THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

I have always been a huge Washington fan. In high school I was lucky to visit Mount Vernon and loved it. The Library of Congress has put together a bibliography on Washington. First off, let's start with billheads and letterheads with a graphic of George.

The flouring industry is the first manufacture recorded in American annals. The first wheat was brought to this country by Bartholomew Gosnold, and landed at an island in Buzzard's Bay in 1602. The first flour-mill mentioned in American history was the hand-mill, which consisted of two small millstones, one having a handle, rubbed upon the other. Perhaps the most celebrated flouring-mills in the period immediately after the Revolution were those of Delaware, on the Brandywine. Up to 1785 the different milling processes were separate and largely done by hand; but Evans, by the introduction of the elevator, conveyer, and other mechanisms, combined the different steps into a continuous system, dispensing with one half of the labor formerly required, and enabling the miller by machinery alone to take the grain through " from wagon to wagon again." As the country grew westward, so went the wheat and flour industries. Soon, one state stood out in the production of flour and tha...

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.

Historically, the trademark was simply a sign or mark used to identify the origin or ownership of of the goods its was affixed. At first these marks were not adopted in the maker's own interest but was put upon the manufacturer so that its product could be identified if it was of poor workmanship or inferior. Eventually, the trademark came to be regarded as a sign of quality and good reputation. Just a few images of trademarks used as a graphic on some billheads.

Photo billheads tend toward the early 1900s and show an actual photo of the company. The few that I have seen on ebay show off the firm's business building. Takes away the ability for a shop to exaggerate their establishment. Not sure if these billheads were more expensive to produce or if the black and white photo was not appealing to firms who at that time wanted big bold colors.

I am a huge fan of both coffee and tea. There were so many companies out there, that this would be a great collecting area to get in to. I do collect tea billheads, but that is because they fit into my collecting category of US and UK Billheads re-1840. I will purchase billheads beyond my 1840 range if they are particularly nice - usually only if they are UK billheads. I have my eye on one right now from 1853 that is graphically awesome. I will post it if I win the thing. Coffee billheads are mainly a US issue. Coffee companies advertised a ton - think of all the McLaughlin, Arbuckle and other coffee cards out there. If you like the trade cards, maybe you should also consider adding a billhead from the companies to your collection. The more I sell billheads, the more I learn about what people want to buy. I always thought the graphic was the huge seller, but more and more people email me questions about the products that were purchased on the billheads. Ba...