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Water Excursions! Notice is Respectfully Given to the Public that the Subscriber, who is experienced and skilful in the management of Sail Boats, has at great expense procured one…
Boston: Dickinson, Printer, 52 Washington Street, 20 June 1843. Illustrated broadside, 15.5” x 12”. Wood-engraving titled “Frigate Constitution” above text. In modern bird’s eye maple frame. CONDITION: Good, old folds, creasing, and several areas of dampstaining and soiling; two chips filled in with paper applied more broadly to verso. An unrecorded broadside advertising excursions on a thirty-person sailboat on a lake in Marlborough, Mass., illustrated—rather incongruously—with an engraving of Old Ironsides. Claiming experience and skill in the management of sailboats, George C. Dennis of Marlborough, Mass. here notifies the public that he has acquired a sailboat and placed her in Gates Pond (located seven and a half mile outside of Marlborough), near J. S. Witherbee’s Hotel. Pledging to keep his boat “in constant readiness for the accommodation of Ladies and Gentlemen wishing to avail themselves of the pleasure of a water excursion,” Dennis advertises that “A rare opportunity is now offered to many who have never enjoyed the pleasure of sailing, particularly to those whose timidity of the water has heretofore prevented. The owner will endeavor to give perfect satisfaction to all who patronize him. Terms reasonable.” He notes that the boat weighs some four and a half tons; will seat thirty persons comfortably; is perfectly safe; is a fast sailor; and is “well calculated for a pleasure boat.” Rather amusingly, the engraving depicts the U.S.S. Constitution, a much larger and, needless to say, more historic vessel than Dennis’s sailboat. Whether used for its patriotic appeal, as a joke, or for lack of a more suitable image, the engraving lends considerable interest to the proprietor’s advertisement. An unusual and entertaining 1840s recreational broadside.
Item #7761
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