Lot 66
1869, 24¢ green & violet (120), rich colors, used with 10¢ yellow (116), both slightly creased at top, cancelled by N.Y. foreign mail four-squares grid cancellations on cover to Shanghai, China, red "New York Paid All Br. Transit Apr 7" (1869) origin backstamp and red "24" credit handstamp, sender's routing "Via Southampton", red London (4.17.1869) transit datestamp, red crayon "1" British colonial credit, rare Hong Kong-to-Shanghae Marine Sorter "JU 3/8 69" backstamp (Webb type 6); small piece of cover missing from under 10¢ minor edge wear and couple tiny edge tears, a Very Fine usage paying the 34¢ British mail rate to China via Southampton.
Estimate 50,000 - 75,000
AN EXTRAORDINARY 1869 PICTORIAL COVER.
THE EARLIEST DOCUMENTED USAGE OF THE 24¢ 1869 PICTORIAL, AS WELL AS THE EARLIEST USE OF THE EXCEEDINGLY RARE HONG KONG-SHANGHAE TYPE 6 MARINE SORTER.
Expertization: 1949 P.F. Certificate. Signed Bartels with his note "Found II.8.32". Also signed Ashbrook with his note "Earliest Known Use of The 24c 1869".
Provenance: Ezra Cole, Gordon Harmer, Millard Mack
Only three 24c 1869 covers to China are recorded in the 1869 Census. This cover is the earliest of all known 24c 1869 covers, followed by an April 23 usage from New York to Mobile. This is also the earliest 1869 10¢ cover in private hands. The April 1, 1869 cover to Spain is part of the legendary Hirzel collection that is permanently ensonced in the Swiss PTT Museum.
Webb states the Hong Kong-to-Shanghae Marine Sorter type 6 is rare. He records only one example from the first period dated 13/19 March 1870, the example offered here quite early, dated June 1869. The marking was apparently reintroduced in 1874 and used until 1876.
Illustrated in Michael Lawrence's article, "British Mail Covers to the Orient during the 1869 Period," The Chronicle, Whole No. 87, p. 174.
Illustrated in the 1869 Census book (Color Plate 10).
Illustrated Jeffrey Forster's Auction Review article, The Chronicle, Whole No. 204, Nov. 2004, p. 284.
|
| |
| Realized $72,500 |
