ADVERTISING : ITS RISE AND DEVELOPMENT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 692, 23 July 1875, Page 4

ADVERTISING : ITS RISE AND DEVELOPMENT.

The development of advertising, especially during the last half century, is indeed of a character truly wonderful, affording ample scope for comment and illustration. The history of advertising has been tiaced to the days of the children of Israel, at which remote period the utterances of the King and Prophets were inscribed on parchment and exposed in the high places of the Hebrew cities. The Greeks made their public announcements by writing, ns well as orally ; whilst the Romans largely advertised private as well as public matters. It is to the Romans, indeed, that we are indebted for our street advertising in its most original form. Proclamations, and such like official announcements were probably tb.e first specimens of street advertising, as the term is now understood ; but it was not until printing became general, and until people became conversant with the mysteries of leading and writing, that posters and handbills were to any extent used. In his history of advertising, Mr Sampson makes mention of a tradesman who flourished in the City of London, in the year 1679, Jonathan Holder by name, an enterprising haberdasher by trade, who gave to every purchaser of his goods to the extent of a guinea, a printed list of all the articles kept in stock by him, and the prices affixed thereto. “ The paper,” says Mr Sampson, “ in which this item of news was recorded, seems to have regarded Mr Holder’s practice as a dangerous innovation, and remarks that it would be quite destructive to trade if shopkeepers lavished so much of their capital in printing useless bills.” In the middle ages the packman or pedlar acted as a sort of travelling newsman and advertiser, and, later still the office of crier was established. As early as the twelfth century, public criers appeared to have formed a well organised body in France; and they are mentioned as early as the year 1299 in England. In their turn the criers, who at that time used horns as a means of attracting attention, were in this country succeeded by the bellman—a functionary whoso services are to this day retained in many parts of the United Kingdom. It has been found difficult to determine which nation first found its way towards newspaper advertisements—whether France or England; but the oldest newspaper paragraph approaching to an advertisement yet met with, appears in one of those early German preserved in the British Museum, and printed in 1521. What is by many considered to be the first bona fide advertisement published in England, appears in a paper .entitled “ Several Proceedings in Par liament,” and is found under date, November 28th. December sth, 1650. It ran thus

“ By the late tumult made the 27th of November, whereof you have the narration before in the night time in Bexfield, in the county of Norfolk, about 12 horses were stolen out of the town, whereot a bay-bald gelding with three white feet, on the near buttock, marked with R.F. 9 or 10 years old. A bay-bald mare with a wall-eye and -a red star in her face, the near hind foot white, 7 years old. A blackbrown mare, trots all, 6 years old. Whomsoever brings certain intelligence where they are, to Mr Bedcraft, of Belfield, in Norfolk, they shall receive 20s for each horse.”

The first newspaper proprietor who seems to have appreciated the advantages to be gained from advertising was John Houghton, a London apothecary. This pioneer in newspaper enterprise commenced a weekly paper in 1682, and entitled “ A Collection for the improvement of Husbandry and Trade. Booksellers’ advertisements, in a very crude form, had for some time a monopoly of the paper ; but advertisements of a general body gradually began to appear, and so the attention of the public was by turns directed to blacking balls, tapestry hangings, spectacles, wilting inks, ■coffins, copper and brass work, &c. So rapidly did these notices increase, that, added to No. 52, which appeared on the 28th of July, 1693, there is a half-sheet of advertisements, which is introduced to the public with the following curious editorial notice : 41 My Collection I shall carry on as usual. This part is to give away, and those who like it not, may omit the reading. I believe it will help on Trade, particularly encourage the advertisers to increase the vent of my paper. I shall receive all sorts of advertisements, but shall answer for the reasonableness of none, unless I give the - eof a particular character on which, (as I shall give it) may bo dependence, but no arguments that others deserve not as well. I am informed that seven or eight thousand gazettes are each time printed, which makes them the most universal Intelligencers ; but I’ll suppose mine their first handmaid, because it goes (though not so thick yet) to most parts : It’s also lasting to be put into volumes with indexes, and particularly there shall be an index of all the advertisements, whereby, for ages to come, they may bo useful.” “ Many of the advertisements published by Mr Houghton were of a terse business character, such as : ‘Last week was imported—Bacon, by Mr Edwards; cheese, by Mr Francis/ and so on. For a time the names of the importers only were, given, with no mention of their addresses; but at last

the following brilliant idea was announced in the paper : —“ If desired I’ll set down the places of abode, and I am sure ‘twill be of good use, for I am often asked it.” In order to render this paper more useful, Houghton published, on his own account, not only the addresses of some of the principal shops, but also a list of the residences of the leading doctors, lawyers, brokers, carriers, and gardeners. “Thus,” writes Mr Sampson, “by untiring perseverance, and no small amount of thought and study, Houghton learned his contemporaries in the art af advertising, and made them acquainted with the valuable assistance to be derived from a medium which, as Alexis de Tocqueville remarks, drops the same thought into a thousand minds at almost the same period.” At the present day a delusion is common enough as to the supposed value cf Qufcen Anne’s farthings. The immediate cause of the popular fallacy concerning their scarcity and great value may be found in the fact that towards the end of the eighteenth century, a lady lost one of these coins, offered a large reward for its recovery, probably it was valuable to her as the keepsake of some departed friend ; but the advertisement and the comparative scarcity of such farthings, led to the report that there was only one such token in circulation, and that unique coin was of course of almost priceless value. Long before this, however, advertisements in reference to Anne’s farthings had found their way into the newspapers. So far as can be proved, the first of these appeared in the General Advertiser of the 19th April, 1745, and ran as follows : “ Whereas about seven years ago an advertisement was published in some of the Daily Papers offering a reward for a Queen Anne’s farthing, struck in the year 1714. “ This is to inform the Curious ” “ That a farthing cf Queen Anne, of that year of a very beautiful dye, may be seen at the bar of the Pennsylv; man Coffee-house in Birchin l ane. The impression is in no ways de aced, but as entire as from the Mint.” That the fiction was still lively in 1802, is shown by an advertisement which appeared in the month of February of that year, and which was disguised so as to appear like an ordinary paragraph. “ The Queen Anne’s farthing advertised to be disposed of in Pall Mall, proves to be an original. There were only two coined in that Queen’s reign, and not three as erroneously stated. That which was sold by the sergeant from Chatham for L4OO, was purchased by a noble viscount, curious in his collection of old coins, &c. Seven hundred guineas, was the price asked for the one advertised last week. Five hundred was ofibred for it and refused. The owner lives at Lynn, in Norfolk. The offer was made by the sou of a baronet, who wants to complete his collection.” Printers’ Register.