Cheney & Clapp ran a bookstore in downtown Brattleboro in the 1800’s. They specialized in books, periodicals, and paper goods, but if you look at their Christmas advertisement in the Vermont Phoenix for 1876, you can see they have a lot of other items.
The ad is a bit hard to read, but you can see items such as Alphabet Blocks, Brushes, Collar & Cuff boxes, Checkers, Dominoes, Drums, Flutes, Easels, Faber pencils, Hymn books, Iron toys, Jerusalem Olive wood, Knife baskets, Mottoes, Microscopes, Necessaires, Puzzles, Pocket Knives, Razors, Rubber Toys, Sycamore goods, Transparent Slates, Teacher’s Bibles, Watch Stands, and Zoetropes.
Incidentally, this is one of the very first Brattleboro ads mentioning Christmas to be published in the newspaper. I plan to publish some more historic ads this month, too, so stay tuned for more.
to santa
Dear Santa,
Please bring me Mottoes this year. I would also like some Sycamore goods and a Zoetrope.
I have been very good.
c.
What is a necessaire?
My first thought was — how I would have loved this shop. The second was “what is a necessaire?” So I looked it up and it’s a small fancy or decorative case or bag for holding small objects such as scissors, sewing supplies, or other frequently used items. Not sure which kind our local shop had. It occurs to me that the 1950s manicure set in its perfect little genuine leather case is probably a small example. We just don’t call them that now.
What’s interesting to me is how much of this stuff is still made and sold today, even after all these years. The demand for the kind of goods for the mind that bookstores and stationers sell hasn’t gone away, although it has a lot more competition these days. Late publications, anyone?
Still useful
Faber pencils!