Auction Detail

blue double circle datestamp on cover to Boston, Massachusetts, illustrated cornercard for the Hartford Life & Annuity Insurance Co., 1873 1c Ultramarine, pair of 3c Green, and 6c Dull pink (156, 158, 159) tied by black corks, large purple "Boston, Mass. Registered Aug 22 1879" sawtooth oval also ties, very fine, an attractive combination of a colorful franking and attractive cornercard

black datestamp and matching leaf fancy cancel tie 1c Bank Note to locally-addressed cover, as the local letter rate was 2c the cover was marked "Held For Postage" and an additional 1c stamp was applied, left stamp small faults, otherwise very fine and attractive

Wesson time-on-bottom duplex on 2c Green entire, cornercard "Return to S.L. Clemens, Hartford, Conn., If not delivered within 10 days.", addressed to James R. Osgood & Co. in Boston, 1c postage due and "Due 1" and "Due 2" handstamps, light edge wear and toning from storage next to another envelope, fine and rare, a wonderful piece of postal history from Hartford's most notable resident

James R. Osgood was the publisher behind Mark Twain's 1882 The Prince and the Pauper and The Stolen White Elephant. Also in 1882, Osgood accompanied Twain on a riverboat trip to collect material for Life on the Mississippi, published by Osgood the following year. Interestingly, Life on the Mississippi was the first book submitted to the publisher as a typewritten manuscript (typed by Twain's secretary Isabel V. Lyon from his handwritten manuscript). 

The financial failure of Life on the Mississippi resulted in a fractured relation between Twain and Osgood. Mark Twain's Letters to his Publishers: 1867-1894, published by University of California Press in 1967, allows us to read the original letter contained in this envelope: a screed against Osgood which led to the severing of their partnership. It reads, in part:

I am peculiarly situated. The Prince and Pauper and The Mississippi are the only books of mine which have ever failed. The first failure was not unbearable - but this second one is so nearly so that it is not a calming subject for me to talk upon. I am out $50,000 on this last book - that is to say, the sale which should have been 80,000 (seeing that the Canadians were for the first time out of competition), is only 30,000.

duplex ties 1887 2c Green (213) to locally-addressed cover with matching green "Horsfall & Rothschild Gentlemen's Fine Furnishers, Fashionable Hatters" advertising collar, very fine and scarce

small group of five covers including 1873 cover to Italy, 1884 cover to Turkey, 1885 cover to India, 1888 cover to England with internal forwarding, and 1890 cover to Germany, generally fine to very fine, an interesting group with most accompanied by exhibit writeup