Now That’s an Ackermann!

I’ve been posting images and content from Ackermann’s Repository for a loooong time now...looking back, I see his name was first mentioned on NineteenTeen back in November of 2007, about a month and a half after this blog began. Most of what I’ve posted here have been from prints or pages from the original magazine that I’ve picked up in various antique and junk stores both in person and on-line; occasionally I’ll post something from a copy of Ackermann’s from an online archive. I’ve often seen (and sighed over) bound copies of entire years of Ackermann’s—what riches!

But in the dozen or so years I’ve been at this, this is a first. May I present to you...

A copy of Ackermann’s Repository as it might have been purchased in Ackermann’s store in the Strand, back in 1824!

All of the complete copies I’ve ever seen, be they individual or bound in a book, have started with the table of contents. This copy includes an outer cover made of a sturdier paper than the inner pages: the front, as you can see, includes this decorative engraving with the date, issue number and price (4 shillings). There is some color (brown and a smidge of blue) in the engraving; the rest of the cover is black.

Speaking of which...the back contains (as do magazines today)...advertising! Price and Gosnell, Perfumers to His Majesty, sold toiletries, from soap and skin lotions to dyes to toothbrushes and toothpaste.

And as for the binding...the interior pages are sewn together, and the exterior cover seems to have been glued. There is no printing on the spine.

Inside the front cover are more advertisements, from publisher J.Harding of St. James’s-street, and Urling’s Lace, a neighbor to Ackermann in the Strand.

Inside the back cover, we have more book ads from J. Harding, and sheet music from J. Willis of Covent-Garden.

I’m thrilled to be able to share this with you...but I have a few questions. How was the Repository mailed to subscribers? Was it enclosed in an envelope of some description, or wrapped in a paper band with an address? Or were subscribers’ addresses written directly on each issue? Or were they sent in a bundle (or singly, if necessary) to local post offices along with a list of recipients?

Questions, questions...but in the meanwhile, I hope you are as geeked out by this as I am!

EDITED TO ADD: At the request of a reader, I'm adding a close-up of one of the ads on the inside front cover: here you go!