This advertising print from 1844 depicts the four-story shop of John Hibler located at 56 North Third Street (the second door north of Arch Street), Philadelphia. The shop displays signage advertising wines and liquors. The doors, windows, and cellar are open for business. Inside the shop, wine casks, crates, jugs, and bottles line the floors and a laborer raises a cask with a pulley. Outside, a laborer loads casks onto a horse-drawn cart. An African American peddler with a basket passes by, ringing a bell. Partial views of the adjacent stores, possibly an apothecary and a bolting-cloth business, are visible. Hibler operated the wine business here from 1840 until 1844. Later he operated a grocery at the same location. The print is by William H. Rease, the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. Born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, Rease became active in his trade around 1844. Through the 1850s he mainly worked with printers Frederick Kuhl and Wagner & McGuigan in the production of advertising prints known for their portrayals of human details. Although Rease often collaborated with other lithographers, a listing in O'Brien's Business Directory indicates that by 1850 he had founded his own establishment at 17 South Fifth Street, north of Chestnut Street. After a partnership with Francis Schell that lasted from about 1853 to 1855, in 1855 he relocated his shop to the northeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, where, in addition to advertising prints, he produced certificates, views, maps, and maritime prints.
This advertising print from 1844 depicts the four-story shop of John Hibler located at 56 North Third Street (the second door north of Arch Street), Philadelphia. The shop displays signage advertising wines and liquors. The doors, windows, and cellar are open for business. Inside the shop, wine casks, crates, jugs, and bottles line the floors and a laborer raises a cask with a pulley. Outside, a laborer loads casks onto a horse-drawn cart. An African American peddler with a basket passes by, ringing a bell. Partial views of the adjacent stores, possibly an apothecary and a bolting-cloth business, are visible. Hibler operated the wine business here from 1840 until 1844. Later he operated a grocery at the same location. The print is by William H. Rease, the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. Born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, Rease became active in his trade around 1844. Through the 1850s he mainly worked with printers Frederick Kuhl and Wagner & McGuigan in the production of advertising prints known for their portrayals of human details. Although Rease often collaborated with other lithographers, a listing in O'Brien's Business Directory indicates that by 1850 he had founded his own establishment at 17 South Fifth Street, north of Chestnut Street. After a partnership with Francis Schell that lasted from about 1853 to 1855, in 1855 he relocated his shop to the northeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, where, in addition to advertising prints, he produced certificates, views, maps, and maritime prints.