Sale No: 836
Lot No: 232
Symbol:
Cat No: Collection
|
1st AFGHAN WAR - CAMPAIGN LETTER TO G.B. ENDORSED "PER STEAMER CARE OF WAGHORN & Co."; Remarkable 13 Aug. 1839 EL (minor reinforcing of parts of folds, short closed tear and light dusting; seal lost with a few words of contents) from Lieut. "Richard Maule" of the Bengal Artillery to his brother & sister-in-law in Bath written from "Lalpoora" (now known as Laalpur; described by the writer as "the first Station, or rather Town, West of the Khybar Pass") in Afghanistan endorsed "Per Steamer. Care of Waghorn & Co." on the front and having a fair red oval-framed Bombay "INDIA" with a "3/6" charge; on the reverse is a very fine London Foreign Branch "BRITISH [1-10]/FOREIGN [1/-8]" (the via Egypt & Marseilles rate) with two 30 Oct. London transit cds's. This is one of only a handful of recorded 1st Afghan War letters routed via Waghorn, and while this cover does not have the Waghorn cachet, it travelled on the same sailing from Bombay to Suez as the 4 May 1839 letter from Kandahar to Devon that has the cachet in the Heddergott Collection (Ed. d'Or, p.214). The lengthy and graphic cross-written contents include a full account of the recent crossing of the British Army across the border into Afghanistan; "...20th July... [when] we recommenced out March. Two days brought us to the Mouth of the [Khyber] Pass... we had to fight our way there as far as the famed Allie Masjid. This was done by crowning height after height...Allie Masjid itself is... built upon a high & rather precipitous rock and so commands the passage which whorls around it and is very narrow... We have got through the remainder of the Pass without another shot being fired... These Khyberies will attack one or two stragglers and murder them as sure as Fate... We march again tomorrow [towards Cabul]...Ghaznie has been taken by assault... Shah Sooja ool Mulk is in occupation of Cabool, and we do but await his orders to join him, with his eldest son, Shalizada Timour, who is under our charge... we have at any rate got the start on the Russians... [I] should like to remain at Cabool for a year...". He did stay in Afghanistan, but he was murdered at Kahdarrah on 3 Nov. 1841. Plus a 30 July 1835 EL from Maule at Dum Dum (also to Bath) with partly fine scarce black oval "DUM DUM/POST OFFICE" and boxed "LIVERPOOL/INDIA SHIP LR." Important and previously unrecorded 1st Afghan War Campaign letter which also has a Waghorn connection. (2 covers)Cross Reference: FORWARDING AGENTS, INDIA, MILITARY, EGYPT (Image)
|
Opening GBP 4,800.00
Sold...GBP 4,800.00
Closed..Jun-02-2021, 07:25:32 EST
Sold For 4800
|
