f
books. In 1759 Garrat Noel, a Dutchman, had announced that he had "the
very prettiest gilt Books for little Masters and Misses that ever were
invented, full of wit and wisdom, at the surprising low Price of only
one Shilling each finely bound and adorned with a number of curious
Cuts." By 1762 Noel had increased his stock and placed a somewhat larger
advertisement in the "Mercury" of December 27. The late arrival of his
goods may have been responsible for the bargains he offered at this
holiday sale.

GARRAT NOEL _Begs Leave to Inform the Public, that according to
his Annual Custom, he has provided a very large Assortment of Books
for Entertainment and Improvement of Youth, in Reading, Writing,
Cyphering, and Drawing, as Proper Presents at _CHRISTMAS_
and _New-Year_._

The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at _Two
Shillings_, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn'd with Cuts.

[Symbol: hand]Those who buy _Six_, shall have a _Seventh Gratis_,
and buying only _Three_, they shall have a present of a fine large
Copper-Plate Christmas Piece: [_List of histories follows._]

The following neat Gilt Books, very instructive and Amusing being
full of Pictures, are sold at _Eighteen Pence_ each.

Fables in Verse and Prose, with the Conversation of Birds &
Beasts at their several meetings, Routs and Assemblies for the
Improvement of Old and Young, etc.

To-day none of these gay little volumes sold in New York are to be seen.
The inherent faculty of children for losing and destroying books,
coupled with the perishable nature of these toy volumes, has rendered
the children's treasures of seventeen hundred and sixty-two a great
rarity. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is the fortunate
possessor of one much prized story-book printed in that year; but though
it is at present in the Quaker City, a printer of Boston was responsible
for its production.

In Isaiah Thomas's recollections of the early Boston printers, he
described Zechariah Fowle, with whom he served his apprenticeship, and
Samuel Draper, Fowle's partner. These men, about seventeen hundred and
fifty-seven, took a house in Marlborough Street. Here, according to
Thomas, "they printed and opened a shop. They kept a great supply of
ballads, and small pamphlets for book pedlars, of whom there were many
at that time. Fowle was bred to the business, but he was an