S.F. Hess Tobacco - Billhead of the Month

I have had a hard time deciding what to use for this month's billhead. For all those who watch American Pickers, I went to my paper "honey hole" last Thursday (flush with Christmas money - we celebrated early this year) and went wild! I hadn't been up there for awhile so I was giddy with glee at all the new paper - much of it is going to be listed in Ebay in the next couple of months mainly to support my UK billhead habit and to pay for Gus the dog's doggie daycare habit. So, this billhead of the month is from my recent trip - it is for S.F. Hess tobacco out of Rochester New York.

John Disbrow started a tobacco firm in 1838. In 1867, Solomon F. Hess purchased Disbrow’s business and conducted the business alone under the name S.F. Hess until 1877 when it became S.F. Hess & Co. Hess is famous for its tobacco card inserts.

Some examples of Hess letterheads:

Check out these websites for tobacco card examples:

Some Baseball Card examples

California League Baseball Cards

Hess Actresses:

Hess tobacco tin:

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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.

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...

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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