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Worldwide Stamps & Postal History continued...

United States continued...
LotNo. Symbol Cat No. Lot Description
807 cover   image1840 (September 14), Mills Point, Kentucky (now Hickman), to Fayette, Mississippi, stampless folded letter, red circular MILLS POINT / KY. (14 Sep) dispatch datestamp and manuscript "25" rate, reverse with contemporary docketing "S. B. Owen's Letter / With Rect [Receipt] enclosed," unusually fresh, very fine.

Written by S. B. Owen to John M. Faulks, the letter provides a glimpse into the chaotic financial landscape of the American South following the Panic of 1837. Owen discusses the urgent need to convert "Union" money into more stable currency, instructing Faulks to go to Natchez or elsewhere to get the money "shaved off," a contemporary term for selling depreciated bank notes at a discount, in exchange for as much "Louisiana money" as possible, emphasising that if Faulks sends the "Union" money directly it will be "of no use to me." (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3)

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Estimate C$ 120

Currently...C$60.00
Will close during Public Auction
808 cover   image1843 (August 6), Carlisle, Kentucky, manuscript cancel, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, stampless folded letter on striking yellow paper, manuscript "Carlisle Ky / Aug 6" dispatch and "18¾" (cents) rate for the single-sheet rate for distances between 150 and 400 miles, addressed to J.A. Chappelle with extensive contemporary docketing, some minor archival tape reinforcement on internal folds, extremely fresh, with historically interesting political contents enclosed.

Written by W.W. Fritts on the "morning of the last day of the Election," the letter provides a feverish blow-by-blow account of the 1843 campaign's climax, describing "great excitement" as the Whigs and the "Lokies" (Locofocos/Democrats) are "raking the hills and the hollows" for every last vote, with real-time tallies for candidates Linnell and Tibbatts, news of the likely removal of the Mason County courthouse to Maysville, and the apparent victory of a candidate named Gaines, the letter closing with Fritts jokingly anticipating his own "stumbling and falling down" in the big city of "Phillydelphy" like a "green horn." (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5)

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Estimate C$ 120

Currently...C$60.00
Will close during Public Auction
809 cover   image1845 (March 21), Isle of Mull to New York, stampless transatlantic letter with slavery content, from Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Scotland to New York, carried by the Cunard steamer Acadia, struck with sharp boxed Tobermory datestamp (21 Mar), prepaid in manuscript “1/-” for the British packet rate, transiting London with red Paid datestamp (3 Apr) and black oval backstamp (4 Apr), blue manuscript “12”, full black wax seal on reverse, quite fresh and very fine.

A fascinating family and ecclesiastical letter from Mary Macleod to her cousin, the Rev. John Neil Macleod, including forceful commentary on the contemporary controversy surrounding the Free Church of Scotland, condemning the “strife and contention” of the Disruption and questioning acceptance of funds from American slaveholders, asking how they could denounce brethren at home while “resorting to such a place to get Money.” (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5) (Image 6)

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Estimate C$ 200

Currently...C$100.00
Will close during Public Auction
810 cover   image1845 (July 15), St. Augustine, Florida, to Turks Islands, forwarded via New York, stampless folded entire, circular ST. AUGUSTINE / FLA. (July 15) c.d.s. in red, manuscript "10" rate crossed-out, clear strike of red oval "Forwarded by / GEO. & JOHN LAURIE / NEW YORK" handstamp on reverse, small central stain from seal, else a fine and scarce example of early Florida statehood mail to an uncommon destination.

The contents comprise a six-page letter signed "SPA," written months after Florida's admission as the 27th state. The author is scathing of President Polk's administration, writing "the new President has pursued the system of most of his predecessors and displaced many an honest man that he might Polk his favorites into office," and noting the "Locofocos [radical Democrats] have carried every election." The letter also addresses the resolution of the Arredondo claim, a landmark case involving nearly 300,000 acres, with "Col. Lewis from Alabama" securing 60,000 acres. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5) (Image 6) (Image 7)

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Estimate C$ 400

Currently...C$200.00
Will close during Public Auction
811 cover   image1845 (November 17), Houston, Republic of Texas, to Bastrop, Texas Ranger's cover, struck with circular HOUSTON / TEX (Nov 17) dispatch and black "10" due rate handstamp, manuscript sender's address "W. Nicholson Comp. D Texas Rangers," some light staining at lower left, BGM owner's mark on back, a fine Texas Ranger's cover.

