The Pony Express Collection formed by Thurston Twigg-Smith continued...

EXTREMELY FINE EXAMPLE OF THE RUNNING PONY HANDSTAMP, STRUCK POSTHUMOUSLY FROM THE ORIGINAL DATESTAMP. A GREAT RARITY.

Illustrated on the title page of the Nathan book. (Image)

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VERY FINE. A HIGHLY IMPORTANT COVER, SENT ON THE FIRST TRIP OF THE PONY EXPRESS UNDER THE UNITED STATES MAIL CONTRACT--THE FIRST TIME THAT THE PONY EXPRESS OPERATED AS A GOVERNMENT-AUTHORIZED MAIL SERVICE. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED COVER WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO JULY 3, 1861, DATESTAMP.

The United States government awarded the mail contract along the Central Route to the Overland Mail Company on March 12, 1861, effective July 1. The contract paid $1,000,000 per year for mail/passenger service along the Central Route and required the company ...during the continuance of their Contract, or until completion of The Overland telegraph, to run a Pony Express semi-weekly at a Schedule time of ten days eight months of the year and twelve days four months of the year, and to convey for the Government free of charge five pounds of Mail Matter, with liberty of charging the public for transportation of letters by said express not exceeding One dollar per half ounce...”

This period of operation is known as Phase III, which corresponds to Rate Period 4 (July 1-October 26, 1861). During this period, Wells Fargo & Co. issued new stamps and envelopes to reflect the agreed-upon government contract rate for the Pony Express. The fee for Pony Express service between Placerville and St. Joseph (or Atchison) could not exceed $1.00 per half-ounce. If Wells Fargo & Co. carried the letter by express to or from Placerville (for example, from San Francisco), an extra express charge was permitted. If the sender used one of Wells Fargo & Co.’s 10c stamped envelopes with the company’s express frank, the total amount paid was $1.20 ($1.00 for Pony Express service, 10c for the additional express charge, and 10c U.S. postage). The Wells Fargo & Co. ad noted that letters not enclosed as above [in government franked envelopes] will be charged at the rate of 25 cents each [in addition to the $1 Pony Express fee].”

Since the July 1 commencement date of the Pony Express contract service was known well in advance at both the eastern and western terminal offices, the new $1.00 rate was effected simultaneously. New stamps were printed ahead of the July 1 commencement date, as evidenced by the June 22 recall notice for the old issue (shown on page 25). The cover offered here was sent from San Francisco on July 3 and represents the earliest possible use of the new stamps. The Horse & Rider stamps were used exclusively on eastbound mail. For westbound mail originating east of St. Joseph, a printed envelope and the adhesive Garter” stamp were used to indicate prepayment.

The first trip under the new contract was an eastbound departure from San Francisco (FKW Trip ET-114)--the first westbound trip under the new contract left the following day. It is not known when the July 3 trip arrived in St. Joseph (or Atchison). Another cover from this trip is recorded (FKW Census E110), but that cover originated in Folsom and was datestamped at the Sacramento office on July 4. Both covers entered the U.S. mails without datestamps, the July 3 cover was cancelled on arrival with a New York City grid, and the July 4 cover was pen-cancelled somewhere en route to Mapena, New York. They were evidently carried by Wells, Fargo & Co. outside the regular mails until they reached New York.

FKW Census E109. Trip ET-114. Illustrated in The Pony Express: A Postal History (p. 54). Ex Dale-Lichtenstein (H. R. Harmer, Sep. 25, 1997, lot 250). (Image)

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VERY FINE. AN OUTSTANDING PONY EXPRESS USAGE WITH THE OLD FREEMAN & COMPANY FRANK OVERPRINTED WITH WELLS, FARGO & COMPANY’S FRANK. ONLY EIGHT PONY COVERS WITH THE FREEMAN & CO. FRANK ARE RECORDED.

John Freeman was an agent for Adams & Co. at the time of the firm’s spectacular Lehman-like collapse in 1855. He ran the Freeman & Co. Express until November 1859, then sold out to Wells Fargo & Co. The supply of 10c embossed envelopes bearing Freeman & Co.’s bright green frank was overprinted with the Wells Fargo & Co. red frank in two directions. Some of these were used to send letters by Pony Express. To date there are eight examples recorded in the FKW census, evenly divided between $2.00 and $1.00 Horse-and-Rider stamp frankings.

