2008 Rarities of the World continued...

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONLY THREE VALENTINES BEARING A MULTIPLE OF THE HONOUR'S 4LB8 STAMP ARE RECORDED. AN OUTSTANDING CARRIER USAGE.

Ex Caspary, Boker, Golden and D.K. Collection. With 2000 P.F. certificate. (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE EXAMPLE OF THE RARE MISSING PEARL VARIETY -- PROBABLY THE FINEST IN EXISTENCE.

Stamps printed from Position 9 on the Honour's 4LB8 setting usually show the complete pearl at upper right and normal pearl at lower left. Examples with the upper right pearl partly printed or completely missing are rare. However, all examples of the Kingman's four-line stamp (4LB15) from Position 9 are missing the upper right pearl and show the damaged pearl at lower left (see lot 19 for strip of three). Our theory is that the upper right pearl gradually disappeared from the Honour's setting prior to substitution of "Kingman's" for "Honour's". The pearl slug may have been damaged or fell beneath the other slugs and failed to print. Given the rarity of Honour's 4LB8 Missing Pearl stamps, it seems that very few were printed from the defective setting before conversion to the Kingman's name. It is also likely that the setting was changed back to "Honour's" for further printings, at which point Position 9 was fixed.

Ex Hall and D.K. Collection. With 2001 P.F. certificate. (Image)

VERY FINE. ONE OF THE GREATEST OF ALL CARRIER COVERS, BEARING THE LARGEST KNOWN MULTIPLE OF KINGMAN'S FOUR-LINE STAMP.

Eliab J. Kingman was Dr. John H. Honour's brother-in-law and served as the first assistant in Honour's Penny Post from its inception in 1849. It is reported that sometime in 1851, Kingman received his own appointment as a government carrier and divided the city's routes with Dr. Honour. According to the Faber account (Pat Paragraphs, 1981 Reprint, pp. 247-248), Kingman retired in March 1858 and was replaced by Joseph G. Martin, a relative to the Honour family through marriage.

The Scott listings for the two Kingman's stamps are out of chronological sequence. The four-line type, 4LB15, preceded the three-line type, 4LB14, by at least three or four years. The four-line stamp is also considerably rarer, with a total of just 15 recorded stamps. Because the basic form used for Honour's 4LB8 was used to print Kingman's 4LB15 stamp, it is possible to reconstruct the Kingman's setting. When the name "Kingman's" was inserted, some border pearls were repositioned, but there are still enough unique features belonging to the different positions to enable us to assign the 15 recorded stamps to 8 of the 10 positions in the Kingman's setting.

The fifteen 4LB15 stamps (including erased "Kingman's" variety) contained in our census are listed here (positions identified according to our plating analysis): 1-3) vertical strip of three [Pos. 5/7/9] on Valentine cover (no date), ex Caspary, Boker, Golden (realized $20,000), D.K. Collection, the cover offered here, 4-5) vertical pair [Pos. 6/8], uncancelled on cover front, ex Chapman, Caspary, Boker, 6) pen-cancelled [Pos. 3], tied by Dec. 11 circular datestamp on cover to Spartanburg, ex Boker, 7) uncancelled on piece or cover [Pos. 5], Costales photo file, 8) "Kingman's" scratched out [Pos. 1], corner margins, tied by ms. on inbound cover from Raleigh N.C., Jul. (or Jun.) 22, 1857, ex Hessel, Golden (realized $3,000), 9) pen-cancelled [Pos. 8] on piece, ex Caspary, Hall, 10) pen-cancelled [Pos. 9, missing pearl at right] on piece, ex Caspary, Richardson, Sheriff, 11) pencil cancel [Pos. 4] on piece, ex Middendorf, 12) uncancelled [Pos. 9, missing pearl at right], ex Ferrary, Caspary, Hall, 13) uncancelled [Pos. 3], Costales photo file, and 14-15) horizontal pair [Pos. 3-4], ex Hall (realized $6,000).

From the census it can be determined that there are only three confirmed 4LB15 covers (excluding the erased-name variety): one is this Valentine with the unique strip of three (Nos. 1-3 on census list), the second is the single tied by a Charleston Dec. 11 circular datestamp (No. 6 on list), and the third is the pair on the Valentine cover (Nos. 14-15 on list). The pair on a cover front (or piece, Nos. 4-5 on list) is the only other known multiple.

There is no question that this strip of the Kingman four-line stamp, used on a Valentine, is the most important of all Kingman's carrier items, and, in our opinion, it ranks very close to the unique Beckman's City Post cover in significance among Charleston carrier issues.

Ex Caspary, Golden and D.K. Collection. Note on back "9/28/14 St. Louis St. & C. Co. DNN". With 2000 P.F. certificate. Scott Retail for the strip off-cover is $25,000.00. (Image)

VERY FINE. THE ONLY RECORDED MULTIPLE OF THE KINGMAN'S THREE-LINE STAMP. A MAGNIFICENT RARITY.

Ex Hall and D.K. Collection. With 2001 P.F. certificate. (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. THE FINEST OF THE FOUR RECORDED EXAMPLES OF MARTIN'S CARRIER STAMP.

