| 1617 |
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 2c Black, E. Grill (87). Perfs in, used with
vertical strip of four 10c Green (68), the strip is wrapped around the front and back and the 2c is affixed on back, all stamps struck with or tied by circular cork cancel, "Danvers Mass. Jun. 10" (1868) circular datestamp on cover to
Manila, the Philippines, addressed to the captain of the Wild Rover in care of Ker & Co. (one of the oldest trading firms in the Philippines, which still exists), sender's directive "Via Marseilles" and correctly prepaid 42c, New
York foreign-mail office first applied "20" credit handstamp, but additional postage on back was detected and red crayon used to cross out "20" and restate credit as "32", red "New York Paid All Br. Transit Jun. 11" transit datestamp on back, red
London Paid transit datestamp (Jun. 22, 1868), red crayon "1" (1p) Colonial rate, Hong Kong (Aug. 12) and Manila (Aug. 17) backstamps, "2" cuartos due handstampVERY FINE. THIS IS BELIEVED TO BE THE ONLY BLACK JACK ISSUE USED ON COVER TO THE
PHILIPPINES. A MAGNIFICENT FOREIGN-MAIL USAGE OF THE STAMP AND IN PRISTINE CONDITION. This cover was properly prepaid 42c for the rate to the Philippines by British Mail via Marseilles, but the sender's decision to apply some of the stamps on
the back evidently led to confusion in the New York foreign-mail office. After marking the cover with a "20" credit, the additional postage was detected and the credit to Great Britain was restated as "32" cents. The cover was carried on the North
German Lloyd America from New York on June 11, 1868, and arrived in Southampton on June 22. It crossed the Channel to Calais and then traveled by rail to Marseilles, from which point it was carried on the regular Peninsular & Oriental steamer
route to Hong Kong, arriving August 12. A ship conveyed the letter on the last leg to Manila, arriving on August 17. Although the George Peirce correspondence (the "Manila Find") furnished the market with a previously unknown cache of covers to
Manila from the 1860-1875 period, to the best of our knowledge none of those covers have a Black Jack stamp paying part of the postage (most are 12c and 30c combinations). This cover is addressed to Horace S. Taylor, captain of the Wild Rover,
a commercial vessel that plied the route between the United States and Far East in the 1860s (he and the ship are mentioned in Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima on Google Books). We know of no other covers to the Philippines from the
Taylor correspondence. Illustrated and described in Ashbrook's Special Service. Ex Krug and Dr. Rorke. (Image) Search for comparables at SiegelAuctions.com |
E. $ 3,000-4,000
SOLD for $1,800.00
Will close during Public Auction |