FKW Census E121. Trip ET-119. Ex Knapp, Hall and Gruys. (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. A BEAUTIFUL EASTBOUND PONY EXPRESS USAGE FROM SACRAMENTO.

The addressee, Robert E. Dietz, manufactured lanterns and related products. His firm, Dietz & Co., supplied mining camps in California. The following information and image shown at right are reproduced from The Kerosene Lantern website ( http://www.classiclantern.com ):

Robert Edwin Dietz was born on January 5, 1818, in New York City. In 1840 Dietz used his savings to purchase a small oil lamp business in Brooklyn. The R. E. Dietz Company sold sperm oil, whale oil, camphene (distilled turpentine), glass lamps, candle sticks, and a few dead flame lanterns. Coal oil (kerosene) was first distilled in quantity from coal in 1856 and Robert Dietz had a ready market for a cheap, bright burning fuel. Dietz was awarded a patent for a burner specially designed to burn the new oil. After Edwin Drake produced the first commercially successful oil well in 1859, the stage was set for an even cheaper source of kerosene.

During the 1860s, Civil War contracts, Robert’s hard work, growth of railroads, and westward expansion made the lamp business a huge success. After the war ended, the cost of kerosene came down to a level where Dietz could sell lamps and lanterns to people who were still using candles.

In 1868, Robert Dietz began to produce and sell a new tubular lantern patented by John Irwin. The lantern business continued to be good and, in 1887, a new factory was built on the corner of Greenwich and Laight streets in New York. In 1894, Dietz retired and left his sons Frederick and John in charge. Robert E. Dietz passed away on September 19, 1897, at the age of 79.”

FKW Census E153. Trip ET-131. Ex Gruys. With 1959 P.F. certificate (as a front) (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. AN ATTRACTIVE EXAMPLE OF THE $1.00 HORSE-AND-RIDER STAMP TIED BY THE SAN FRANCISCO RUNNING PONY OVAL DATESTAMP AND CARRIED DURING THE FIRST MONTH OF THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACT PERIOD.

The Paid” in oval handstamp was a standard marking used by Wells Fargo & Co., but its function on Pony Express covers is not completely understood. The Paid” oval is recorded on nine Pony Express covers carried during Phase II (Interim Phase) from April 1 to June 30, 1861 (FKW census). An additional five covers carried during Phase III (July-October 1861) have the same Paid” oval. In this case, it was applied to the Wells Fargo & Co. franked envelope before the Pony Express stamp was affixed.

The addressee, Henry I. Beers, was a prominent California businessman during the 1850’s. Beers returned to New York in 1859 and made his fortune in oil and real estate in Western Pennsylvania (source: http://www.oil150.com/essays/2008/09/beers-cornen-beers-brothers-company-beers-camp ).

FKW Census E118. Trip ET-119. Ex J. David Baker. (Image)

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VERY FINE. ONE OF SIX RECORDED PONY EXPRESS COVERS ADDRESSED TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES--THIS IS THE ONLY ONE TO SWITZERLAND AND THE ONLY ONE WITH THIS COMBINATION OF STAMPS.

This cover was sent in the Pony Express mail departing San Francisco on September 7, 1861. It was carried by Wells Fargo & Co. outside the regular mails from St. Joseph (or Atchison) to New York City and placed in the post office there. The U.S. stamps were affixed when the cover left San Francisco, because the Running Pony oval ties two of them. The 36c total postage overpaid the 35c rate to Switzerland via Prussian Closed Mail. The New York foreign-mail office cancelled the stamps with red grids and applied the New-York Br. Pkt. Sep. 25” backstamp to indicate British transatlantic packet service. The Cunarder Africa left New York on September 25, 1861, and off-loaded the mails at Queenston on October 5. From there the cover was carried to Aachen, where it entered the Prussian Closed Mail system on October 8. The 12” in magenta ink indicates a 12c U.S. credit to Prussia--7c normal credit to Prussia for transit anywhere in the German-Austrian Postal Union, plus 5c (2 silbergroschen, or 6 kreuzer) for transit beyond the GAPU. The cover was carried south from Basel to Locarno via Lucerne. It reached Maggia on or about October 10, 1861.

