The Brandon Collection, Part 1: Postmasters' Provisionals continued...

VERY FINE. AN ATTRACTIVE COVER BEARING THE BI-COLORED PROVISIONAL STAMP OF LENOIR, NORTH CAROLINA.

James Harper (1799-1879) served as postmaster of Lenoir from 1841 until sometime in 1862 or 1863. His son, George Washington Finley (G. W. F.) Harper (1834-1921), was the assistant postmaster and, according to the written affidavits, was responsible for carving the woodcut die used to make the provisional stamps and envelopes (see Crown book, pp. 172-178, 651-652). In 1862, G. W. F. Harper enlisted as a private in Co. H, 8th Regiment, N.C. Infantry, and eventually earned the rank of major.

The Lenoir adhesive stamp is one of three bi-colored provisionals issued by Southern postmasters (the others were issued at Baton Rouge La. and Greenville Ala.). Approximately 29 covers bearing the Lenoir adhesive stamp are known. The same woodcut device was applied directly to envelopes, as evidenced by the one recorded cut square with the single 5c impression (Scott 49XU1) and the unique 5c plus 5c entire (Scott 49XU2).

Ex Worthington and Engel. With 1971 C.S.A. certificate (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE. ONE OF ONLY NINE RECORDED COVERS SHOWING CONJUNCTIVE USE OF A CONFEDERATE POSTMASTER'S PROVISIONAL AND A GENERAL ISSUE STAMP -- AND THE ONLY RECORDED CONJUNCTIVE USE WITH THE LEXINGTON MISS. PROVISIONAL.

We record a total of nine covers with combinations of Confederate provisionals (either adhesive, press printed or handstamped) and General Issue stamps to prepay postage -- we have excluded from this count a few covers on which the provisional served no postal duty. In our opinion, these combination frankings are significant and quite undervalued -- imagine what price would be paid for a Baltimore provisional handstamped entire with a U.S. 5c 1847 stamp, or a St. Louis "Bear" and 1847 combination.

The following is a list of the eight mixed-franking covers: 1) Columbia S.C. (18XU1) and 5c Green (1), Jan. 4, 1862, Siegel Sale 810, lot 1862

2) Columbia S.C. (18XU1) and 5c Green (1), Jan. 1, 1862, Crown book, p. 80, offered in lot 223

3) Columbia S.C. (18XU1) and 5c Blue, Local (7), Sep. 1, 1862, Siegel Sale 810, lot 1861

4) Charleston S.C. (16X1, repaired) and 5c Blue, London (6), Aug. 5, 1862

5) Lexington Miss. 5c Black entire (50XU1) and 5c Light Blue, London (6), Oct. 1862, the cover offered here

6) Memphis Tenn. 5c Red entire (56XU2) and 5c Green (1), Nov. 20, 1861, offered in lot 299

7) New Orleans La. 5c Brown on Blue (62X4) and 5c Green (1), Jan. 11, 1862, Siegel 1983 Rarities sale, ex Skinner, Siegel Sale 958, lot 794

8) Petersburg Va. 5c Red (65X1) and 5c Green (1), Jan. 5, 1862, ex Muzzy

9) Petersburg Va. 5c Red (65X1) and 5c Green (1), Feb. 7, 1862, ex Kilbourne

Ex Emerson and Caspary. With 1974 P.F. certificate (Image)

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VERY FINE. THE FINER OF TWO RECORDED COVERS FROM LIBERTY, VIRGINIA, BEARING THE 5-CENT PROVISIONAL STAMP.

The simple typeset provisional stamps known on covers from Liberty (Jul. 7 and Jul. 10) and Salem (Dec. 6 -- see Siegel Kilbourne Sale 815, lot 143) are identical and were evidently made by impressing printer's type by hand onto a sheet of paper. Salem, home to Roanoke College, had an active post office during the Confederate period. Liberty was located east of Salem on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad line between Lynchburg and Salem. The use of the same stamp at two post offices seems to us to be linked to railway activity. One of the stampless Liberty covers had a coin attached to pay postage. It is likely that the provisional stamps were available briefly to persons who sent their letters to the Liberty (or Salem) offices from outlying areas, as a means to indicate prepayment in the absence of coins or government stamps.

