Lot 1163
1847, 5¢ red brown (1), ample margins to clear except touched at upper left, pen canceled, matching "Eagletown Ark./ July 14 1854" manuscript. postmark on folded cover from Choctaw, Indian Territory to Col Peter P. Pitchlynn in Washington, Very Fine, a most important cover from both a philatelic and a historical perspective. Illustrated in Alexander, p.116.
Estimate 15,000 - 20,000
THE ONLY RECORDED 1847 COVER FROM EAGLETOWN AND ONE OF TWO 5¢ 1847 COVERS RECORDED FROM INDIAN TERRITORY.
Provenance: Seven Oaks
Col. Pitchlynn, whose Indian name was Hachootucknee (Snapping Turtle), was born in Mississippi in 1806; his mother was a Choctaw and his father a white interpreter commissioned by General Washington. From 1828 until his death in 1881 Col. Pitchlynn was a respected and influential figure in Native American affairs who lobbied ceaselessly for his native homeland and labored to prevent alcohol from reaching the Indian population. This cover was addressed to Pitchlynn while he was in Washington, as a chief and delegate of the Choctaw Nation, to negotiate and sign the Treaty of Washington D.C. with the Choctaw and Chickasaw in June of 1855. George Catlin's portrait of Pitchlynn, illustrated in Alexander, p. 114, was recently part of the Smithsonian exhibit, George Catlin and His Indian Gallery.
The other 5¢ cover from Indian Territory is addressed to Pitchlynn at Eagletown and postmarked Doaksville. Both covers represent the only recorded post-demonetized usages from Indian Territory.
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| Realized $20,000 |
