The Ambassador J. William Middendorf II Collection: Classic United States and Hawaii continued...

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. MULTIPLES OF THE 5-CENT FIRST PRINTING ARE EXTREMELY RARE, AND NONE ARE KNOWN LARGER THAN A PAIR.

Ex Ostheimer, Honolulu Advertiser and Fekete. With 1954 P.F. certificate (Image)

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A FINE COVER BEARING THE 1853 5-CENT KAMEHAMEHA III ISSUE.

This cover was carried on the schooner E. L. Frost, which departed Honolulu on October 4, 1854, and arrived in San Francisco on October 28. It was then carried to Panama on the John L. Stephens, which departed November 1.

Gregory census no. 5-5. Ex Golden. (Image)

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VERY FINE. THE ONLY RECORDED EXAMPLE OF A HAWAIIAN STAMP USED ON A UNITED STATES 10-CENT NESBITT ENTIRE.

This cover was carried on the brig Agate, which departed Honolulu on December 10, 1855, and arrived in San Francisco on December 27. It was postmarked in San Francisco on January 5 (1856) when the mail was bagged for Panama. The receipt docketing identifies the letter writer as D. C. Waterman, head of a prominent Honolulu shipping and commercial firm, and gives the letter date as December 11, 1855. This is one day after the Agate is reported cleared from Honolulu in published sailing records. This date sequence and the absence of a Honolulu postmark suggest two possibilities. The first is that Waterman handed his letter to someone boarding the ship and asked them to mail it in San Francisco (if this occurred, then the sailing date was actually Dec. 11). The other possibility is that the letter was posted on board the Agate and given to the ship purser to add to the mail. In either case, the 5c Hawaiian stamp was affixed but not cancelled in Honolulu. After arrival in San Francisco, the cover was sent to Panama on the Golden Gate, which departed on January 5, 1856.

The U.S. over-3,000 miles prepaid rate was raised from 6c to 10c, beginning on April 1, 1855 (and prepayment was made compulsory for letters posted in the U.S.). The Hawaiian stamp was intended to pay the rate for internal Hawaiian postage. Normally this letter would have been charged 2c for the ship captain’s fee plus the 10c for U.S. postage, but there is no indication of how the ship fee was paid.

Fred Gregory records a total of 40 examples of Scott No. 5 on cover. Only one is known used solely with a 10c stamp (Siegel 1999 Rarities sale, lot 60). This use on a 10c Nesbitt entire is the only recorded Hawaiian Kamehameha Issue mixed franking with a U.S. embossed envelope stamp.

Gregory census no. 5-16. Ex Seybold, Barkhausen, Krug and Golden. With 1964 and 2011 P.F. certificates (Image)

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A SPECTACULAR RECONSTRUCTION OF THE 13-CENT KAMEHAMEHA III SHEET OF 20, FROM TWO BLOCKS--THE TOP BLOCK IS THE LARGEST RECORDED MULTIPLE AND ONE OF THREE, OR POSSIBLY FOUR, BLOCKS EXTANT. THE BOTTOM BLOCK WAS ORIGINALLY JOINED WITH THE TOP BLOCK IN THE SHEET.

These blocks of twelve and eight were cut from the same sheet and were seen together in the Ferrars H. Tows collection sold by Carl E. Pelander in October 1948. After the Tows auction, the blocks were sold to Alfred H. Caspary (block of eight) and Admiral Frederic R. Harris (block of twelve). When the Harris and Caspary collections were sold in 1954 and 1957, respectively, no one seized the opportunity to reunite the two. The larger block from the Harris sale went to Harold Leavitt, a California collector, and the small block from Caspary went to Josiah K. Lilly. After the Lilly collection was sold by our firm in 1967, the two blocks were finally reunited and acquired by Alfred J. Ostheimer III. Seen together again for the first time since the 1948 Tows sale, it was observed that someone, presumably Caspary, trimmed off a small part of the sheet margin of the smaller block.

Block of 12 ex Tows, Admiral Harris, Leavitt, Ostheimer, Honolulu Advertiser and Golden. Block of eight ex Tows, Caspary, Lilly, Ostheimer, Honolulu Advertiser and Golden. Mentioned in Meyer-Harris (p. 131) (Image)

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VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SHEET OF 20 OF THE 1853 13-CENT KAMEHAMEHA III ISSUE.

