Mar 18, 2010 - Sale 2207

Sale 2207 - Lot 157

Price Realized: $ 2,160
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
VERY EARLY TEXTILE MANUFACTURING BROADSIDE (MANUFACTURING.) [Dawson, Robert.] Advertisement for bolting cloth produced in Delaware. Broadside, 11 x 8 1/2 inches; creased, moderate foxing, early inked calculations on verso with a bit of bleed-through to recto. [Wilmington, DE, 1794?]
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Additional Details

Bolting cloth was used to sift meal in flour mills. The Brandywine Mills in Delaware had been milling flour for decades, and in the early 1790s Robert Dawson opened a texile mill in nearby Wilmington to produce bolting-cloth for the trade. This broadside consists mostly of a December 1794 testimonial by four Brandywine millers. They note that "as the silk, as well as Manufacture, is of our own Country, it is our opinion that they ought to obtain a decided preference to those fabricated in any foreign country." The manufacturer then adds a note on his wares, and concludes with ordering information.
The first American textile mill had just been launched in 1789, placing this broadside quite early in the history of the trade. Its patriotic sentiments and scarcity add to its interest. Not in ESTC, Evans, or Rink's "Printing in Delaware," and likely the only surviving copy of this fascinating early American imprint.