The William H. Gross Collection: United States Postal History continued...

5¢ Red Brown (1), horizontal pair, ample margins to full, cancelled by blue grids with matching lightly struck "Nashville Te. Feb. 13" (1851) circular datestamp on folded letter to New York City with bold "Wesley Wheless Banking House Nashville Tenn." oval handstamp, struck before the stamps were applied as they slightly overlap rim, original enclosure is dated February 12 and is on the bank's printed letterhead

Very Fine--an outstanding 5¢ 1847 cover with a beautifully struck banking house handstamp.

The USPCS census records only two examples of this banking house handstamp on an 1847 Issue cover. On the other cover (ex Dick, Rohloff and Rudy) the handstamp slightly ties the 5¢ pair so it was obviously struck after the stamps were applied--in contrast to this cover. This is by far the finer strike of the two recorded examples. The same handstamp is found on obsolete bank notes (an example is shown below, which is not part of this lot). As an interesting aside, Wesley Wheless, a British banker, died in 1861 while on a family vacation in England. His wife brought his corpse back to the U.S. hidden in a piano box packed with salt in the ship's hold, and the story is told that sharks followed the ship on its ocean journey.

Ex Katharine Matthies and Ryohei Ishikawa. Illustrated in the Chronicle 108 (p. 231). With 1993 P.F. certificate. (Image)

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5¢ Red Brown (1), large margins to in at top, tied by red grid cancel and matching "New-York Jun. 16" (1850) circular datestamp on folded letter to Vergennes, Vermont, with bold blue "From Butts' Hotel Murray St. N.Y." in chamfered frame handstamp, Extremely Fine strike of this rare hotel forwarding handstamp on a Very Fine cover, especially desirable struck on the front of the cover, the USPCS census lists only two others, both struck on the back or on the flap (see Sale 906, lot 1480), ex Pope and Boker (Image)

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5¢ Brown (1), horizontal pair, large margins nearly all around, just touched at upper left, rich color, tied by red square grid cancels applied at post office with matching "New-York Mar. 11" (1848) circular datestamp on blue folded letter to Lockport, New York, pair also cancelled by blue 4-bar grids with matching "Rathbun's Hotel New York" circular hotel forwarder's handstamp, one word in address crossed out in contemporary manuscript, a few tiny toned spots touching pair, Very Fine and rare, since no other cover from Lockport is known with the 4-bar grid, we can rule out the possibility that the stamps were cancelled on arrival, leaving the only other explanation--the grids were applied along with the Rathbun's circular handstamp in the same blue ink--a remarkable cover, ex Dr. Kapiloff (Image)

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