Newest Addition to My Collection

1834 billhead for Lumsden & Elsmie teas dealers and grocers, wine, spirit and fruit merchants of 95 Union Street Aberdeen Scotland. Double scrolls which list more products the firm sells: pickles, fish, sauces, spiceries, wax and sperm candles, curious old brandy, French liqueurs, segars, and fancy snuffs.

Wonderful center engraving of a harbor scene. Two ships sit in the foreground, one a large merchant ship and a much smaller boat. Background shows spires, a lighthouse and other buildings. Engraved by S. Leith.

Items purchased by Alex Cochrane, Esq. were 1 dozen fine port and 1 dozen London Brown Stout. There is also a handwritten note that the “bottles to be returned.”

In Pigot & Co.’s National Commercial Directory of Scotland 1837, John Lumsden located at 95 Union Street is listed as a grocer, wine & spirit merchant and ship owner.

William Elsmie is listed as a grocer and tea dealer at 189 Gallowgate.

LEITH, Samuel lithographic printer Banff and Edinburgh
[believed to be Low Street] Banff 1830-34
Samuel Leith & John Smith 30 Hanover Street, Edinburgh 1835-39
Samuel Leith 9 South St Andrew Street 1840-55
printseller 65 Princes Street 1846-47
Received award from Highland Society of London for quality of lithographed work in 1835. The partnership with John Smith, formerly of J. & W. Smith broke up in 1840, the business being continued by Smith. Leith brought Friedrich Schenck, artist and lithographer and W. Wahler from Germany and set up a new business. A year before his death in 1857, he retired and started up a print-selling business in Princes Street. The National Library of Scotland has Catalogue of the interesting collection of pictures and engravings of the late Mr Samuel Leith which will be sold by auction by Mr T. Nisbet 13 February 1858.

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Baking Powder Billheads

In 1843 the first modern version of baking powder was discovered and manufactured by Alfred Bird, a British chemist. In 1846, Justus Von Liebig in Germany experiments with yeast made from sodium bicarbonate and hydrochloric acid with explosive results. In 1885, Eben Horsford and George Wilson manufacture chemicals which eventually became the Rumford Chemical Works. Horsford formulated and patented Rumford Baking Powder, the first calcium phopshate baking powder. In 1889, William Wright and chemist George Rew developed a double-action baking powder marketed under the name Calumet Baking Powder. Below find some examples of baking powder billheads.

Billhead of the Month: Schmit Bros trunks Oshkosh WI

I picked up this Schmit Brothers billhead recently in Eau Claire. I currently have it for sale on ebay right now. It is a nice triple graphic billhead. Here is my ebay write up: 1895 billhead for The Schmit Brothers Trunk Company manufacturers of trunks, traveling bags and valises of Oshkosh Wisconsin. Great header graphics with three images. Left side is the firm’s mill at Summit Lake, middle is the firm’s factory and left side is the firm’s warehouse. Billhead has creases. Peter Schmit was born in 1840 in Prussia. He emigrated to the U.S. in June 1854 and located inRacine WI. He was engaged in farming until 1861 when he enlisted in Company D, 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He engaged in the battles at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Mine Run, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah. He was mustered out in June 1865. He came back to Racine and kept a hotel until 1866 when he joined his brother Henry’s trunk business. Henry had established the bus...

Newest edition to my collection - Widdicomb Furniture Co.

Lately, I can't help but buy some U.S. letterheads and billheads. I have an affinity for billheads / letterheads / receipts from the 1870s. Here is a recent purchase for the Widdicomb Furniture Co. of Grand Rapids Michigan. For 145 years, the Widdicomb name has been recognized in the furniture world. The earliest Widdicomb company was organized in 1857, by George Widdicomb, a British trained cabinet maker, employing 12 men, plus his four sons Harry, William, George Jr., and John. Except during the Civil War, a Widdicomb furniture firm was run by the family until 1916. The John Widdicomb Co. was founded in 1897 when John left the parent company to form his own firm. Though he died in 1910, that firm continued under his name until the 1990’s, and purchased the title of the original company in the 1970’s.

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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