THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

I haven't shown receipts in awhile so in honor of the school season upon us. Here are some examples of receipts for tuition and board for education.

Sorry for the late posting of the billhead of the month. Busy busy at work this month, then my car decided to die on me. I am what I call an unlucky lucky person. I have unlucky things happen - Gus the dog almost dying last year from diabetes, then a car accident, now the new car dies. But I am lucky in that right when Gus vet bills start soaring I get an unbelievable bonus at work, I get in a car accident but luckily get hit by a tow truck which a: tows my now mangled car for free, and b. has great insurance to boot! Then the new car dies on me last week - luckily only two miles from the Honda dealer and then I get to drive around a 2010 Honda Pilot for a few weeks while it gets fixed. See what I mean, unlucky but lucky. Good karma after bad. Back to the billhead, this is one of my favorites because it is very decorative. It is for the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia PA. Wonderful calligraphy printing which surrounds a graphic of the firm's factory. The ...

The Ephemera News today had a link to the collection of Robert Biggert entitled Architectual Vignettes on Commercial Stationery. Here is that link: http://biggert.cul.columbia.edu/items . I browsed through several pages during lunch at work today and it is fabulous. Lots and lots of billheads. After viewing the collection I was thinking how great it was that Columbia University Libraries scanned and loaded these images online. It seems like so many paper collections get lost in archives. Collectors who donate their collections should really consider making it a requirement that the facility that gets the collection put it online for all to see. Anyway, here are some example billheads that weren't in the Biggert image gallery.

Enjoy these lawn mower billheads as I look at my rather long lawn. I love mowing the lawn, I just hate the mosquitoes and boy are they thick right now in Wisconsin! I joke I need a bee keeper suit to mow comfortablely from July thru October.

A few months ago I purchased a billhead ledger that contained a billhead for the H.G. Razall blank book manufacturers. Very plain billhead. There was no indication on the billhead that the firm also printed other billheads for firms. Then, I found a billhead for Lawrence Brothers manufactures in Sterling Illinois and low and behold Razall had printed the very decorative billhead. Nice large factory view on this billhead. I could not find out much about this firm. In 1884, a NY Times article lists the firm as being insolvent after the firm burned down and insurance was contested. The firm’s liabilities at that time were listed at approximately $15,000. At some point the firm incorporated as the HG Razall Mfg Co. and became known for its loose leaf binding system.