The FKW census lists only six Pony Express covers to foreign destinations, all originating in San Francisco. The authors remark, ...their rarity is matched by their visual appeal,” The six covers are listed at right.

Googling the addressee, Pietro Martinelli, brings up a website with some history of the Italian-Swiss migration to California during the Gold Rush ( http://pamle.blogspot.com/2008/12/on-wings-of-gold.html ):

Between 1852 and 1856 alone, nearly 1,000 men, and two women, abandoned a single Swiss valley for California... One Italian Swiss could meet another and know instinctively from his last name what village in the old country he came from. They would speak, not in the standard Italian of Tuscany, but in a northern, Lombard-Italian mountain dialect that incorporated bits of German and French, as might be expected from the tri-lingual country they came from. For the Italian Swiss were neither ‘real’ Italians nor ‘real’ Swiss. They did not come from the kingdom that had united itself into Italy by the 1860s, although they ate the same food and went to the same church, the ‘o’ ‘i’ of their names sounded Italian, their accents were Italian. But they weren’t Swiss either, in the sense of alpenhorns, chocolate, or rich bankers. That was German and French Switzerland, separated from Italian Switzerland by a high mountain range, and by religion, language and culture. They were what they called each other, Ticinese, for the river Ticino that flows through the canton of that name, the only of Switzerland’s 20 cantons and six half-cantons where Italian is the first language, where the half-timbered houses of northern Switzerland give way to the red tiled roofs of the Mediterranean world.”

FKW Census E155. Trip ET-133. Illustrated in The Pony Express: A Postal History (p. 78). Ex Dale-Lichtenstein (who purchased the cover from Klemann in November 1924, sold in H. R. Harmer sale, May 13, 2004, lot 1517, for $425,000 hammer). With 2003 P.F. certificate stating It is a genuine usage, the cover cleaned to remove staining.” (Image)

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VERY FINE. ONE OF TWO RECORDED $4.00 BLACK PONY EXPRESS COVERS, BOTH ORIGINATING IN HAWAII AND CARRIED ON THE SAME PONY TRIP. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT COVERS IN UNITED STATES POSTAL HISTORY.

The first Pony Express stamps were issued in April 1861 after Wells Fargo & Co. became involved in operating the express. The Horse & Rider stamps bear the Wells Fargo & Co. name, and they were first issued in $2.00 Red and $4.00 Green denominations to pay the single and double rate per half-ounce. When the $1.00 per half-ounce contract rate took effect on July 1, 1861, a new set of stamps was needed. The July 1861 Horse & Rider issue comprises the $1.00 Red, $2.00 Green and $4.00 Black. The $4.00 stamp paid the quadruple rate for a letter weighing between 1-1/2 and 2 ounces.

This envelope was used in 1861 to send documents from the U.S. consul in Honolulu, Hawaii, to John C. Underwood, the fifth auditor of the United States Treasury in Washington D.C. It has a nearly-identical mate, with the same postal markings applied on the same days, and also bearing a $4.00 Black Pony stamp. The only differences between the two covers are the color of the consulate label--red on this cover and green on the other--and the notation By Pony--Vouchers by regular mail” on the other cover.

Each of the $4.00 Black Pony covers has the McRuer & Merrill backstamp, which indicates that this private firm was responsible for transmission of both letters from Hawaii to San Francisco. McRuer & Merrill is listed in the 1861 Langley San Francisco city directory (Valentine & Co., publishers) as follows: McRuer (D.) Co. & Merrill (John C.), auction, shipping, and commission merchants, agents Honolulu packets, 117 and 119 California, dwl 18 Laurel Place.” It is possible that McRuer & Merrill wrote $4 Pony” in pencil on each cover and paid for the stamps. The presence of the large Wells Fargo & Co. double-circle datestamp on each cover is unusual, suggesting that McRuer & Merrill may have brought them to a Wells Fargo & Co. agent, who then turned them over to someone else responsible for preparing Pony Express mail for the trip.

