[New Jersey?]: 1824.
Price: $450.00
Unbound. Three different handwritten receipts, each bartering bushels of apples for gallons of apple jack (as apple brandy was called). Each is written on a thin strip (approximately 8.5" x 2") of laid paper and is signed by James Harris acknowledging receipt of three separate loads of apples, delivered over a period of three weeks in late August and early September of 1824. The contents of each document is nearly identical, and the text of one should suffice to provide a sample: "Recd of David Bowen, Esq. 32 Bushels of Apples in Barter for Jack at Seven & half bushels for a gallon. September 8, 1824. Joseph Harris."
Old creases, two of the receipts are docketed on the verso, overall very good or better. We could not definitively determine firm information about the two men, other than that the receipts came to us from a source in central New Jersey. New Jersey was a center of production of Apple Jack, including the nation's oldest operating distillery, Laird & Company (of Colts Neck, NJ). While we have no proof this was related to the Laird concern, it does provide an interesting insight into the bartering and sale of spirits that grew up around the early part of the 19th century.
Item #619408
