stanford, CA, 1990).
30. Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, 'Selling Consumption in the Eighteenth Century: Advertising and the Trade Card in Britain and France', Cultural and Social History, 4(2) (2007): 155
31. Cox and Dannehl, Perceptions of Retailing, pp. 71-4.
32. On the shop interior and displays as advertisement, see Claire Walsh, 'Shop Design and the Display of Goods in Eighteenth-century London', Journal of Design. History, 8 (1995): 157-76
33. Andrew Hann and Jon Stobart, 'Sites of Consumption: The Display of Goods in Provincial Shops in Eighteenth-century England', Cultural and Social History, 2 (2) (2005): 165-87.
34. Wischermann, 'Placing Advertising', p. 23.
35. See also Richards, Commodity Culture, pp. 17-72. Some caution is needed here, in that goods were being advertised as 'British' well before the end of the eighteenth century. They thus drew on broader cultural and political constructs rather than simply detailing the goods qua goods.
36. Barker, Business of Women, p. 72.
37. Berg, Luxury and Pleasure, p. 233.
38. Barker, Business of Women, pp. 72-89
39. Helen Berry, 'Promoting Taste in the Provincial Press: National and Local Culture in Eighteenth-century. Newcastle-upon-Tyne', British Journal for Eighteenth-century Studies, 25 (2002): 1-17
40. Berg, Luxury and Pleasure, pp. 270-8 (see also Berg and Clifford, 'Selling Consumption', p. 161)
41. Walsh, 'Shop Design'.
42. For dis cussion of the newspapers sampled, see the hote below Table 1.
43. Klein, 'Politeness for Plebes', pp. 367-71
44. Wischermann, 'Placing Advertising', pp. 22-3.
45. See also Jon Stobart et al., Spaces of Consumption, chapter 7.
46. Malachy Postlethwayt, The Universal Directory of Trade and Commerce (second edition, London, 1757), p. 22.
47. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 9 February 1770.
48. For examples of the latter, see Adams Weekly Courant, 23 January 1775
49. Blackburn Mail, 18 September 1793.
50. Worcester Journal, 6-13 August 1742.
51. Craig Muldrew, The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early-modern England (Basingstoke, 1998), pp. 148-72
52. Patrick Wallis, 'Consumption, Retailing and Medicine in Early-modern Londod, Economic History Review, 61(1) (2008): 26-53.
53. Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, 'Commerce and the Commodity: Graphic Display and Selling New Consumer Goods in Eighteenth-century England', in Michael North and David Ormrod (eds), Art Markets in Europe, 1400-1800 (Aldershot, 1998), pp. 187-200.
54. British Museum (BM), Banks Collection 17.69 (MY17 - MRR).
55. Jopsons' Coventry Mercury, 15 June 1767.
56. Worcester Journal, 6-13 August 1744.
57. Worcester Journal, 6-13 August 1742.
58. Northampton Mercury, 5 March 1744. On the importance of London, see the following section of this article and Cox and Dannehl, Perceptions of Retailing, pp. 109-11.
59. The proportion drops notably in the 1770s, possibly because of the rather different market targeted by Liverpool tradesmen. Notices directed specifically at ladies were less frequent, generally being placed by silk mercers or those establishing schools.
60. Worcester Journal, 25 January 1750
61. Northampton Mercury, 22 May 1780.
62. Blackburn Mail, 2 October 1793.
63. Klein, 'Politeness for Plebes', pp. 371-2.
64. Barker, Business of Women. p. 81.
65. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 26 October 1770.
66. Adams Weekly Courant, 28 November 1775.
67. Blackburn Mail, 18 September 1793.
68. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 2 February 1770.
69. Berry, 'Polite Consumptiod, pp. 388-91
70. Elizabeth Kowalski-Wallace, Consuming Subjects: Women, Shopping, and Business in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1997), pp. 79-98.
71. Berg and Clifford, 'Commerce and the Commodity', pp. 191-2; Berg and Clifford, 'Selling Consumption', pp. 147, 162.
72. See, for example, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, John Johnson Collection (JJC), Trade Cards 28 (26)
73. JJC, Trade Cards 10 (8b).
74. Barker, Business of Women, pp. 82-3.
75. Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, quoted in Klein, 'Politeness for Plebes', p. 372.