Mailed forty-two days before the December 29 annexation of Texas, the sender, W. Nicholson of Company D, was a member of the Texas Rangers, the force responsible for frontier defence during this volatile transition period. (Image 1) (Image 2)

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Estimate C$ 200

Currently...C$100.00
Will close during Public Auction
812 O 2 image1847, 10c black Washington on bluish paper, used, four close to ample margins, struck with bold red grid cancel and partial c.d.s., also in red, small repaired tear at lower left, else of very fine and fresh appearance, signed Pfenninger. (Image 1)

Get Market Data for [United States 2] View Visual Pricing Guide Make Sample Census

Scott U$ 850

Currently...C$50.00
Will close during Public Auction
813 cover   image1849 (March 21), Richmond, Virginia, to Paris, France, stampless transatlantic letter, struck with red RICHMOND / Va. (21 Mar) c.d.s. with matching PAID and 5 rate markings, manuscript "Per packet for Havre via New York" routing instruction, red OUTRE-MER / LE HAVRE (28 Apr) entry strike and manuscript "6" decime due on arrival in France, black LIGNE-DU-HAVRE (28 Apr 49) TPO c.d.s. on reverse, lovely quality, very fine.

Written during the period in transatlantic postal history between February 1848 and October 1850, following the failure of the Herout & de Handel Line, when direct mail to France reverted to classic Havre sailing packets, the contents, from an American merchant to Auguste Faviel in Paris, contain commercial intelligence on tobacco and produce markets in the wake of the 1848 French Revolution. (Image 1) (Image 2)

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Estimate C$ 80

Currently...C$80.00
Will close during Public Auction
814 cover   image1849 (October 22), Kaskaskia, Illinois, to San Francisco, California, Gold Rush period stampless cover, black circular KASKASKIA / ILL. (Nov 30) datestamp and manuscript "40" heavy water staining and age-toning, but with exceptional contents detailing life accompanied by original four-page letter from Jane Seymour with fascinating historical contents related to Cholrea, a mail boat disaster, and the challenges faced by California-bound pioneers.

Written to her father, who had departed for California via Fort Laramie, Jane Seymour provides a harrowing account of the cholera epidemic, with neighbours "afraid of the Cholera," noting one death from "the congestive chill." She further references a "mail boat at St. Louis burned about the last of August" with the loss of "about 2 hundred pounds of letters from the emigrants," likely referring to the burning of the steamboat Algoma or a similar disaster on the chaotic post-Great Fire waterfront, explaining a catastrophic loss for those en route to California who relied on St. Louis as their final communication hub. The letter further describes the booming California economy, with a man making "ten dollars a day clear," and local frontier news including a stabbing at a party and the appointment of a new Land Office judge. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5) (Image 6)

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Estimate C$ 250

Currently...C$150.00
Will close during Public Auction
815 cover   image1849 (December 25), Ferrisburgh, Vermont, to San Francisco, "Upper California", Gold Rush era stampless cover & letter, bearing black NEW YORK / 40 (Jan 17) datestamp, denoting the transcontinental fee for distances over 3,000 miles, manuscript routing "per Cherokee" at upper left referring to the steamship carrying the mail via the Chagres (Panama) route, significant edge wear and central vertical crease, but scarce.

Written on Christmas Day by Anna R.M. to her husband Lloyd Minturn on the anniversary of his departure, she expresses sharp scepticism of the Gold Rush, comparing the current "mania in California" to previous failed land speculations and lamenting the "shamefully neglected" Pacific mail service, mentioning the arrival of Bayard Taylor whose accounts of California as a "good wheat country" contrasted sharply with other reports of a barren land where nothing could be raised. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5)

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Estimate C$ 150

Currently...C$80.00
Will close during Public Auction
816 cover   image1852 (August 31), Dennistoun, Wood, & Co, forwarded from Brazil, stampless folded letter to New Orleans, datelined Rio de Janeiro, and endorsed internally "pr. 'Plato' via New York", franked with 3c Washington, tied by crisp New York c.d.s., reverse with choice strike of oval "FORWARDED BY / DENNISTOUN, WOOD, & CO / NEW-YORK", very fine. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5) (Image 6)

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Estimate C$ 100

Currently...C$70.00
Will close during Public Auction
817 cover   image1852-1853, four Gold Rush period letters to California via Panama, incoming from Great Britain, from the Gibb Correspondence to San Francisco, sent at the height of the Gold Rush, each with route directive identifying a named ship - the Northerner (25 Aug 1852), Tennessee (11 Jan 1853), Columbus (21 May 1853), and Golden Gate (18 Jul 1853), the covers further displaying a range of Glasgow Paid octagonal datestamps, black Paid handstamps, green Liverpool transit diamonds, all with clear strikes, a fine-very fine and interesting quartet, the Tennessee later being wrecked at Tennessee Cove in April 1853, while the Golden Gate was lost to fire in 1862. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5) (Image 6) (Image 7) (Image 8) (Image 9) (Image 10) (Image 11) (Image 12)

