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[Receipt Book of the Birdseye Gold Mining Company].

Birdseye Creek Gold Mining Co., Limited: You Bet, CA: [ca. 1872]. 8vo, three-quarters calf with marbled paper over boards. 94 pp, perforated in the middle, bottom half served as a duplicate, while the company retained the original stub. 45 original stubs, with 49 blank complete pages.

An artifact of the operations of a London-based gold mining firm recording payments for a variety of goods and services from 1872 to 1874.

Trends can be traced across the receipts; most noticeably a stiff rise in the price of tunnel digging, which from the beginning to end of the book rose 92 percent, from $13 per linear foot to $25 per linear foot. Other expenses recorded include $15 for cleaning gold and a $100 payout “as a present for a house on the Uncle Sam claim.”

The Birdseye Gold Mining Company was chartered in 1871 and in business until 1891. It was among the first to introduce hydraulic mining to the California Gold Fields, and among the first mining companies active in the region to be chartered and based in Europe. Material from the firm is uncommon. OCLC only locates one holding, a telegraphic code book.

CONDITION: Good, rubbed along the extremities and boards.

Item #2822

Price: $1,100.00