from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
SALE AND RETURN. When goods are sent from a manufacturer or wholesale dealer
to a retail trader, in the hope that he may purchase them, with the
understanding that what he may choose to take he shall have as on a contract
of sale, and what he does not take he will retain as a consignee for the
owner, the goods are said to have been sent on sale and return.
2. The goods taken by the receiver as on a sale, will be considered as
sold, and the title to them is vested in the receiver of them; the goods he
does not buy are considered as a deposit in the hands of the receiver of
them, and the title is in the person who sent them. 1 Bell's Com., 268, 5th
ed.