Lot 1798
 
Newfoundland Airmail, 1919, 3¢ "Martinsyde" manuscript overprint (C1 var.), "Aerial Atlantic Mail, J.A.R." handwritten overprint applied by Postmaster General J. Alex Robinson on a 3¢ Caribou (117), tied by St. John's machine cancel, April 19, 1919, on cover with G.P.O. corner card to the Postmaster General of England, manuscript "per Aeroplane 'Raymor'", backstamped London, Jan. 7, 1920; light foxing and trivial paper clip rust at upper left, Very Fine with historical content (see below).
Estimate 40,000 - 50,000
ONE OF ONLY ABOUT 16 MARTINSYDE COVERS RECORDED AND ONE OF THE MOST HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT AIRMAIL COVERS IN EXISTENCE.
Expertization: 1991 E. Diena Certificate.
Included is a typed letter signed from P.M.G. Robinson to his counterpart in London. It reads,
"The aeroplane 'Raymor' is about to leave for England, and the Sopwith Aeroplane has not left yet. The latter carries a mail with the stamps surcharged 'First Trans-Atlantic Air' Flight. There is a possibility of the Martinsyde Aeroplane outstripping her. I take the opportunity, therefore, of sending this aeroplane mail in the hope and expectation that it may be a pioneer, if not the pioneer, of rapid mail connection between the Motherland and her oldest Colony."
The Martinsyde 'Raymor', leaving later on the same day as the Sopwith 'Atlantic', which carried covers franked with Scott #C1, crashed on take off. The mail was salvaged and placed aboard a steamer in July. However, it did not reach the London post office until January 7 of the following year. The letter is docketed on the inside by British P.M.G. A.H. Illingworth, "Posted 19 April 1919, Received 7 Jan 1920, A.H.I."
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| Realized $36,000 |