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Estimate C$ 200

Currently...C$120.00
Will close during Public Auction
818 cover   image1853 (February 1), Gibb correspondence cover from Glasgow to San Francisco, stampless folded letter from Wellpark Brewery, carried via Panama, struck with bold orange-yellow Glasgow Paid octagonal datestamp (1 Feb) and red Paid transit marking, endorsed “via Panama,” the interior with manuscript arrival docket “Recd p Str California 25 Mar / 53,” some typical light wear, otherwise fine-very fine.

An interesting Gold Rush period commercial letter, the contents lamenting the “severe loss” occasioned by the detention of the Hindostan at Valparaiso and seeking details of that prolonged delay, while further instructing their San Francisco agents to realise the “best price attainable” for consignments of bottled liquor and strong ale owing to the depressed local market. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4)

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Estimate C$ 150

Currently...C$90.00
Will close during Public Auction
819 cover   image1853 (February 14), Marysville, California, to New Bedford, Massachusetts, Gold Fields origin, stampless folded letter from "New York Ranch", dual strikes of blue circular MARYSVILLE / CAL. datestamp and matching blue "10" rate handstamp, light filing fold, else fresh and fine-very fine.

Written by C.R. Bessellen on 29 January 1853 from the California gold fields, the letter addresses a proposal to build a house and store on a vacant lot estimated at $1,000, which Bessellen declines, stating his "purse does not over go $300" and expressing a profound aversion to debt, noting he will be better able to discuss such buildings in a year's time and requesting that future letters be sent to Marysville, Yuba County. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4)

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Estimate C$ 150

Currently...C$80.00
Will close during Public Auction
820 cover   image1853 (June 22), Volcano, California, to Mansfield, Massachusetts, Gold Rush era folded letter, with clear circular VOLCANO / CAL. despatch postmark and matching "(10)" rate circular handstamp at upper right, addressed to Mr. Joseph Winslow, light aging, else a fine with interesting mining content.

Written by S.W. Leonard to his uncle from the "middle mines" of Calaveras County, the letter reports that his six-man company has secured promising claims on Sutter Creek, earning between $5 and $11 per day each, with tantalising reports of a Frenchman extracting $100 per load the previous year, though Leonard admits his team has not yet "got down deep enough" to verify such wealth. He notes board at $7 per week and characterises the local population of Volcano as "steady working men" with "no place of resort here for evil purposes," closing with a weary hope that he will not be "obliged to take another tramp of this kind" while in California. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4)

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Estimate C$ 150

Currently...C$80.00
Will close during Public Auction
821 cover   image1853 (October 20), Princeton, Kentucky, folded letter with slavery-related content, to the Clerk of the Henderson Circuit Court, stampless double-rate legal packet, clean blue circular PRINCETON / KY. dispatch and manuscript "10" rate for an "over ½ oz" filing, multi-page deposition regarding the insolvency of Rev. John Barnett, all original red wax seals and clerk certifications intact, very fine.

The document centres on a sworn interrogation of Dr. J.L. McNary, designed to uncover whether Rev. John Barnett, a founder of Cumberland College and prominent figure in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, had hidden assets after fleeing the county under a cloud of debt. The court demands to know if Barnett "owned in the latter part of [1839] any slaves" and whether he had "disposed of all his slaves before that time." (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4)

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Estimate C$ 150

Currently...C$80.00
Will close during Public Auction
822 cover   image1854 (January 31), Yucca City, California, to Mexico, Maine, Gold Rush stampless folded letter, with contents pertaining to Gregory's and Adams Express, struck with circular SACRAMENTO / CAL. c.d.s. and "10" cent rate handstamp, comprising two separate letters - "Yucca City Dec 21st 1853" (one page) and "Jany 3d 1854" (two pages) - both from H.G. Barnard to his wife Elmina, remarkably fresh, with contents providing exceptional insight into the perception of the various Express companies operating in the area, in comparison to the postal service.