Ex Ishikawa and Golden. Scott Retail as pairs and singles. (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE. AN EXCEEDNGLY RARE FRANKING COMBINING BOTH KAMEHAMEHA III ISSUES AFTER THE APRIL 1855 RATE CHANGE RENDERED OBSOLETE THE 13-CENT’S ORIGINAL PURPOSE. ONLY TWO COVERS FRANKED SOLELY BY THE TWO 1853 KAMEHAMEHA III STAMPS ARE RECORDED BY FRED GREGORY.

Following the United States rate change, effective April 1, 1855, the 13c Kamehameha III stamp could no longer prepay the full rate from Hawaii to the U.S. East Coast, which increased from 13c to 17c. In consequence the patrons of Hawaii’s postal system began using 5c stamps plus 12c U.S. stamps, or 13c stamps plus 4c cash, or, in this case, 5c and 13c stamps together. Although 13c stamps were sold for reduced rates in 1861 (the so-called mute surcharge”), post office correspondence confirms that in 1855 and 1856 the 13c stamps were sold for 13c. If combined with a 5c for 18c Hawaiian postage, the sender incurred a loss of 1c. Surviving covers with such 5c/13c combinations--at least six of which are recorded (including two without any other stamps)--originate at Hilo, but other outlying offices might also have forwarded letters to Honolulu with similar frankings.

During the period starting in April 1855 it was already a regular practice to affix U.S. postage stamps to outbound letters on which the U.S. rate had been prepaid. This is a remarkable example of a fully-prepaid letter, to which no U.S. stamps were affixed. The San Francisco PAID 12” handstamp confirms that the letter was prepaid without U.S. adhesive stamps. The other recorded cover, which is of lesser quality, was offered in our sale of the Twigg-Smith collection (Siegel Sale 931, lot 4022).

Gregory census no. 5-18. Ex Caspary, Krug and Golden. Signed Ashbrook. (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE. THE ONLY RECORDED EXAMPLE OF THE 1853 13-CENT KAMEHAMEHA III ISSUE USED ON MAIL FROM THE UNITED STATES TO HAWAII.

Descendants of the Goodale and Thurston families have been associated with the Hawaiian islands ever since Lucy (Goodale) Thurston and the Revered Asa Thurston arrived with the Pioneer Company of Missionaries in April 1820. The Goodales were prominent residents of Marlborough (Marlboro), Massachusetts. The addressee, Warren Goodale, was the nephew of Lucy Thurston. He was born in Marlborough in 1825 and traveled to Hawaii in 1849. He became a tutor at the Royal School in Honolulu and subsequently was appointed Marshal of the Kingdom and Collector of Customs. He was one of two men present at Fort Honolulu when it was raided by the French in August 1849. Sometime after his wife, Ellen (Whitmore) Goodale, died in 1861 (see Sale 1009, lot 365), he moved his family back to Massachusetts and joined the Union Army in the Civil War. He subsequently resettled in Hawaii where he was involved in the sugar industry.

There is no year date on this cover, but since it is addressed to Warren Goodale in Honolulu, it must have been mailed prior to his resignation as Collector of Customs in December 1863. The 3” handstamp could be interpreted as 3c U.S. postage, which would mean that the cover was postmarked at Marlborough on Sep. 11, 1863, after the U.S. rate to California was reduced to 3c in July 1863. The 13c Hawaiian stamp would leave a balance of 10c to cover the 7c due in Hawaii (5c plus 2c ship fee). In any case, the absence of San Francisco and Honolulu postmarks is normal for a letter to Hawaii in this period.

The Hawaiian stamp was probably sent to or carried back to Massachusetts by a member of the Goodale family. Its use on mail to Hawaii appears to have been permitted by the Marlborough post office, either due to the United States 8 Cts.” label on the stamp or out of respect to the Goodale family (or both). Once the letter entered the mail stream, it made its way to Honolulu via San Francisco.

Ex Juhring, Ishikawa and Golden. With 1979 H.P.S. and 2011 P.F. certificates. Scott Retail for single on cover $22,500.00 (Image)

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EXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE EXAMPLE OF THE 1857 5-CENT ON 13-CENT PROVISIONAL SURCHARGE USED WITH UNITED STATES 1851-55 10-CENT AND 12-CENT STAMPS.

The 5c provisional surcharge was necessary due to a shortage of 5c stamps just after the transition from Postmaster Whitney to Postmaster Jackson. Most were made by Jackson’s clerk, Alvah Clark, around the start of 1857. New supplies of the 5c stamp (Scott No. 8) were received at the end of June 1857.

Ex Golden. With 1980 and 2011 P.F. certificates. Scott Retail as a used single with no premium for the other two stamps (Image)

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