Ex Hart and Kilbourne (Image)

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VERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF ONLY SIX RECORDED COVERS BEARING THE LIMESTONE SPRINGS POSTMASTER'S PROVISIONAL STAMP -- WITH AN OUTSTANDING PATRIOTIC LETTERSHEET ENCLOSURE.

Five of the six known Limestone Springs covers come from the Dean correspondence, including one addressed to Lucy E. Simpson (in the handwriting of Lizzie Dean), rather than Corporal Edward J. Dean. The cover offered here and one other bear single circular die-cut stamps. Three covers bear two rectangular-cut singles each, paying the 10c rate. The sixth cover bears a rectangular-cut single. Most of the known examples are on green paper. The Scott Catalogue recently began to list the green and white papers separately.

Corporal Edward J. Dean and the Dean correspondence were the subjects of an article by the late Daniel M. Gilbert, published in the Confederate Philatelist. Joseph Walker was enrolled as captain of the Spartan Rifles on April 13, 1861. Micah Jenkins, a resident of Yorkville, South Carolina, was mustered into service as colonel of the 5th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment in June 1861. He was elected colonel of the Palmetto Sharpshooters Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, on April 13, 1862, and promoted to brigadier general in July 1862.

Ex Weatherly. With 1963 C.S.A. certificate. Accompanied by hand-colored photograph of Corporal Dean with his black attendant (Image)

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FINE. THIS STAMP IS ONE OF THE TWO ORIGINAL DISCOVERY COPIES OF THE LIVINGSTON POSTMASTER'S PROVISIONAL. THERE ARE ONLY ELEVEN RECORDED EXAMPLES, ON OR OFF COVER.

Livingston is the county seat of Sumter County, Alabama, lying on the Selma and Meriden Railroad line about 130 miles north of Mobile, near the state's western border. Official records name Stephen W. Murley as the Livingston postmaster in 1861. Although other sources attribute the stamp to another postmaster, Robert F. Houston, it seems almost certain that Murley was solely responsible for the Livingston provisional. According to research by Van Koppersmith, "Houston served as postmaster at Livingston on at least three different occasions for a total of about twenty years beginning in the late 1830's. He was also a member of the state legislature in 1839 and again in 1857-1858, about the time he began and ended his terms as postmaster. Stephen W. Murley had taken over as postmaster at Livingston well before secession and remained to become the first Confederate postmaster, serving at least until the end of 1861. A thorough search of state, county and city history books yielded very little information on either postmaster. It is interesting to note that an S. W. Murley served as the postmaster in Selma, Dallas County, for a few years around 1840. However, further research showed that his first name was Samuel." The Livingston provisional is known used in November-December 1861 and again in March 1862, coincidental with Murley's term as postmaster.

The Livingston stamps were printed from a lithographic stone. Lithography was used by only three postmasters to print provisional stamps (Charleston, Livingston and Mobile). Every transfer on the stone has a small partly-complete circle (or curl) extending into the margin below the "T" of "Cents" at bottom. The allegorical design depicting images of the South is very unusual. Only two Confederate post offices, Livingston and Mobile, issued stamps with a figurative design specifically created for stamps (the Danville postmaster used a stock image for his provisional envelopes). It is almost certain that the same printer was responsible for both the Livingston and Mobile stamps, whose imprint "W. R. Robertson Mobile" appears on the Mobile lithographic stones. The size and layout of the Livingston stone has yet to be determined, and probably never will, due to the small number of surviving copies.

Our records contain a total of 11 stamps, including the famous and unique pair on cover (Nov. 12, 1861), 6 singles on separate covers (1861--Nov. 15, Nov. 15, Nov. 25, Dec. 10; 1862--Mar. 17 and Mar. 21), and 3 off-cover stamps. One of the single frankings, a corner-margin stamp (Nov. 25 date, ex Caspary, Antrim and Cole), was severely damaged when someone attempted to remove ballpoint pen ink with an eraser.

