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Sunday, July 31, 2011

I'd Horse Whip Ya... If I had a horse...(old business invoices Pt 2)

This is the 2nd and final installment of my 2 part post (See part 1 here) on a collection of invoices lent to me by a couple of friends who are bringing some life (read: Arts, Culture, Entertainment) back to an old building in New Milford, CT. They know how I much I love to rummage through old papers and for these few brief days with this collection of Accounts Payable from 1923, I am grateful.  It's not so much the old paper that interests me, but more the graphics and design that some of these businesses used to create an icon that might out-live them.  This first one is my favorite. The horse has this sort of "cat that ate the canary" look that sends the message: Whips from the Horse Whip Co., are so good I can't wait to be whipped! That horse appears to be grinning. Here is the full invoice header. (click for larger)
Sometimes it's the name of the business that makes me want to share these pieces. Other times it is just the list of products that were so commonplace then and so long gone now. Note the list to the left above, not to mention the prices.
Someday I may display a collection of just the ones of that have the block print, or pen and ink renderings of buildings. In the absence of the technology to make photographs of the buildings part of these invoices, there must have been a lot of artists reproducing them.
 Finally, the lettering on some of these is just awesome (above) and the use of the raw material as a background (below) is amusing. 
At first I thought this was a pig, then I realized it was a hide, stretched, dried, and ready for cutting.  I will be returning these borrowed invoices, but it will be difficult to keep from looking through the other boxes of invoices...the search continues.

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