Auction Detail
July 2023
United States Postal History
Prices Realized Now Online
- The Van Koppersmith Collection of Ship Mail (729) Apply The Van Koppersmith Collection of Ship Mail filter
- Erivan Collection of Western Postal History (329) Apply Erivan Collection of Western Postal History filter
- The Nancy Clark Collection of Maine Postal History (127) Apply The Nancy Clark Collection of Maine Postal History filter
- The Graham Booth Collection of Transatlantic Mail (118) Apply The Graham Booth Collection of Transatlantic Mail filter
- The Mark Schwartz Collection of Essex County, Massachusetts Postal History (104) Apply The Mark Schwartz Collection of Essex County, Massachusetts Postal History filter
18 items on exhibit pages, most dating to the 1830s and 1840s, ships including Gladiator, Independence, London, Mediator, Ontario, Quebec, Samson, St. James, and Wellington, generally fine to very fine, an interesting group of this relatively small line
45 covers mounted on exhibit pages, ships including Union Line Utica, Henry IV, Burgundy, Ville de Lyon, Poland, Sully, Charles Carroll, Francis Depau, Rhone, Baltimore, Zurich, Francois Premier, and Formosa; Old Line Iowa, Duchesse D'Orleans, Charlemagne, Havre I, and Sully; and Second Line Howard, Marmion, Erie, Bayard, Normandie, Don Quixote, France, Oneida, and St. Nicholas, as well as several unknown ships, generally fine to very fine, many scarce trips and vessels as a number of these lines and ships were short-lived, a wonderful group for the specialist in early transatlantic mail
approximately 59 covers mounted on exhibit pages covering a wide variety of lines and vessels, including Red Swallowtail, Red Star, Black Ball, Dramatic, Blue Swallowtail, and more, a number of freight money letters including several quadruple-rate, several covers from Enoch Train's White Diamond Line, New Line's Rochester and Queen of the West, Black Star's Jacob A. Westervelt, and more, generally very fine and accompanied by incredibly useful write-ups, a fantastic group of material detailing the rise of transatlantic mail across the 1820s to 1840s
approximately 80 covers on various exhibit pages and dealer cards, largely telling the story of the escalating postal tensions between the United States and Great Britain from the Discriminatory Period, the Retaliatory Period, the Restored Rates, and the Treaty Period, impossible to mention everything but we note August 16, 1848 England to New York by Ocean's Washington franked with strip of three GB 2p Blue; December 2, 1848 Liverpool to Boston by Cunard's Niagara on penultimate westbound retaliatory rate voyage; January 3, 1849 folded letter Constantinople to Philadelphia via Liverpool (by Cunard's Niagara); February 13, 1849 Tarboro, North Carolina to Scotland via Boston and Liverpool, carried on first Treaty Rate voyage of Cunard's Niagara; March 22, 1849 Le Havre to Portland, Maine by Hermann on her first Treaty Rate voyage (ex-White); and August 12, 1849 Baltimore to Amsterdam by Cambria (ex-Winter); although not entirely organized this group presents a wonderful opportunity to learn about this fascinating period of Anglo-American relations and the development of fast and reliable transatlantic mail, a useful group worth a close inspection
approximately 156 covers on variety of different exhibit pages and dealer cards, incredible variety of material with highlights including (in no particular order): 1864 Jersey to Philadelphia by Cunard's Africa, 1864 folded letter Torquay to Wisconsin with contents about possible conscription of a British national to serve in the Union army, US 1869 6c on cover to Ireland, various 1p printed circular rates, 1857 folded letter to London with "Phila. Am. Pkt. 21", 1843 folded letter to London via Hibernia with "Boston" straightline, two 1896 covers Dorking to Fiji, 1874 and 1894 covers England to Honolulu, 1852 Glasgow to San Francisco and 1857 Paris to San Francisco, 1852 San Jose, California to France, 1886 Oregon wreck cover with post office label, better Cunard Line material, and much more, this is a fascinating array of material that didn't make it into Mr. Booth's main exhibit collections but is still largely written up and ideal for continuation or breakdown for resale, viewing a necessity as there's much more than meets the eye
21 covers ranging from the 1880s/1920s, includes cancellation types F and G, better frankings including, 3c and 5c Bureau Issues on 2c Columbian entire, 10c Columbian adhesive, 10c Columbian entire, 15c Bureau Issue on 5c entire, 5c Trans-Mississippi on 5c entire, 5c Pan-American on 5c entire, and more, generally fine to very fine, a wonderful group of these scarce covers on Graham Booth's exhibit pages
10 items on exhibit pages including 1842 prices current from New Orleans to Paris via New York forwarding agent and British Queen, 1854 prices current from Liverpool to Boston with two 1sh Green paying letter rate and late fee, 1868 printed circular from Baltimore to England with United States 2c Black, 1868 tobacco circular to Kentucky with Great Britain 2p Blue, and more (latest dated 1896), generally fine to very fine, an interesting group
group of five items including three prices current from Boston to New Brunswick franked with 2c Black Jacks, wrapper from Buffalo to Scotland with 2c Black Jack, and printed circular from New York to Scotland with 2c Pictorial, generally very fine, a scarce group
binder with approximately 88 items mostly written up on exhibit pages, we note 1864 England to New York with "New York Post Office Advertised" and "Cannot be Found" handstamps (ex-Cropp), 1866 Westminster to New York marked "Not Called For" (ex-White), 1875 Dublin to Wisconsin via Boston and New York (ex-Bedell), 1897 England to Philadelphia with five 1p Inland Revenue (accepted for postage), several philatelically-inspired stationery entires, non-British frankings include US two 15c Columbians on cover to Austria, 1872 Toronto to England with 2c and five 6c Small Queens (ex-Montgomery), several Canada 5c Green registry stamps, also Newfoundland and Mexico, generally fine to very fine, an interesting and attractive group that wonderfully illustrates the evolution of transatlantic registered mail over the course of the late 19th Century
16 covers from the 1880s/1900s, mostly with New York registry exchange labels, wide variety of Banknote frankings with values to the 15c, also note 1893 cover to Netherlands with pair of 3c Columbians, 1901 cover to Germany with 5c and 8c Pan-Americans, and 1908 cover to Ireland with 10c Special delivery, generally fine to very fine, an interesting and scarce group, several ex-Brown
approximately 80 covers mostly on exhibit pages, majority between the United States and England but also covers from Canada and Mexico, we note 1866 Ireland to Ohio marked "N.Y. Am. Pkt. 48 or 59 U.S. Notes", 1871 cover from Soda Bar, Iowa to Switzerland with "Insufficiently Paid" handstamp of New York, 1874 cover England to Rhode Island marked "Insufficiently Prepaid" and "New Urk Due 11 U.S. Currency", 1876 Ireland to Ohio marked "New-York Due 15 Cts.", 1887 North Carolina to London and forwarded to Paris with 120c postage due, 1893 Massachusetts to England envelope containing coinage which had to be registered and was charged accordingly, 1894 short paid wrapper from Philadelphia to Munich, and much more, generally fine to very fine, a close inspection is recommended as there is a considerable amount of interesting material in this lot
13 covers with stamps mostly paying forwarding fees, including US 1c and 2c stamps on GB postal cards, US 2c Banknote on incoming cover with strip of three GB 1p, Canada 3c Small Queen on incoming cover from Edinburgh, and more, generally fine to very fine