The $4.00 Black Pony cover offered here reached the market through H. P. Atherton. In a 1932 advertisement, he stated For Sale--A perfect $4.00 Black W-F Pony Stamp used on a large Envelope bearing a red seal of The U.S. Consulate at Hawaii, on the reverse. Price on application. H. P. Atherton, 1562 Main St., Springfield, Mass.” The red seal” identifies this cover as the one sold by Atherton, and the Halls’ notation on back identifies him as the source in 1932. When the Hall collection was sold by the Siegel firm in 2000, this cover realized $325,000 hammer (Sale 830, lot 822).

The other cover--with the green seal--was in the Henry Needham collection, which Eugene Costales handled in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. John R. Boker Jr. reported that he acquired all of the Needham material with the exception of the $4.00 Black Pony cover that Costales promised to Alfred F. Lichtenstein. That cover was sold in the May 2004 H. R. Harmer sale of the Dale-Lichtenstein Pony Express collection, realizing $525,000 hammer.

With Philatelic Foundation certificate number 350,000, issued to the Estate of John H. Hall, Jr., on August 15, 2000, stating it is a genuine usage.” FKW Census E141. Trip ET-125. Ex Atherton and Hall. (Image)

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A VERY FINE AND UNIQUE ENSEMBLE OF BLOCKS FROM THE WELLS FARGO & CO. $1.00 GARTER PROOF SHEET WITH THE SAMPLE OVERPRINT.

There are three recorded blocks of the $1.00 Garter plate proof which originally formed a large multiple with the word Sample” written across it (see Wells, Fargo & Company 1861 Pony Express Issues, p. 16). A digital reconstruction of the Garter sheet format is shown here.

Left block ex Kuphal. Right block ex Golden. (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE. THIS EXTRAORDINARY CORNER SHEET-MARGIN STRIP OF THREE IS THE ONLY RECORDED UNUSED MULTIPLE OF THE $1.00 PONY EXPRESS GARTER STAMP.

The Horse & Rider stamps were never used on westbound Pony Express mail. In Rate Period 3, Wells Fargo & Co. introduced a special franked envelope for westbound mail, but its use was extremely limited. On July 1, 1861, the new contract rate went into effect. On August 12, 1861, Wells Fargo & Co. announced in the New York papers that Pony Express Envelopes” were Now ready and for sale at our office.” Although this announcement refers only to envelopes,” in fact both the franked entires and $1.00 adhesive stamps were put on sale in August 1861.

The small belt-shaped Garter” stamp looks nothing like the Horse & Rider issues and omits the words Pony Express.” Although Nesbitt was identified as the maker of the franks and Garter issue in an 1867 article, subsequent writers mistakenly attributed the Garter printing to Britton & Rey. Around the year 2000 a Garter stamp was found with the imprint G. F. Nesbitt & Co. N.Y.” (see lot 39 in this sale).

The Garter was printed from a lithographic stone of 20 subjects, arranged 5 across and 4 high, based on the corner margin strip and three blocks printed on card with the word Sample” written across them. A digital reconstruction of the sheet layout is shown opposite.

The Garter stamp is extremely rare in any form. The strip of three offered here is the only recorded unused multiple on regular paper. Only four covers are recorded, including two from New York City and two from Boston, dated from August 24 (lot 41) to October 26, 1861.

Ex Hall. With 2001 P.F. certificate. (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. THE DISCOVERY EXAMPLE OF A NESBITT IMPRINT ON THE FAMOUS $1.00 PONY EXPRESS GARTER STAMP, THE PRODUCT OF GEORGE F. NESBITT & CO., THE PROMINENT NEW YORK PRINTER WHO PRODUCED THE NESBITT SERIES OF UNITED STATES POSTAL STATIONERY.

George F. Nesbitt & Company is best known for its extensive work in printing books, trade cards, advertising materials and the first U.S. government stamped envelopes. Although Nesbitt was identified as the maker of the franked envelopes and Garter issue in an 1867 article about the Pony Express stamps, subsequent writers mistakenly attributed the Garter printing to Britton & Rey, the San Francisco printers who produced the Horse & Rider issues. Around the year 2000 the Garter stamp offered here was found, bearing the imprint G. F. Nesbitt & Co. N.Y.” and providing conclusive evidence of the printer.

Ex Gruys. (Image)

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