Billhead receipts are
receipt
A receipt (also known as a packing list, packing slip, packaging slip, (delivery) docket, shipping list, delivery list, bill of the parcel, Manifest (transportation), manifest, or customer receipt) is a document acknowledging that something h ...
s that were commonly used in
business transactions from the late 1860s through the early 1940s. They can be found in present-day transactions, although they are less common today.
Many billhead receipts were illustrated and decorated with fancy
steel engravings, while others carried no illustrations. In either case, the receipt was important, as it stood as your
proof of delivery. Most billheads would bear the company's name and address, a unique
invoice
An invoice, bill, tab, or bill of costs is a commercial document that includes an itemized list of goods or services furnished by a seller to a buyer relating to a sale transaction, that usually specifies the price and terms of sale, quanti ...
number, the payment terms, line items for products or services, a total, and (optionally) handwritten notes.
Vintage Ephemera
Billheads are considered to be vintage
ephemera
Ephemera are items which were not originally designed to be retained or preserved, but have been collected or retained. The word is etymologically derived from the Greek ephēmeros 'lasting only a day'. The word is both plural and singular.
On ...
. Some collect billheads from a certain state, region, or town; others base their collections on types of
illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
s. In some cases, a relative or ancestor may have owned the business or even have
signed the document.
References
* {{citation , year=2000 , title = The encyclopedia of ephemera: a guide to the fragmentary documents of everyday life for the collector, curator, and historian , author1=Maurice Rickards , author2=Michael Twyman , editor1=Michael Twyman , edition=illustrated, reprint , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-0-415-92648-5 , pages=49–52 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4O3vIHhjoUC&dq=billhead&pg=PA50
Ephemera