[Ads-l] "Velvet Corks", antedated

[George Thompson]

            WINES Wholesale and Retail, to be Sold by Richard Curson, on
Potbakers-Hill, near the new Dutch Church; Also, Old Jamaica and Barbados
Rum, Brandy, Geneva, and Velvet Corks.
            N-Y Gazette & W Post-Boy, September 12, 1757, p. 3, col. 3 OED:
velvet-cork  n. (see quot. and cf. 3b
<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2331/view/Entry/222017?redirectedFrom=velvet+cork#eid15955588>
).
1883   P. L. Simmonds *Dict. Trade Products*   *Velvet cork*, the best kind
of cork bark, which is of a reddish colour.

It's likely that "velvet corks" here means a type of wine or an especially
high quality wine.  I've seen "long cork" used in one of these senses (not
sure which, though).  I don't see why Mr. Curson would be selling corks not
already in bottles.

You say, "who cares?"  I say, "the world has been waiting for this too
long".

  GAT

-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

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