Lot 219
1856 (Sep. 8) Donaldsonville La. to Nantes, France, blue folded cover bearing 5¢ red brown (12) block of four deep color, large margins to cut in, used with 1¢ blue type II (7) large margins to just touched, sheet margin at left, tied by "Donaldsonville La. Sep 8" c.d.s and grid cancellations, red "New-York Am. Pkt. Sep 20" exchange office c.d.s., carried on the Havre Line steamer Fulton, which left New York on September 20 and arrived at Havre on October 3, red "Outre-Mer Le Harve 3 Oct. 56" entry c.d.s. with manuscript "12" (décimes) due rating, French backstamps; block with small faults, 1¢ with gum soaks, light toning along file folds which affects the lower edge of the block, Fine, prepayment of 21¢ for any service to France, handled via the 20¢ direct American packet rate, plus double-weight 12 décimes due (7.5 to 15 grams) for French inland postage. Illustrated in Frajola and Mayer, p. 57, fig. 6-7.
Estimate 75,000 - 100,000
THE ONLY RECORDED INTACT FRANKING BEARING AN 1856 5¢ BLOCK, AND THE ONLY BLOCK ON COVER TO FRANCE.
Expertization: Signed Stanley B. Ashbrook, 1993 P.F. Certificate.
Provenance: Hill, Wunderlich, Grunin, Ishikawa
Written up and photographed in Special Service Issue 1, Stanley Ashbrook, 1951, p. 3 and photograph No.3.
Illustrated in The United States Five Cent Stamps of 1856-1861, Henry W. Hill, 1955, p. 13, fig. 13.
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| Realized $160,000 |
