Lot Details

typeset framed design at upper right of 1862 envelope addressed to Waynesville, North Carolina, black "Franklin N.C. Jan 21" datestamp with manuscript date, backflap missing, very fine, the unique example of the Franklin provisional envelope, one of the great rarities of Confederate States philately which has not been offered publicly since 1980 (Scott $30,000)

The story of the discovery of the Franklin Provisional was recounted by August Dietz himself in the September 1934 issue of his Stamp and Cover Collecting magazine. Rather than paraphrase, we think it is important to defer to the man's own words (reprinted thanks to the Civil War Philatelic Society):

It was in the Spring of 1899. I was in the employ of the J. L. Hill Printing Co. in Richmond, holding the post of foreman, and at the same time publishing, in association with my friends the late Franklin Stearns, Jr. and Frank L. Kerns (the “Uncle Larry'' of Mexican Missionary fame), The Virginia Philatelist, which I edited. The Hill Company printed “The Southern Almanac,” a publication that enjoyed a widespread circulation among the farmers of Virginia and North Carolina. I had inserted a small advertisement in this almanac, offering to buy Confederate postage stamps.

On one memorable day there drove up to the shop a middle-age farmer, perched on the board-seat of his canvas-covered, mule-drawn watermelon cart. With a “Whoa!” he alighted, verified the shop number by his copy of the Almanac, and came into the office. By mere chance I had come down-stairs from the composing-room to consult Mr. Hill about an order. 

“Whar de man what wanta buy old stamps?” Mr. Hill pointed to me, and the following dialog took place.

“You de man disher almanac tells ’bout?”

“Yes, sir. Have you got anything to show me?”

Without reply he drew from his hip-pocket a bundle of envelopes folded in a newspaper, and laid them on the counter. Mr. Hill, curious to see what was going on, stood by.

I unfolded the wrapper and began to assort the covers. There were the usual London and Local Fives and the ’63 10-cents, with here and there a green Hoyer & Ludwig five—just the usual crop, plentiful in those days. While assorting I told the visitor “These are worth twenty-five cents a piece; these fifty cents; and”—I stopt suddenly, for I had come to an envelope that bore no adhesive stamp, but instead, the cover, of buff-colored paper, showed on its upper right-hand corner a type-set, press-printed Provisional. It was new to me. It was not listed or illustrated ·in Scott’s Catalog. The postmark was that of Franklin, N.C., manuscript-dated “Jan. 21.” The envelope was in a comparatively good state of preservation. What can this be?…

We were not well-informed on Confederate Provisionals thirty-five years ago. Few collectors paid attention to these stamps, particularly in the South. True, Hiram E. Deats and a few others “up North” had taken a fancy to Confederates and even devoted time and means to an investigation—but down here it was more a matter of sentiment that led us to collect them.

Slowly the fact dawned on me: this is a new provisional, and promptly I came to a decision.

“My friend, I don't know what this envelope is worth, but I’ll offer you twenty-five dollars for it. Leave me your name and address''—as I handed him a small pad and pencil —“and as soon as I find out more about it, I’ll let you hear from me.”

“You say you gwine give me twenty-fi’ dollars—shore-nuff money?”

“Yes.”

“Giftyer!”

Turning to Mr. Hill, I asked if he would loan me that amount until tomorrow? “I’ll need what cash I have to buy the other envelopes.” 

Mr. Hill motioned to me to come into his private office. Placing his hands on my shoulders, he said “Boy, are you crazy? Twenty-five dollars for an old envelope!…Of course, I will let you have the money, but”—shaking his head—“I would have given you credit for better sense.”

I remember it distinctly. There were two ten-dollar bills, one two and three ones. I counted the money into the farmer’s hand. There was a strange, doubtful, suspicious and pitying look in his eyes. He had written a name and address on the pad and left it, with my pencil, on the counter. As soon as he held the bills in his hands he literally darted for the door, crossed the street, and swung himself to the seat of his cart and, giving that mule one stinging crack of the whip, he yelled: “Gittup hyer! Gittup hyer!” That was all I heard as I followed him to the door, calling at the top of my voice: “Wait a minute! I haven't paid you for the rest of the stamps!”—but mule and driver were lost in the dust of the distance. I never saw that farmer again.

The next day I wrote to my friend, William S.F. Pierce, a prominent lumber dealer of Camden, N.J., enclosing the envelope, and asking what he thought of it. Pierce was one of the earlier collectors of Confederate stamps and Provisionals.

Three days later I opened a telegram that read “Offer six hundred dollars—wire reply collect. Pierce.”

I beat the time of that farmer’s get-away with my reply: “Your stamp—send check. Dietz.” And I paid for the wire.

In due time the remittance came. I showed the telegram and the certified check to Mr. Hill. He was dumbfounded. “Well, Dietz, I’ll take back half of what I said about your sanity, but tell me, are there any lunatic asylums in New Jersey?”…

And then my conscience (?) began to trouble me. Looking back across the years I believe I intended to give that farmer another twenty-five. I addressed a letter to the name and place written on that pad of paper, requesting my visitor to call on me the next time he came to town, as I had something interesting to tell him. After thirty days my note was returned from the Dead Letter Office with the notation: “No such party known at this address.” He had been shrewd enough to give me a fictitious name and location, reasoning, I am sure, that: when this fellow sobers up, he’ll want his twenty-five dollars back. And he wasn't taking any chances…

But there is a denouement to this story. About three months later I had another letter from Pierce in which he enclosed a well-known British Colonial rarity, cataloged forty dollars at that time, and confessed that his conscience was troubling him, and since he had sold that Franklin, N.C. to Ferrary for one thousand dollars, he wanted to make this offering by way of “easing his mind.”

That stamp is still in my collection. And I replied about as follows: “Dear Pierce: I absolve you from all sin. The Franklin cost me twenty-five dollars. You bought it for six hundred. That’s five hundred and seventy-five profit for me. You sold it for one thousand. That’s four hundred profit for you—less this forty-dollar gift stamp—six hundred and fifteen for me and three hundred and sixty for you. If you are satisfied—I am. Go forth and sin some more.”

I learned later that Pierce had sold the Franklin to Ferrary through a well-known dealer, sharing the profit.

In the Ferrary sale the Franklin brought seven hundred dollars, and is again in a collection in this country. It is the only specimen of its kind in existence and one of the greatest rarities among the press-printed Provisionals of the Confederacy.

Provenance: Count Philipp von Ferrary (Gilbert Sale 4, 1922)

Alfred H. Caspary (H.R. Harmer Sale 989, 1956)

Josiah K. Lilly (R.A. Siegel Sale 317, 1967)

"Stonewall" (Edgar Kuphal) Collection (Mohrmann, 1980)