This stamp and another single were found in 1869 by a Southern railroad employee. Used together on one cover, they are the first Livingston provisionals discovered by philatelists and were reported in The American Stamp Mercury on page 110 of volume 3 (1869). News of the discovery was later reported by J. W. Scott in the June and July 1869 editions of The American Journal of Philately. The stamp offered here was sold to Francis C. Foster. In the May 1872 edition of Stamp Collector's Monthly (p. 95) Foster gave an account of his acquisition of the stamp. "I chanced to secure the only two Livingston, Ala. provisional stamps that I ever saw or heard of, one for myself and the other for a fellow collector, both being on one envelope, duly postmarked, dated & c: but had I not received them from a young man well known to me, who discovered them in file of old letters, I should have doubted their genuineness." The other single was sold to Dr. Petrie and is ex Ferrary, Walcott, Hall and D.K. (Siegel Sale 1022, lot 1034).

Ex Foster, Caspary, Kirkman and from our 1965 Rarities sale. Raymond H. Weill backstamp (Image)

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VERY FINE APPEARING AND EXTREMELY RARE USE OF A LYNCHBURG PROVISIONAL STAMP ON AN ILLUSTRATED ADVERTISING COVER.

Major Robert Henry Glass (1822-1896) was Lynchburg's Confederate postmaster and the father of Carter Glass, a prominent U.S. congressman and senator who co-sponsored both the 1913 Glass-Owen Act, which created the Federal Reserve System, and the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act, which enforced the separation of investment banking and commercial banking, and established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

R. H. Glass was the patriarch of a Virginia family that owned the Lynchburg Daily Republican newspaper. An incident with some postal relevance occurred in 1860, when Glass' associate editor killed a rival newspaperman who had accused Glass of using his position as postmaster to prevent the delivery of his competitor's papers. The dispute nearly resulted in a duel, but was diffused by Glass' wife. An exchange of letters between Postmaster Glass and Horace Greeley, publisher of the anti-slavery New York Tribune, proves that Glass would refuse to deliver newspapers he considered "incendiary" (Leon Whipple, The Story of Civil Liberty in the United States).

According to The Confederate Postmaster Provisionals of Virginia by Richard L. Calhoun, the U.S. Post Office appointed Alexander McDonald to be Lynchburg's postmaster on March 27, 1861. Glass' appointment as C.S.A. postmaster was recommended in the C.S. Senate on July 20 and 30, and confirmed on September 6, but he probably replaced McDonald after Virginia seceded in April.

The Lynchburg typeset provisional envelope was issued very close to the June 1, 1861, inaugural date of the Confederate postal system. The earliest recorded date of use is June 4. The envelopes were press-printed from a stock "5" engraving used in bank note production and the typeset word "Paid." The subsequent adhesive provisionals, issued in August, were a step up from the envelopes and closely resemble the Memphis provisional. Postmaster Glass stated that he copied the Memphis design after seeing the stamps on incoming mail. The Lynchburg plate was stereotyped from a master woodcut engraving. The size and layout of the plate are not yet known. The production has been attributed to Glass' newspaper office, but no documentary evidence has been located.

Of the 30 Lynchburg provisional covers recorded in the Calhoun census, only three are noted to contain advertising designs, the other two bearing a fireman's water pump. Two with embossed corner cards are also recorded.

Ex Haas (Image)

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VERY FINE EXAMPLE OF THE LYNCHBURG PRESS-PRINTED PROVISIONAL, POSTMARKED TWO WEEKS AFTER THE START OF THE CONFEDERATE POSTAL SYSTEM.

Major Robert Henry Glass (1822-1896) was Lynchburg's Confederate postmaster and the father of Carter Glass, a prominent U.S. congressman and senator who co-sponsored both the 1913 Glass-Owen Act, which created the Federal Reserve System, and the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which enforced the separation of investment banking and commercial banking, and established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

R. H. Glass was the patriarch of a Virginia family that owned the Lynchburg Daily Republican newspaper. An incident with some postal relevance occurred in 1860, when Glass' associate editor killed a rival newspaperman who had accused Glass of using his position as postmaster to prevent the delivery of his competitor's papers. The dispute nearly resulted in a duel, but was diffused by Glass' wife. An exchange of letters between Postmaster Glass and Horace Greeley, publisher of the anti-slavery New York Tribune, proves that Glass would refuse to deliver newspapers he considered "incendiary" (Leon Whipple, The Story of Civil Liberty in the United States).

According to The Confederate Postmaster Provisionals of Virginia by Richard L. Calhoun, the U.S. Post Office appointed Alexander McDonald to be Lynchburg's postmaster on March 27, 1861. Glass' appointment as C.S.A. postmaster was recommended in the C.S. Senate on July 20 and 30, and confirmed on September 6, but he probably replaced McDonald after Virginia seceded in April.