76. Berg, Luxury and Pleasure, p. 233
77. Mein, 'Politeness for Plebes'.
78. Berg and Clifford, 'Selling Consumption', pp. 149-51
79. Nancy COX, The Complete Tradesman: A Study of Retailing, 1550-1820 (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 127-39.
80. See Borsay, Urban Renaissance, pp. 267-82.
81. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 20 April 1770.
82. Worcester Journal, 8-15 June 1744.
83. Blackburn Mail, 20 November 1793.
84. Bodleian Library, JJC, Booktrade: Lancashire.
85. Worcester Journal, 19-26 October 1744.
86. Worcester Journal, 18-25 May 1744;
87. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 1 June 1770. In addition, there were numerous advertisements across the study period for 'genteel residences' available to let or for sale.
88. See Berry, 'Promoting Taste'; Gudrun Andersson, 'A Mirror of Oneself: Possessions and the Manifestation of Status among a Local Swedish Elite, 1650-1770', Cultural and Social History, 30(1) (2006): 21-44.
89. and, more generally, Pierre Bourdieu, Distinct on: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London, 1986).
90. Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1818), quoted in John Towner, An Historical Geography of Recreation and Tourism in the Western World, 1540-1940 (Chichester, 1996), p. 83.
91. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 9 February 1770;
92. Northampton Mercury, 22 May 1780.
93. Blackburn Mail, 11 September 1793.
94. Blackburn Mail, 2 October 1793.
95. Cox and Dannehl, Perceptions of Retailing, pp. 109-11.
96. Blackburn Mail, 19 June 1793.
97. Adams Weekly Courant, 24 January 1775.
98. Gore's Advertiser, 23 February 1770.
99. Adams Weekly Courant, 28 November 1775.
100. On the readership of provincial newspapers and the circulation of trade cards, see Ferdinand, 'Selling It to the Provinces', pp. 397-8
101. Berg and Clifford, 'Selling Consumption', pp. 149-51.
102. See Cox and Dannehl, Perceptions of Retailing, pp. 78-82.
103. Bodleian Library, JJC, Harding Bookplates, Trade Cards 28 (26).
104. Berg and Clifford, 'Commerce and the Commodity', p. 196.
105. Berg and Clifford, 'Selling Consumption', p. 161
106. Berry, 'Polite Consumption'.
107. Bodleian Library, JJC, Douce Portfolio, 139 (805); British Museum, Heal Collection;
108. JJC, Douce Portfolio, 139 (808).
109. See Berg and Clifford, 'Selling Consumption', Figure 4. The original use of the image was probably in Worcester, not Birmingham - thanks to Alison Toplis for pointing out this provenance of the card.
110. Jopsons Coventry Mercury, 15 June 1767.
111. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 2 November 1770.
112. Northampton Mercury, 29 October 1743.
113. Jopsons Coventry Mercury, 15 June 1767
114. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 9 February 1770
115. Adams Weekly Courant, 24 January 1775.
116. Klein, 'Politeness for Plebes', p. 366.
117. Adams Weekly Courant, 23 May 1775.
118. Adams Weekly Courant, 23 May 1775.
119. Bodleian Library, JJC, Trade Cards 11 (98).
120. BM, Banks Collection 68.143 (MY17-WRDJ).
121. Smith, Consumption and the Making of Respectability, pp. 171-5.
122. Berg, Luxury and Pleasure, p. 251.
123. Cheshire and Chester Archives, WS 1736 Abner Scholes. For a discussion of this mode of display, see Charles Saumarez-Smith, Eighteenth-century Decoration and Design in Domestic Interiors in England (London, 1993), pp. 11-13, 132-3.
124. See Cox and Dannehl, Perceptions of Retailing, pp. 84-6.
125. Northampton Mercury, 27 November 1780.
126. Bodleian Library, JJC, Trade Cards 3 (39).
127. See François Nivelon, The Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour (London, 1737).
128. Bodleian Library, JJC, Trade Cards 11 (76).