The Civil War, featuring the 'Ambassador' Collection continued...

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FINE APPEARING AND SCARCE DOUBLE-RATE FRANKING WITH A PAIR OF THE ATHENS PROVISIONAL.

Ex Powell. With 2015 P.F. certificate (Image)

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FINE. ONE OF ONLY TWELVE RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE ATHENS 5-CENT RED PROVISIONAL.

Our census contains one half-cover and seven genuine covers with the 5c Red. This count accords with the Crown census. All genuine examples are dated in March or April 1862. In addition, we record three used off-cover examples and the original-gum example from the Sharrer collection (Siegel Sale 1035, lot 6).

Ex Ferrary and with his trefoil backstamp, ex Felton and from our 1995 Rarities sale. With 1989 C.S.A. certificate (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF THE FINEST OF THE SEVEN RECORDED COVERS BEARING THE RARE ATHENS 5-CENT RED PROVISIONAL STAMP AND THE ONLY EXAMPLE ON AN INTACT UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA CORNER CARD COVER.

Our census contains one half-cover and seven genuine covers with the 5c Red, which accords with the Crown census. All genuine examples are dated in March or April 1862. Based on margins, overall condition and the University of Georgia corner card, this cover ranks among the two finest in our opinion. In addition, we record three used off-cover examples and an original-gum example of the 5c Red.

Ex Caspary, where it was the most prominently featured 5X2 cover among the four examples he owned (three full covers and one half cover) and ex Dr. Graves and Wishnietsky. From our 1982 Rarities sale. Weill backstamp. Scott value as a normal cover without premium for the corner card (Image)

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VERY FINE. FEWER THAN A DOZEN PATRIOTIC COVERS ARE KNOWN WITH THE ATLANTA PROVISIONAL HANDSTAMP. THE COVER OFFERED HERE -- DATED ON JULY 4 WITH A MATCHING LETTERHEAD AND SOLDIER'S LETTER -- IS AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE.

Ex MacBride (with his pencil note on back) and Dr. Brandon. (Image)

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Get Market Data for [United States (Confederate States) 6XU2]

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VERY FINE AND CHOICE COVER. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED EXAMPLE OF THE DISTINCTIVE POSTMASTER'S PROVISIONAL STAR-IN-CIRCLE HANDSTAMP OF AUTAUGAVILLE, ALABAMA. ONE OF THE GREAT RARITIES OF CONFEDERATE PROVISIONALS.

Autaugaville, situated on the Alabama River about 25 miles west of Montgomery, had a Civil War population of less than 1,500. Its postmaster, Albert William McNeel, seized all U.S. Post Office Dept. property and turned it over to the Confederacy. During the provisional period, Postmaster McNeel used two different handstamps to make provisional envelopes and both are among the great rarities of Confederate philately. The earlier type is this fancy Star in Circle handstamp and this cover is the only recorded example. The second type is a brass handstamp with negative design similar to the appearance of the Athens adhesive provisional, of which only four examples are recorded (Scott 10XU1, see our Dr. Brandon Sale 1073, lot 211).

Ex Walcott, Caspary, Lilly, Gallagher and Dr. Agre. Scott value for both Nos. 10XU1 and 10XU2 is $20,000.00, despite the unique nature of 10XU2 (Image)

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VERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF ONLY SIX RECORDED BATON ROUGE PROVISIONAL COVERS WITH THE PRINTED RETURN CARD OF GEORGE A.PIKE, BELIEVED TO BE THE PRINTER OF THE STAMPS. THIS IS THE ONLY ONE OF THE SIX PRINTED IN STAMP-MATCHING GREEN AND CARMINE COLORS AND IN A STYLE THAT MIMICS THE STAMP -- AS WELL AS THE ONLY PIKE STATIONERY PROVISIONAL COVER ACCOMPANIED BY A SIGNED PIKE LETTER. AN OUTSTANDING ARTIFACT OF CIVIL WAR POSTAL HISTORY.

George A. Pike was the publisher of the local Baton Rouge newspaper Daily Gazette and Comet. He was also a job printer and is believed to have printed the Baton Rouge provisionals. A biography of Pike is available at the Library of Congress Chronicling America” website (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88083120 ):

In December 1856, George A. Pike’s Morning Comet and George C. McWhorter’s Baton Rouge Daily Gazette were consolidated to form the Daily Gazette and Comet, which Pike edited with Rev. William H. Crenshaw. The brother of prominent Baton Rouge landowner and businessman William S. Pike, George Pike had been an outspoken member of the anti-Catholic, nativist Know-Nothing Party, which he promoted as editor of the Morning Comet and its predecessor the Daily Comet. By 1856 the party had split over the issue of slavery, whereupon Pike, now editor of the Daily Gazette and Comet, shifted his focus to the growing sectional crisis between North and South.

Pike opposed southern secession and called for compromise on the issue of slavery. In the presidential election of 1860, he supported Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell of Tennessee and his running mate Edward Everett of Massachusetts. However, he also spoke favorably of pro-Union Democrat Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Louisiana secessionists whom Pike criticized included Senator John Slidell and Governor Thomas Overton Moore. In the months leading up to the election, the Daily Gazette and Comet reported on the activities of Unionists in and around Baton Rouge and on meetings of Bell and Douglas clubs. (The city ultimately cast the majority of its votes for Bell.) After the election, the paper reported local and regional responses to Lincoln’s victory. Pike himself disagreed with Republican ideology in regard to slavery but considered Lincoln to have been fairly elected and encouraged southerners to adopt a "wait and see" attitude.

Published Tuesday through Saturday in four pages, the Daily Gazette and Comet consisted primarily of advertisements and thus helps document Baton Rouge’s commercial life on the eve of the Civil War. Although the city’s population was then only about 5,500, it was one of the most important shipping centers on the lower Mississippi River and had served as Louisiana’s capital for eleven years. In addition to business news, Pike reported on sessions of the state legislature. Also of interest is news related to other local institutions, including the Louisiana Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind and the newly founded Louisiana Historical Society, which Pike served as secretary.

Publication of the Daily Gazette and Comet was suspended for about two months during the Civil War and appears to have ceased entirely by war’s end in favor of a weekly edition with which it had been published concurrently since 1856.”

There are six recorded Baton Rouge Provisional covers with the George A. Pike printed return card. Each of the others is printed in blue and in a style that more closely resembles the enclosed letter with this cover. This return card is printed in stamp-matching green and carmine and also has a machine-turned design similar in style to the design in the stamps. This is the only recorded Pike return card Baton Rouge Provisional with this stamp-mimicking design, and is especially desirable with the Pike signed letter. (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE EXAMPLE OF THE 5-CENT BATON ROUGE PROVISIONAL WITH MALTESE CROSS BORDER. ONE OF THE FINEST ON-COVER EXAMPLES WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED.

The addressee, Jeanie Mort Walker, authored a book on the Civil War with the catchy title, Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban Martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the U.S. and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history and secret marine service of the late civil war in America.

Ex Emerson, Caspary, Freeland, Dr. Graves and "D.K." collection. With 2012 P.F. certificate (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE. A PARTICULARLY CHOICE EXAMPLE OF THE BATON ROUGE 5-CENT PROVISIONAL WITH MALTESE CROSS BORDER ON A FRESH COVER.

Position 5 -- the top right position from the sheet of ten -- yields the only Type C border alignment position on the Baton Rouge 5c plate.

From our 1987 Rarities sale. With 2007 C.S.A. certificate. (Image)

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