Billheads and Postal History

I was searching through ebay uk yesterday and typed in the search term "invoice". When searching on any ebay or google be sure to use other terms than billhead like "invoice," "receipt" and "statement." I have had lots of look buying cheap billheads under these terms. Anyway, my invoice search turned up some interesting billheads. Ever wonder how billheads were mailed. Well, in the UK here are some pictures - the billhead was either wrapped in cover paper or folded like a stampless letter would be. Really very neat. These billheads were listed under the Stamps category on ebay uk. Postal covers are a huge collectible area and I recently started researching. In the US a lot of billheads were mailed in graphic advertising envelopes. I will post examples and more info on these tomorrow.

Above is what the folded billhead would look like when mailed. Below is the billhead after being opened.

Two more folded examples and fold outs.

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CAPEWELL HORSE NAIL COMPANY

I regularly purchase goods and paper at a local online auction. In December, I noticed that a lot of random estate / household goods also had a small pile of what looked to be calendars. I won the lot and sure enough it included many advertising calendars. Many of those were for the Capewell Horse Nail Company of Hartford Connecticut. These calendars were damaged, but the color and graphics were still very bright. Last week, I happened on a lot of paper through ebay that included a billhead for the company. Attached are photos of all for your enjoyment.

Rubber Goods

The rubber industry in the United States can hardly be said to have had any real and tangible existence until the discovery of the process of vulcanization in 1844 by Charles Goodyear. The first rubber ever imported into this country was brought into Boston in the year 1800 and came in In that same year a patent was granted to one Jacob Hummel, of Philadelphia, for a gum-elastic varnish; of which, however, there seems to have been no further mention. Some ten years later, in 1823, a Boston sea-captain, coming from South American ports, brought with him a pair of gilded rubber shoes which excited the greatest interest. Two years later, 500 pairs of rubber shoes, made by the natives along the Amazon, were brought into Boston, this time without the fantastical refinement of gilding. They were exceedingly thick, clumsy, and unshapely shoes, and yet they sold readily, bringing from $3 to $5 per pair as they were found that they were a secure protection against dampness. This was the e...

Australian Billheads

As promised from by last post, here are some examples of Australian billheads I found on the website Print and Printmaking Australia Asia Pacific . Based on the Australian print collection at the National Gallery of Australia there is free online access to over 22,000 images. The databases can be searched by artist, subject or print techniques such as etching, woodcut, wood-engraving, linocut, lithograph, screenprint, monotype and other print related processes such as posters and artists books. Index to online information on printmakers, print workshops, print publishers, print galleries and public and private collections.

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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