Order Form, Representative's Weekly Report Form, and Return Addressed Envelope to Charles A. Doe Company

The format for the Order Form is 8.5 inches by 10.875 inches. Rare surviving small grouping of blank mercantile ephemera. The Order Form has been folded in half and then in thirds, making 6 panels per side. The sheet has significant browning and is unfilled in. The front side is the actual Order Form and the other side presents seven ways to order, including Credit Orders, Cash on Delivery, Letter of Credit, Parcel Post, etc. The form has been folded to fit into the accompanying envelope. The envelope has also browned. The top has been roughly opened, as if the flap had become sealed without the order form or the weekly report inserted. The format for the Representative's Weekly Report is approximately 5.5 inches by 11 inches. This has been roughly folded into four uneven panels. The form has not been filled out. The other side has a discussion of the importance of sending in weekly reports and most of the space is lined for a report to be written and submitted. The Weekly report has space for nine catalogue numbers of bibles sold and four types of bindings (cloth, Half Morocco, etc.). At the bottom is a brief discussion of recruiting additional sales representatives. Charles A. Doe Company sold books, and especially a variety of Bibles. The date of this rare surviving ephemera is hard to determine--perhaps between 1920 and 1940. No information was found on the Internet about a Charles A. Doe Company operating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is excellent training material for both document forgery and document forensic purposes. It is possible that the firm took its name not from its founder but from a CHARLES DOE who lived in the 17th century and was a friend of John Bunyan. He was a comb-maker (some sources - minister or bookseller) who had a business in the burrough, between the Hospital and London-bridge. He published some of John Bunyan's works that were not yet published. They were friends two years before John Bunyan died. "Charles Doe was a good, earnest, simple soul, who came to know Bunyan during the last years of his life through hearing him preach, who followed him as Boswell followed Johnson, and did much after his death to preserve his books for the generations to come." This Charles Doe apparently sold works by subscription. 2 Single sheets, printed on both sides, with self-addressed envelope Presumed First Edition, one of multiple impressions.…