Barnard writes of ethnic tensions on the California frontier: "the mines are crowded with Chinees, & Kannakers [native Hawaiians]... & they are fighting & quarrelling about the water." He notes a fellow mason who "sent one thousand dollars home by Gregorys Express which has failed & he has lost it all," while "Adams [Express] is safe." Writing from his "dark cabbin" with flour at 30 cents per pound and "mud mud almost over boots," he explains the miners' preference for waiting weeks for the 10-cent government mail rather than paying the "two dollars" charged by private expresses. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5)

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Estimate C$ 300

Currently...C$150.00
Will close during Public Auction
823 cover   image1854 (July 1), San Francisco to Herford, Westphalia, Prussia, Gold Rush era folded letter, sent at the 30¢ single letter rate under the 1852 U.S.-Prussian Postal Convention, black SAN FRANCISCO / CAL. c.d.s. with PAID and 30 handstamps, red NEW YORK / BR. PKT. / PAID / 7 (26 Jul) transit with 7¢ credit for British Packet carriage and Belgian transit, red "FRANCO" and black "PAID" handstamps, Aachen (8 Aug) transit and next-day Herford receiver, carried by P.M.S.Co. Golden Gate to Panama and U.S.M.S.Co. Illinois to New York, very fine.

Sender August Weihe writes to his mother in a six-page letter offering a portrait of German immigrant life in San Francisco. He expresses relief that his brother Theodor did not come, warning that in a city of San Francisco's "importance" a young man either "acquires a solid position for the future... or is ruined for his whole life." He describes a traumatic visit to dentist Dr. Burbank where the sight of surgical instruments triggered a memory of being surrounded by an "Indian camp," comparing his helplessness in the operating chair to preparing to "shoot at least two Indians dead" in self-defence. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5)

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Estimate C$ 200

Currently...C$100.00
Will close during Public Auction
824 cover   image1856 (July 3), San Francisco to Hobro, Denmark, Gold Rush-era stampless entire, manuscript "per Steamer via Panama" route directive struck through, blue double-oval handstamp of Hamburg forwarder August Joseph Schön, entered the mails with black double-ring KDOPA HAMBURG (13 Aug) Royal Danish Post Office datestamp, rated "6" in red crayon for Danish inland postage due, usual commercial wear, else fine.

Written by Heinrich Seemann to his "beloved girl" Nicoline as his vessel passes through the Golden Gate, the letter reflects on fourteen months in California, noting he had been "once in Sacramento and once in San Francisco... that is all the movement I have had," before announcing his next venture: "We are now going to India... you can expect me in March or April '57," giving a contact address at "W. Pustau & Co. Hong-Kong (China)." (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5)

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Estimate C$ 200

Currently...C$100.00
Will close during Public Auction
825 cover   image1860 (January 19), Bhamdun, Lebanon to Tolland, Connecticut, transatlantic forwarded letter, Benton correspondence cover, franked with 3c Washington, tied by circular barred grid PAID cancellation, red BOSTON / MASS. transit datestamp on face, red oval FORWARDED BY / J.M. GORDON / TREASURER / A.B.C.F.M. / BOSTON handstamp on reverse, partial contents, minor edge wear, a fine and unusual usage.

Written by missionary William A. Benton to his brother Azariah from Bhamdun, Lebanon, where Benton was stationed for much of his twenty-two-year tenure in Syria, the letter describes diplomatic tensions in the Ottoman Empire, noting a visit from a representative of the American Government who "must demand a full satisfaction for the outrage," likely referring to legal and religious persecutions faced by the mission, and observing that this intervention "prepared the way for a pleasanter solution of this difficulty than we had dared to anticipate." The ABCFM (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions) was the first American Christian missionary organization, and utilised J.M. Gordon in Boston to manage mail from remote locations like Bhamdun. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3)

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Estimate C$ 200

Currently...C$100.00
Will close during Public Auction
826 cover   image1860 (October 30), Sacramento, California, to Belfast, Maine, stampless cover, struck with clear circular SACRAMENTO CITY / CAL. "40" rate handstamp, vertical manuscript notation recording receipt in Maine on 19 Dec 1850, light soiling but fresher than often found, a fine-very fine cover & letter, sent during the later period of the Gold Rush.

Written by Samuel Locke to his wife from Sacramento City, the six-page letter provides extraordinary insight into life and death in the California gold fields. Locke describes his failed attempts to recover from a "remoter fever" since August, recording that he so feeble that "to sweep the store out beats me all out," and reports the terrifying spread of cholera "raging to a fearfull rate," with forty deaths in a single week. He describes "murderers or Robbers" active every night and a neighbour killed in front of his house, and despite his desperation to return home remains trapped by poverty and illness, observing that "thousands are hear and in the mines who want to get home and cant." An exceptional account. (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) (Image 4) (Image 5)

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Estimate C$ 250

Currently...C$120.00
Will close during Public Auction

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