(Boston Tea Party) | The Boston Tea Party

(Boston Tea Party)

Christmas-Box for the Customers of the Pennsylvania Journal. [Philadelphia: Thomas Bradford:] Friday Afternoon 5 o’Clock, Dec. 24, 1773

Broadside (352 x 220 mm). Four lines of heading, text in two columns; lightly browned from previous framing, scattered foxing spots, remnants of hinges at top margins. Half red morocco slipcase gilt, chemise.

"[E]very ounce of the Teas on board … was immersed in the Bay": a very scarce printing of early reports of the Boston Tea Party, largely reprinted from the Massachusetts Spy and issued as a breaking-news supplement by the Pennsylvania Journal. According to the headings, these reports from Boston reached Bradford's printing shop just three hours before he had this broadside on the streets.

The handbill carries two datelined stories. The first, and much the longest, Boston, December 16, describes the foment of rebellion in reaction to the Tea Act and the general sense of the colonists suffering taxation without representation. It details the unsuccessful efforts of Mr. Rotch, the owner of the ship Dartmouth, to have his cargo of tea cleared by the customshouse, so that he could leave the port of Boston; the massive public meeting regarding the situation ("the fullest meeting ever known … it was reckoned, that there were two thousand men"); and the actual jettisoning of the tea into the harbor. This report also notes that "the patriotic inhabitants of Lexington, at a late meeting, unanimously resolved against the use of bohea tea of all sorts, Dutch or English importation; and to manifest the sincerity of their resolution, they brought every ounce contained in the town, and committed it to one common bonfire."

The second-dated article, Boston December 17, is a report from the Boston Committee of Correspondence describing further destruction of tea by the Sons of Liberty: "Yesterday we had a greater Meeting of the Body than ever. The Country coming in from twenty miles round, and every step was taken that was practicable for returning the Teas. The moment it was known out of doors, that Mr. Rotch, could not obtain a pass for his ship … a Number of People huzzaed in the street, and in a very little time, every ounce of the Teas on board of Capts. Hall, Bruce, and Coffin, was immersed in the Bay, without the least injury to private property. … P.S. The other vessel, viz. Captain Loring, belonging to Messrs. Clark, with fifty-eight chests, was, by the Act of God, cast on shore, on the Back of Cape-Cod."

The broadside also carries a brief allusion to the simultaneous tea revolt occurring in Charleston, South Carolina: "We are also informed, Charlestown is in motion to follow their illustrious example."

PROVENANCE

Eric C. Caren (Christie's New York, 15 June 2017, lot 228)

REFERENCE

Celebration of My Country 46; Bristol B3618; ESTC W16319; Hildeburn 2914; Sabin 60325; Shipton & Mooney 42425