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Showing posts from 2008

More UK Billheads

As promised, here are some more billheads from the lot I purchased. I also have two more in the mail from a different vendor off of ebay uk. There are also several I am watching and waiting to see what my bonus is this year before I pull the trigger on them. If it is good - then they are mine - if not, then I will have to work some overtime to get them! Anyway, here are the other billheads. To the right is a billhead for Cranston & Elliott of Edinburgh Silk & General Drapers. To a Miss Douglas who bought a lot if items from them. Some of those items include: umbrellas, chemise, silk, drawers, and buttons. Next up is a clock and watchmaker billhead for James Whitelaw of Edinburgh dated 1873 for a JB Douglas. The bill is for cleaning of a gold leveer watch. I cannot find much on Whitelaw, but some of his clocks have sold at auction in the range of $2,000 -12,000. Last up is which kind of falls in the range of a bill of lading and a receipt. It is for David Hutcheson &

New additions - more billheads from the UK

I recently got more billheads from a lot of receipts I bought from ebay uk. Whenever these items arrive, I am giddy with glee at what I find. The lots on ebay do not give you everything that is in the lot, so there are always surprises. This week's lot (I have three more coming! Yippee!!) include the following: Nice example of a Florist billhead. It is dated 1847 and the business was James Kelly of Edinbugh. It is a nice engraved billhead with one side advertising Tanfield Nursey and the other Garden & Flower Seeds. The billhead was printed by E. Edmonston. The invoice was for Sir George McKenzie, bart. McKenzie bought rye grass, red clover seed, and a prunning knife. Next up is a billhead for James Young a Victual Dealer (Grocer) in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is a small billhead and dated 1850. Not fancy,but still a nice example. Now, this billhead does not have the traditional "Bought of" phrase, you might classify it as a receipt, but it is nice nonetheles

Clothing Billhead & Coffee / Tea Billhead

Unfortunately, I don't have many billheads in this category. I think there might be a couple more in a billhead lot I recently purchased. Once I go through those, I will add more. Here are two examples from the lot of Edinburgh Scotland billheads I bought about a month ago. CLOTHING: A. Moffat Boot & Shoe Warehouse dated 1894. I was not able to find out anything about Moffat on google books. One for James Church Wholesale & Family Grocer - Tea and Coffee Merchant. Again I could not find anything out about this merchant. Bums be out when I can't find anything - I think I enjoy the research part more than the billhead itself sometimes. Both billheads were for a family named Borthwick - there were some famous Borthwick's but I have not been able to nail down the individuals specific to these billheads.

Guns & Cutlery

Here are a few examples of some guns and cutlery billheads. I think these go together and I am not entirely sure why. The cutlery trade in the United States was once dominated by Sheffield manufacturers, but in the 1860s new innovations in the U.S. allowed cutlery to move from being hand-made to machine made and thus the US cutlery became cheaper and better quality. BIGGS, SPENCER & CO. , 335 Wabash avenue, Chicago. Cutlery and Guns. The above line of goods were well represented by the old established house of these exhibitors, and the display made was especially attractive, comprising, as it did, specimens of the finest manufactures. The Florentine carved work on one muzzle-Loading gun being unique, and the engraved locks and furniture on another representing the highest class of modern engraving on metal. Breech-loaders of all the various actions evidence the great advance in sporting arms within twenty years or so, the first breech-loading shot gun (then considered a useless n

Powder Billheads

As promised, here are some examples of billheads for powder. I stumbled upon these billheads at a local antique mall. Every time I go back there are more. I need to make a call and try to buy the remainder of these. All of these billheads also were items bought by Austin Seeley of Reedsburg Wisconsin. Seeley is an interesting character. He was born in Ohio in either 1819 or 1820. He moved to Reedsburg in 1849, being one of the first families to permanently locate to the town. Austin Seeley was a carpenter by trade and though he owned a farm he always followed carpentry as his regular occupation. At one point he manufactured guns (the Wisconsin Historial Society is possession of one) and coffins. He was one of the substantial and highly respected citizens of his community. EATON & ABBEY / E.E. EATON: Emma E. Eaton was the widow of Charles E. Eaton, a wholesale dealer in guns, fishing tackle, and sporting goods. Charles died in April, 1870. At the time of his death, he w

