I am very happy to announce that after a 20 year wait, I have acquired the complete archive of Manchester’s most successful ticket printer, B. Taylor – including largest textile ticket collection in the world.
The plain looking books below are just part of the collection, but contain thousands of tickets for merchants selling fabric across the world from the 1800’s to about 1940.
Just one of the 65 books above contains 2,000 different tickets!
sample spread of the book contents
sample spread of the book contents
original drawings and copyright applications
original painted artwork for the tickets
original artwork for the tickets
The collection also includes tens of thousands of tickets from around the world, plus ephemera including adverts for the printer, trademark applications, invoices, photographs and even the original painted artwork and names of the artists who created them. A complete history of ticket creation, printing and trade.
Advertising showcard
Along with the 2,000 stamps, masses of artwork, unique archive material sourced from Manchester warehouses, personal interviews with merchants and textile workers over the last 20 years, this is now the most comprehensive collection in the world.
The point of this website is to show the amazing art and marketing used by Manchester textile merchants, which has been largely ignored or dismissed as “commercial art”.
Please get in touch if you are a publisher, museum, graphic designer, typographer, fashion/textile designer or historian and are interested in any collaborations.
Note that I have put this material on the website from my own personal collection, with many items and much of the information gleaned from personal interaction with those involved in the trade.
I am always happy to help those who are interested in this subject, but please follow in the spirit of this website by not copying any information or images without my permission.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
May I applaud you firstly for saving this wonderful collection of historical artefacts and secondly for sharing them.
I have a particular interest as most of my relatives worked in the cotton industry throughout the 1800s and at least one of my relatives was a stamp maker William Gregory (b.1853) and perhaps his father) I have not been able to find out which firms he worked for and have no examples of his work.
If you have any advice regarding areas of potential research
I would be most grateful. Thank you Mark
I have a multicolored shipper’s ticket that bears the notation B.T. 1406. There are four Indian scenes in the central section, and at the bottom is “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”. Do you have any idea when this might have been printed?
Thanks
Not without seeing it. Can you post an image?
The shipper’s label I have is damaged, and I would like to reproduce it in a book I am writing. Would it be possible to get a san (300 dpi) of the label, if I send you a picture? Is there a specific email address to which I could send it?
Thanks,
John
Dear John
I welcome and will help with any scholarly piece about the shipper’s tickets. I will email you as maybe I have an intact version in my collection