According to Faber's account (Pat Paragraphs, 1981 Reprint, pp. 247-248), Joseph G. Martin took over from E. J. Kingman after Kingman retired in March 1858. Martin served until retirement in 1861, but the extreme rarity of the stamps bearing his name suggests that they were not widely used. They were probably printed in 1858. We record just four stamps, all unused, listed as follows (different types are identified with letters): 1) Type A, tiny thin, ex Caspary, Lilly, Boker, Golden, 2) Type B, slight thins, ex Ferrary, Caspary, Hall (realized $7,500), 3) Type C, margins cut in, slight faults, ex Caspary, Middendorf, and 4) Type D, sound, ex Hessel, Golden (realized $7,000), D.K. the stamp offered here. Based only on soundness, this stamp is the finest extant.

Ex Hessel, Golden and D.K. Collection. With 1975 and 2000 P.F. certificates. (Image)

A FINE AND ATTRACTIVE EXAMPLE OF THIS CARRIER RARITY, OF WHICH FIVE OR SIX ARE KNOWN.

Ex Caspary, Golden and D.K. Collection. With 2000 P.F. certificate. (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. A GREAT RARITY IN SHEET FORM, AND ONE OF THE FEW SIGNED BY STEINMEYER.

Ex Lilly, Golden and D.K. Collection. With 2000 P.F. certificate. Scott Retail $2,250.00 as an unsigned pane (footnote attributes 50% premium to signature). (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. AN OUTSTANDING EXHIBITION ITEM AND ONE OF THE FEW SHEETS IN EXISTENCE.

There probably no more than four or five complete sheets of 4LB21. Ex Golden and D.K. Collection. With 2000 P.F. certificate. Scott Retail $2,250.00 as an unsigned pane (footnote attributes 50% premium to signature). (Image)

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF EIGHT RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE U.S. CITY DESPATCH POST CARRIER STAMP USED TO PREPAY INTER-CITY POSTAGE. AN OUTSTANDING POSTAL HISTORY ITEM.

This cover and seven other similar examples mark the beginning of prepayment of inter-city postage by adhesive stamps in the Western hemisphere. In each case, the United States City Despatch Post stamps prepaid the regular postage and carrier fee for delivery to the New York City post office, where the letters were marked "Paid" in full.

Our records contain eight inter-city covers with full prepayment, including one front and one with a stamp missing (listed chronologically by New York postmark date): 1) May 25 datestamp, 1843 folded letter to Henry Morris, Philadelphia, strip of 3 + pair, ex Caspary, Middendorf, Kapiloff, Siegel 1995 Rarities sale (realized $37,500), 2) May 30 datestamp (1843), folded cover to F. Packard, Philadelphia, 2 pairs + 1, ex Caspary, Pope, Kapiloff, Siegel 1995 Rarities sale (realized $42,500) and Kuphal (Siegel Sale 925, lot 1218, realized $50,000), 3) Jun. 16 datestamp, 1843 folded letter to Henry Morris, Philadelphia, strip of 4 + 1, ex Caspary, Hall (Siegel Sale 830, lot 144, realized $32,500 hammer), Gordon N. John (Siegel Sale 868, lot 2015, realized $42,500 hammer), 4) Jul. 5 datestamp, 1843 folded letter to Henry Morris, Philadelphia, strip of 5, ex Caspary, Middendorf (1990 private treaty sale at $30,000), 5) Aug. 23 datestamp, 1843 folded letter to Henry Morris, Philadelphia, 4 singles (1 missing), ex Seybold, Hall (Siegel Sale 830), 6) Nov. 1 datestamp, 1843 folded letter to Julia Welling, Pleasant Valley N.Y., 5 singles, creased and restored, from a recent find, the cover offered here, 7) Oct. 18 datestamp (1844), folded cover to Dr. Wheeler, Athens N.Y., strip of 3 + 1, ex Caspary, Hall, Gordon N. John (Siegel Sale 868, lot 2015, realized $42,500 hammer), and 8) Jun. 13 (ca. 1845), front only to Lewis Riley, Ridgefield Conn., ex Caspary, Middendorf, Kapiloff, Siegel 1995 Rarities sale. Three of the covers have stamps on Blue paper (6LB5b) from the later printing. The others are Green or Blue Green (1843 printings). (Image)

FINE. ONE OF 12-14 RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES NEWS ROOMS MARKING, WHICH WAS APPLIED TO MAIL HANDLED BY THE SUB POST OFFICE OPERATED BY ANDREW McMAKIN.

Prior to 1854, the Northern Liberties area (north of Vine Street) was outside Philadelphia's city limits. Carriers were used to transport mail between outlying areas and the main post office in Philadelphia. The term Sub Post Office refers to a location where letters could be deposited for delivery to the main post office. The Northern Liberties News Rooms, which advertised its services as early as 1833, established a Sub Post Office in 1835. The proprietor at this time was Andrew McMakin. A news item appearing in the October 10, 1835, edition of the Philadelphia Saturday Courier states: "The enterprising, attentive and indefatigable proprietor of that popular establishment, the Northern Liberties Free Admission News Room, has found the business of his Sub Post Office so much on the increase, as to induce him to prepare a new and appropriate stamp, which we perceive is now imprinted upon all letters deposited at his office." (from research by Elliott Perry and J. William Middendorf). Later advertisements link the Sub Post Office in Northern Liberties with the main Philadelphia post office, which reinforces its status as an authorized drop point for mail. Calvet M. Hahn recorded between 12 and 14 examples of Type I (some duplication of items is possible). (Image)