THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

Check out the following neat billheads for lamps and lanterns.

On ebay last week was a really neat group of 4 early U.S. billheads. I really would have liked to have had the funds to add to my collection, but maybe if I had a healthy dog I could have. I thought the end price was cheap about $140 = $35 a piece. These billheads are hard to come by and each had graphics on them too - even harder to find in pre-1840 billheads. Here are some pictures of them. The one I was drooling over was the Bartlett & Brewer.

Well, May came and went and I forgot to post a Billhead of the Month. Between the class action at work and the medical needs of Gus the dog. my mind was elsewhere. Its June, and unfortunately the class action got decertified, which means I have time to do and think other things. 1863 billhead for T. Noakes show card writer located at 212 Broadway over Knox's hat store in New York City. Billhead has an oval signboard which states: ready made cards for ever business always on hand. It looks like Noakes made charts for DHR Davis. A show card at that time would be considered a poster today. While Noakes mainly states he is a writer of show cards, the signboard also indicates he has them on hand, so maybe he printed them too. At the time Noakes was in business it was the beginning of the market for colored lithographed advertisements. Jay Last's The Color Explosion p. 262 discusses show cards in further detail. Last states show cards were meant t be prominently displayed and kept f...

A few more examples.