Auction Detail

Beaumont, Texas, 10c black on pink, four large to very large margins, on cover to Mrs. C. Saml. Watson in Galveston, Texas, endorsed "care of Mrs. C.M Seymour" at lower left, without postal markings, cover with significant restoration, piece on which stamp has been affixed torn off and subsequently replaced, despite the cover's repairs, a lovely and rare stamp, quite fresh, and with exceptional provenance; ex Caspary, Lilly.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 5c black entire, neatly-struck provisional handstamp on 1862 10-star Confederate Flag patriotic cover to Fort Defiance, Alabama, handstamped PAID and postmarked with "Chapel Hill N.C. / Jan / 24" c.d.s., a rare and attractive cover, one of only eight recorded Chapel Hill provisional examples in the Crown census, three of which are patriotic covers.

Goliad, Texas, 10c black on rose, signed "Clarke / PM" large margin at right, else lightly touching in places, affixed to patriotic cover depicting a soldier, tents, and ten-star flag,  to Col. D. Hardeman, Santa Gertrudas, Kings Ranch, Texas, backstamped "R.H.W. Co" (Raymond H. Weill), cover with some toning and trivial edge faults, adhesive with vertical crease, yet a Confederate rarity of great renown, having graced several of the most famed collections ever formed; the only on-cover example recorded by Crown, and one of only two examples extant, the other being a used single. ex Ferrary, Hind, Caspary, and Lilly. 
Illustrated in Dietz "The New Dietz Confederate States Catalog and Handbook"
Dietz records that " these provisionals were press-printed from typeset forms in the office of a local newspaper, the Messenger, owned by the Rev. A.M. Cox, a Methodist minister, who set the time and did the printing."
 

Jetersville, Virginia, 5c black, handstamped with "AHA" initials of Postmaster A.H. Atwood, vertical pair, affixed to cover postmarked "Jetersville VA / Jul / 25," manuscript "Paid" at upper right, to Waterproof, Tensas Parish, Louisiana, endorsed "via Memphis", hinge remnants on reverse and tear through back flap, of no importance given the exceptional rarity of this Provisional, the sole example recorded in the Crown census.
The unique example of this Confederate Postmaster’s Provisional Rarity.

Provenance:
Philip Ferrari de La Renotière (14 June, 1922, lot 8)
Alfred H. Caspary (March 5-7, 1956, lot 152)
Josiah K. Lilly (April 27, 1967, lot 321)
In his census, Crown records that this provisional was "prepared by handstamping a small "5" in rows or columns on a piece of paper multiple times, allowing room for the Postmaster, A.H. Atwood, to write his initials to the right of the numeral."  The first reference to this stamp was in the 29 September, 1894 issue of the American Journal of Philately, in which little detail is provided other that its noteworthiness as a new discovery.  August Dietz, writing in "the Postal Service of the Confederate States", notes its similarity in concept to the provisional of Greenwood, Virginia, remarking "all great minds run in the same (inventive) channels."
The cover made its way into the Ferrary collection, and was sold in the June 14, 1922 auction of his material, described only as "5c black, pair on cover, the only examples known." Its next appearance was in the 1956 Caspary sale, where August Dietz in his forward referred to it as "another interesting object that will arrest your attention." It was described rather more elaborately than in the Ferrary sale, describe as "remarkably fine for such a fantastic rarity…" and "one of the great Confederate rarities." Offered again in the renowned Lilly collection, it realized $6,250; the May, 1967 edition of the Confederate Philatelist records it as selling to the Weill Brothers.