The Lynchburg typeset provisional envelope was issued very close to the June 1, 1861, inaugural date of the Confederate postal system. The Calhoun census lists 15 examples of the Lynchburg provisional envelope on any kind of paper. This cover is not included in his census. The envelopes were press-printed from a stock "5" engraving used in bank note production and the typeset word "Paid." The subsequent adhesive provisionals, issued in August, were a step up from the envelopes and closely resemble the Memphis provisional. Postmaster Glass stated that he copied the Memphis design after seeing the stamps on incoming mail. The Lynchburg plate was stereotyped from a master woodcut engraving. The size and layout of the plate are not yet known. The production has been attributed to Glass' newspaper office, but no documentary evidence has been located. (Image)

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VERY FINE. A BEAUTIFUL CORNER-MARGIN COPY OF THE MACON PLAIN BORDER 5-CENT PROVISIONAL ISSUE ON COVER.

The person most likely to be the Macon postmaster who issued the provisional stamps is Dr. Edward L. Strohecker, a graduate of the Medical College of South Carolina, who was elected three times as Macon's mayor. He helped to organize the Georgia Medical Association, and travelled to visit and treat Confederate troops during the war. Another postmaster and possible stamp issuer is Washington Poe, a relative of the poet, who also served a term as mayor and was elected as a Union delegate to the Georgia Secession Convention in Milledgeville.

Based on dated examples, it is certain that the 5c with plain border was the first stamp issued in Macon, despite its Scott listing as 53X4. Almost all of the recorded covers are dated during the first half of June 1861, including an uncancelled stamp on a cover dated June 1, the first day of the Confederate postal system.

Ex Col. Green and Meroni. Small Dietz backstamp. With 1960 P.F. certificate (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE. A SUPERB EXAMPLE OF THE MACON 5-CENT FLORAL BORDER PROVISIONAL STAMP. ONE OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES KNOWN ON COVER.

The person most likely to be the Macon postmaster who issued the provisional stamps is Dr. Edward L. Strohecker, a graduate of the Medical College of South Carolina, who was elected three times as Macon's mayor. He helped to organize the Georgia Medical Association, and travelled to visit and treat Confederate troops during the war. Another postmaster and possible stamp issuer is Washington Poe, a relative of the poet, who also served a term as mayor and was elected as a Union delegate to the Georgia Secession Convention in Milledgeville.

All of the Macon provisional stamps were printed from typeset forms. The 2c and two of the three 5c settings simply state the denomination and nothing else, and they were the first stamps printed. These were followed by the four-line "square" stamp, which includes the words "Post Office" and "Macon, Ga." The order of issue is confused by the Scott Catalogue listings.

Ex Bogg. With 1970 C.S.A. certificate (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE STAMP ON A BEAUTIFUL COVER. ONLY FOUR OR FIVE EXAMPLES OF THIS WESLEYAN FEMALE COLLEGE CORNER CARD DESIGN ARE KNOWN WITH THE MACON PROVISIONAL.

The person most likely to be the Macon postmaster who issued the provisional stamps is Dr. Edward L. Strohecker, a graduate of the Medical College of South Carolina, who was elected three times as Macon's mayor. He helped to organize the Georgia Medical Association, and travelled to visit and treat Confederate troops during the war. Another postmaster and possible stamp issuer is Washington Poe, a relative of the poet, who also served a term as mayor and was elected as a Union delegate to the Georgia Secession Convention in Milledgeville.

All of the Macon provisional stamps were printed from typeset forms. The 2c and two of the three 5c settings simply state the denomination and nothing else, and they were the first stamps printed. These were followed by the four-line "square" stamp, offered here, which includes the words "Post Office" and "Macon, Ga." The order of issue is confused by the Scott Catalogue listings.

The Macon provisional with Post Office, Macon, Ga.” added to the setting is very rare on cover (Peter W. W. Powell reported 24 on cover in the Confederate Philatelist, Sep.-Oct. 2000). Only three advertising covers are known with this stamp, in addition to four or five printed college covers.

Ex Seybold (with his backstamp), Emerson, Lehman and Haas. Scott Retail for normal cover (Image)

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