WI Dells Antique Mall and Billheads

The Wisconsin Dells Antique Mall is located right off of Interstate I-94 North and the Hwy 12 exit. To your right is Kalahari Resort and to your left a ways is the antique mall. This mall mainly has loads of breweriana, some coins, books, pottery, and other items. The mall has lots of glass cases - which I like as that is where I usually find ephemera. This week I went back to the mall to see if they had some more gunpowder and firearms company billheads. I bought a few a month ago and they sold well on ebay. I was hoping that the one sheet I had left behind was still there - the one with the Du Pont Powder billhead. So, I went to the spot where I had found the other billheads and alas, the Du Pont was gone. So, I perused the dealer booths and glass cases trying to see if anything else caught my eye. I looked again at the glass case in the front that had the Pension document for a Revolutionary solider signed by Lewis Cass. I can't help myself with old paper. I walked by the book dealer booth once and then came back around because next to paper, books are the other antique I cannot stop myself from looking at. I walked into the booth and jackpot!, there were several sheets of the billheads I was looking for - no Du Pont, but EE Eaton, Hazard Powder Co and John Nazro - I have added links to these to view on my ebay auction. I brought them all up to the counter and the nice lady said she knew of one more set. She went back to get it for me and I was hoping this might be that elusive Du Pont. Sure enough that's what it was. What luck! The really neat thing about these billheads is that they were for Austin Seeley and early gunsmith in Wisconsin. The guy was obviously successful considering the amount of money he spent at all these shops in Chicago and New York. Below are some images of the billheads:





Finally, one more item about billheads, it seems scrapbookers are using these babies for projects. Here is a book I found on Amazon about using vintage ephemera for scrapbooking. I have some friends who have a scrapbook business and I am going to further investigate this phenomenon. I will also link over to their site in the next blog for you to see their stuff.

Vintage Collage for Scrapbooking by Jill Haglund