Collecting Billheads by Industry

Another way to collect billheads is by industry. I have tried my best to breakdown "industry" into more manageable categories. If you note I have missed any, please let me know. Agriculture = machines, mowers, seeds Ammunition, powder companies, guns, ordinance Clothing = cloaks, shawls, hats, shoes, furs, fancy goods, hosiery Coffee & Tea Commodities = iron, oil, grain, paint, coal, tin, rubber, chemicals, steel, marble, cork Custom houses / commission merchants Cutlery & Hardware Dry goods = soap, brushes, baking powder, Groceries = oysters, confections, fruits, salt, fish, flour, pork, lard Home goods = furniture, wallpaper, lamps Horse related = livery, stable, gear, harness, wagon, buggy/carriage, feed Industrial products = wire, bottles, glass, engines, boilers, scales, drill, pumps, tents, varnish, typewriters, refrigerators, fire equipment Jewelry = diamonds, watches Liquor = beer, whiskey, wine Medicine = bitters, drugs Music = pianos, organs, sheet musi

Cuban Billheads on ebay right now

On ebay now there are some awesome Cuban billheads for sale by ebay seller filatelia_habana . Click the name and it will get you to the listing. I have pasted one picture below of an example of one of these billheads. I think it is a particularly nice example with the cameo stamp on it. Hard to find even US billheads with cameo stamps. Just more examples that billheads outside of the US can be very beautiful. I never would have imaged that these Cuban ones could be so ornate. Here is a link to a Magazine Antiques article about Philadelphia cameo stamps .

More UK Billheads

Thought I would show you a few more of the billheads I recently purchased on ebay. Here is an example of a billhead that is in manuscript form (not printed) but written out by the proprietor. It is hard to read, but it has the billhead anatomy of the "bought of" and the items purchase. While maybe not as pretty as the printed billheads, still a valuable source of information and pretty penmanship nonetheless. The billhead is for a T. Milne of Edinburgh and dated 1809 for item purchased by Edington. The next billhead is more decorative. It is for Robert Purdie a musicseller in Edinburgh. Billhead dates from 1835 for David Cockburn Esq who bought a cabinet pianoforte and a harp. Purdie, Robert. The founder of a very large and important Edinburgh business. In 1804 he was a teacher of music in Jollie's Close in the Cannongate, but in 1805 he had gone to 3, James Street, where he remained until 1808. In 1809 he had opened a music shop at 35, Princes Street, and here comm

Collecting Geographically: Don’t short change the United Kingdom.

One area that I like to collect billheads from is the UK. As you can imagine, UK printers printed some really nice elaborate and beautiful billheads. While trade cards didn’t take off in the UK as much as they did here, billheads are the exception. Recently I bought two lots of billheads from a dealer on ebay uk. As the dollar rises against these currencies, look for bargains amongst these European sellers. Be sure to go directly to the websites every now and again as not all items show up on the US ebay. One example is billhead for James Howden a watch maker and jeweler in Edinburgh Scotland. The date on the billhead is 1824. HOWDEN, James. Booked apprentice to Alexander Farquharson, Edin.,1764 — admitted freeman clockmaker, E.H., 1775. This well-known maker commenced business at 3 Hunter's Square, which premises he occupied till about 180.9, when he retired. He was succeeded by his son, also named James, who was admitted a freeman in 1809 — in 1825 he was at 56 North Brid

Collecting Geographically.

