THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

I purchased this billhead and receipt in a large lot of billheads last year. I really liked this billhead because of the nice large graphic of Grand Central Station in New York. The receipt is likewise nice with the same image. I have not been able to find out much about James B. Clark. The tidbits: his company became known as Grand Central Tea Importing Co. and he owned the Hotel Onset in Onset Bay MA.

I was trying to think of a theme for todays billheads for Easter. I thought maybe billheads with rabbits on them - don't have any or maybe egg billheads - have a few of those, but as I was scrolling through my file folders of billheads I stumbled upon baskets. Who doesn't love getting an Easter basket.

Last year I was lucky enough to purchase a large lot of a paper from a woman in New York. Mixed amongst the billheads and letterheads were a lot of neat receipts. A lot of the receipts had store front graphics. From my searching on ebay and terapeak, architectural receipts are not common, not rare, but not as common as plain receipts. Some of the receipts I show are the ones I purchased and others are from ebay.

Some new items, some older ones that I scanned in recently. 1833 billhead for John Rufsell brush, trunk and bellows manufacturer of Edinburgh. Small double graphics of a trunk and bellows. 1838 billhead Peter McGegor Glasgow and Manchester Warehouse manufacturer of cambrics, cotton shirtings and gingham of Edinburgh. 1850 letterhead Miss Taylor milliner London House and Hereford. 1849 billhead Andrew Rowan water proof hat manufacturer and dealer in every description of caps and umbrellas of Hereford.

Trolling google I found a wonderful website by Historic New England with scanned in billheads. Here are some samples - I wish I could make this 1791 billhead bigger to see the graphic in more detail, but I would hyperventilate if a billhead like this came up for sale on ebay - awesome early American with fantastic graphics. Company is Appleton Prentiss wallpaper manufacturer out of Boston. 1858 billhead for James Munroe & Co. booksellers, importers and publishers of Boston MA. 1852 billhead for Wardwell & Barstow importers and dealers in bar and sheet iron, metals, etc. of Providence RI. Nice double graphic. 1860 pink colored billhead for William B. Wadman manufacture of all kinds of refrigerators, stoves, ranged, and coal sifters and bird cages of Boston MA. Lovely triple graphic. 1871 red printed billhead for Leonard B. Ellis manufacturer and dealers in looking glasses, picture frames, engravings, and chromo-lithographers of New Bedford MA. 1883 letterhead for Williams &...

The above is a photograph from the Milwaukee Public Library showing an awesome display window for the Gugler Lithographic Co. of Milwaukee. Check out all those labels! To learn more about the company click Gugler Litho . Now onto some billheads and one check too.

Like Uncle Sam, Lady Columbia was a personification of the United States. She is usually represented as a dynamic and bounteous figure sometimes with a helmet, spear and shield of stars and stripes (Jay, Trade Cards in America p. 62). She is sometimes draped in an American flag. She is also commonly shown presenting goods to the world in trade cards. As for billheads, she is commonly shown as part of a company's trade mark for a product named "Columbia".