Monday, July 9, 2012

Bookseller in 1770 England Also Sells Everything (Including Female Elixir)

By Stephen J. Gertz


WILLIAM GRIGG, 
Bookseller and Book-binder,
In the Exchange, Opposite to Broad-Gate,
in Exon

Sells, at the lowest prices, Books of all Sorts. Also all Kinds of Stationary Wares, viz., Writing Paper of all Sorts Wholesale and Retale; where may be had all Sorts of: Stamp-Paper for Writing's; Parchment & Vellum for Drum-heads; Letter Cases, Paper Books, Account Books; Japan Ink, Indian-Ink, Ink, and Ink Powder; Cards; Quills, Pens, Sand, Pounce, Sealing-Wax, and Wafers, Ink-pots of all Sorts; Slates, Pencils, Quadrants, Gunter's scales, and Compasses; with Choice of Maps and Pictures; likewise great variety of Paper Hangings for Rooms of the newest Patterns; also Violins, Bows, Bridges; German and Common Flutes, and other Musical Instruments; with Books of Instruction for the use of them, and Fiddlestrings; likewise Daffey's, Squire's, Bostocks, Ratcliff's, and Stoughton's. Cordial elixirs; Bateman's Pectoral Drops; Golden and Plain Spirits of Scurvy Grass; Godfrey's Cordial; Anderson's Scots Pills; Dr. Hooper's Female Pills; Fraunces's Female strengthening Elixir; Jackson's Tincture; Dr. James's Fever Powders; Baron Schwanberg's Liquid Shell; Dr. Greenough's Tinctures for preserving the Teeth, and for the Tooth-ach; and Turlington's Balsam of Life, so much approved; all warranted genuine; and he can supply by Wholesale Country Shoppers, and others, with Betton's genuine British Oil, as Cheap as immediately from the Maker.

N.B. And gives full Value, for any Library of Parcel of Books; and exchanges New Books for Old, and lends out Books to read; Almanackes, Daily Journals, and Court Kalendars, sold about Wholesale and Retail.

A peek into the hurly-burly world of bookselling in an eighteenth century English provincial city (Exeter) where the local bookshop often purveyed a wide variety of goods to remain a profitable enterprise, including spirits of scurvy grass (golden and plain) to, apparently, combat vitamin C deficiency while reading fruitless literature.

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This 14 x 8 cm advertising sheet was found within a copy of William Vicars' devotional work, A Companion to the Altar (London, 1757). ESTC, recording a copy pasted into another book, dates it to c. 1772 noting that Grigg first appeared in Exeter in 1765.
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Image courtesy of William Reese Co., currently offering this copy of A Companion to the Altar & this advert, with our thanks.
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