There are many collecting areas to choose from for billheads. From collecting geographically, to business types, and to date ranges. I have scoured ebay and the internet looking at different collections of billheads and I am going to take the next many posts touching on collecting area. First, lets start with geography. That is, collecting from a certain country, state, city or town. Here is a simple breakdown of collecting billheads geographically: I. Country A. USA 1. 50 States a. Counties / Parrishes 1. Cities 2. Towns B. United Kingdom 1. England a. Counties 1. Cities 2. Towns 2. Scotland a. Cities b. Towns

Collections of Billheads: Websites & Books

Websites: The John Johnson Collection Roscommon, Ireland Rhode Island Norfolk, Virginia Chesapeake City, Maryland Am Baile Maryland Sacramento Glendale, Montana Central Pacific RR Books: Ely Billheads By Pamela Blakeman, Blakeman, Ely Society, Ely Society Published by Ely Society, 1984 Bought of: Nineteenth-century Sheffield Through Its Billheads & Related Documents By Mary Chesworth Published by Sheffield City Libraries, 1984 The Signboards of Old London Shops: A Review of the Shop Signs Employed by the London Tradesmen During the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries By Ambrose Heal Published by B. T. Batsford, 1947 Some American Billheads from the Collection of Bella C. Landauer at the New-York Historical Society By Bella Clara Landauer, New-York Historical Society, New-York Historical Society Published by Priv. issued, 1949 Accounts Rendered: Some Pembrokeshire Merchants' and Shopkeepers' Billheads from the 19th and Earlier 20th Centuries By Jim McBrearty Published b

The Anatomy of a Billhead.

Billheads have generally the same anatomy. Top (Heading): Has a line to handwrite in the date and the name of the person who bought the items. The name of the company appears here usually behind the word “Bought of,” “Bro.” or See picture below for example. Usually any graphic is depicted to the left of the name of the company. I have yet to see a billhead that has a lone graphic to the right, usually if it has a right graphic it has graphics on both sides of the name of the company. See below for nice graphic of a rifle from EE Eaton. Body: Lines to write goods received. It is fascinating to see what is bought of companies. For instance, below is a billhead for Biggs, Spencer & Co. of Chicago showing that Austin Seeley has purchased boy’s guns. I have a whole slew of billheads for Seeley and will have a few posts later about this early Wisconsin gunsmith. Bottom: Usually indicates who the items were paid for and how the items were shipped. Sometimes proprietors wrote long no

Evolution of a Billhead

Taken from the wonderful article entitled: A Survey of Nineteenth Century Rhode Island Billheads by Russell J. Desimone. I have linked to it. You can read it for free through Google Scholar. Evolution of Billheads: 1800-1830 - Billheads were mainly in manuscript form. Looked very similar to what some might think of as receipts. Billheads from this time period are rare. These billheads tend to be on slips of paper and unevenly cut. 1830s - The start of pre-printed billheads and some use of graphics. 1840s and 1850s - Billheads started to appear in color usually light grey to medium blue. The printing was higher in quality and there was a greater use of graphics. An example of a billhead is below. The company was Henry Nazro. When Wisconsin was new, Henry J. Nazro and brother opened a medium sized hardware store in Milwaukee. By fair dealing an judicious advertising they called together customers from every portion of the State. As the State increased in population their busi

What are Billheads?

Some definitions: From Wikipedia's article: BillHead receipts were common in business transactions from the late 1860s through the early 1940s... and in some cases, they can be found in present day transactions (although it is a less common practice now.) Many billhead receipts were illustrated and decorated with fancy steel engravings, while others carried no illustrations... in either case the receipt itself was important, as it was your proof of delivery. In general, most billheads contained: The Company Name & Address, A Unique Invoice Number, Payment Terms, Line Items for Products or Services, A Total, and (optionally) handwritten notes. From the American Antiquarian Society : The Billhead evolved from what was known as a "Trade Card," and in the twentieth Century, became known as letterhead. It was created by printing a heading at the top of a sheet of paper, usually from an engraved copper plate. The lower part of the sheet was used for writing a list, a not