mostly large margins, grazing at top, tied by red straightline "I. Cook" handstamp to cover "from the Sheriff of Balt. County" to the "Clerk of Somerset County, Md", Cook's label ("Cook's Dispatch delivers Letters, Circulars and Funeral Notices &c within the City for 1 cent, prepaid") tied by "Baltimore Md. Mar 31" datestamp applied by an overzealous postal clerk, matching black "5" rate handstamp of Baltimore, few trivial age spots and wrinkles, otherwise very fine, one of just two genuine covers with a Cook's Dispatch adhesive and the only one with the stamp tied by a company handstamp, also the only cover with a Cook's Dispatch advertising label, in our opinion one of the greatest local covers in existence which has not been offered publicly since our sale of Y. Souren's collection in 1951
What little is known about Cook's Dispatch was recounted by Denwood Kelly in his Collectors Club Philatelist articles on Baltimore local posts in 1971 (Vol. 50, No. 4). The post was operated by an Isaac Cook, although Kelly did not believe this to be the Reverend Isaac P. Cook listed in directories of the time, but rather a son or other relative. The only contemporaneous reference to the post currently known is an advertisement in the 1853 Matchett's Baltimore Director. The post was evidently very short-lived, operating for just a few months in early 1853 before disappearing without a trace.
The history of this particular cover is notable, as it was discovered by George B. Sloane among the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt's collection. In a December 16, 1945 Baltimore Sun article, Sloane states:
Another nice piece which I turned up, mixed in with a mass of cheap material of little importance, in a box file, is one of the finest covers I have ever seen among the United States Locals. This was a splendid copy of the 1-cent green, Cook's Dispatch stamp, tied to the cover with a straight-line red handstamp, "I. Cook" (Isaac Cook), and at the opposite corner of the cover, a small advertising sticker of the post, beautifully tied (by a postal clerk's error) with a "Baltimore, Md." handstamp in black. I think, of all the material I saw in this collection, this was the one thing I'd love to own myself, if I could have exercised my choice.
It is evident that President Roosevelt did not recognize the full significance of this cover, but in his auction the following year it realized an impressive $500. Five years later, when offered again by our firm as part of Y. Souren's collection, this cover sold for $420. To the best of our knowledge it has not been offered at public auction in the intervening 72 years.
Provenance: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (H.R. Harmer Sale 299, 1946)
Y. Souren (H.R. Harmer Sale 685, 1951)