Offered here is an original 1878/79 receipt from James Anderson to Old Tom Morris for the purchase of a dozen niblicks on Nov 15, 1878 and another half dozen on April 30, 1879. Signed at the bottom by James Anderson. 4 3/8" x 8 1/4". In 1878/79, niblicks meant "iron niblicks" which today we refer to as rut irons or track irons. Morris purchased these items for resale. 

Tom Morris was, of course, the professional at the R&A and clubmaker in St Andrews for the bulk of his career. He was known for making wooden-head clubs among his other duties at the Old Course. James Anderson was a cleekmaker who made iron heads in Anstruther, Scotland.

Both Tom Morris and James Anderson would become legendary in the world of nineteenth-century golf and clubmaking. Morris became the most prominent personality of his day.  Anderson's work won him a following far and wide including the patronage of Tom Morris of St. Andrews.

An 1892 report in "Golf: A Weekly Record of the Royal and Ancient Game" tells us much about James Anderson and his business: "Over thirty years ago Mr. [James] Anderson entered on business as a smith and farrier, in a quaint roadside cottage at the outskirts of the burgh, and chiefly with his own hands forged the horseshoe and shod the horse... occasionally turning his hand to the making of Golf-cleeks and irons, a job not unlike the forging of a horse-shoe; but for many years this was a small affair. In the best of times, when he had turned out 500 cleeks in a year he had done a big stroke of business; but the finely-made cleek led to continued increase of trade. To meet this demand Mr. Anderson introduced machinery into the polishing of the work, but all the forging is done by hand. ...Mr. Anderson, in his blue flannel shirt, with his bushy black locks and buirdly frame, is constantly in the work, nothing escaping his eye, which largely accounts for his success (Golf, 15 July 1892:293).

This James Anderson/Tom Morris document was previously owned by Tom Morris biographer Peter Crabtree, and was part of his legendary collection.