A few days back I received a marketing email from the French auction house, BEHR Philatelie. This email, touting their upcoming mail auction on 7 September 2023, contained an image presented as Figure 1. The image shows an entire letter from lot no. 23. The starting price is an eye-popping €6,750. I am not going…
Figure 1 shows both sides of a entire letter written in mid-1842 on board the ship ‘Rustomjee Cowasjee’, at anchor off “Rugged Islands” (Chusan, today’s Zhoushan Island) during the first Opium War. Briefly, the East India Company was growing opium in India and dumping it in China. Opium was playing havoc with the Chinese –…
This article was republished, with some modifications, as “The Young Postage Stamp Collector shows the Ephemerality of Early Journals” Philatelic Literature Review 72 no. 2 Whole no. 279 (Second Quarter 2023). Philatelic Literature Review is the journal of the American Philatelic Research Library. The first philatelic journal, The Monthly Advertiser, was published on 15 December…
A few days back, an item I purchase comes home (Figure 1). To be honest, at the time I bid on it, I don’t really pay as much attention to the affixed stamps as I should. The one thing that I am sure of, from a cursory glance at the image, is that the cover…
Recently, in an auction, I found an entire from the 1840s which was on the East India Company’s (EIC) paddle steamer, Memnon, when it wrecked in August 1843. While much has been written about this wreck, both from a historical and postal history perspective, I can’t resist penning my two-bits! While the main focus will…
Figure 1 shows an entire (ex-Paul Bulterman) sent from Boxtel, Netherlands to Batavia, Dutch East Indies sent in November 1845. Fragile yet beautiful with various rate marks and handstamps, the letter shows the intended routing at the bottom: “via Marseille / Alexandria / Singapore”. The black borders indicate death and/or mourning. Unable to read the…
This article was translated and republished, with some modifications, as “Non rubare se non per il Bene (la Storia Postale)! / Thou Shall not Steal but for (Postal History) Good!” Cursores, no. 30 (November 2022). Cursores is the journal of the Associazione Italiana di Storia Postale. Members get yearly two copies of this high-class journal…
This article was published,with some modifications, as “India’s First Ship Despatch Handstamp″ in India Post 57 no. 1 whole no. 226 (January – March 2023). India Post is the journal of the India Study Circle for Philately. I have made changes to this blog post in January 2023 so that it is up-to-date. The appearance…
Collectors of postal history of the classic period (time prior to mid-19th century) would be no strangers to the ‘entire’ – a letter on paper which, when folded, serves as its own envelope. Before the introduction of postal reforms, starting from Great Britain in late 1839 and thereafter talking hold rapidly across the world, letters…
A few weeks back I wrote a blog post on an 1834 entire from Calcutta taking the curricle from Morpeth to Edinburgh. In it, I discuss how one needs to know the distances between the various towns the letter passed through in order to figure out the inland rate markings in Great Britain. Further, I…
Some months back, when I was writing up some postal history covers, I came across the one pictured in Figures 1 and 2 from the Indian Mutiny period of 1857-58. It was sent by (later Sir General) Robert Cadell (more about him hopefully in a future post) to Cockenzie House in Prestonpans, nor far from…
This article was republished, with some modifications, as “The Calumnies of Samuel Singer, Charles Phillips, and Stanley Gibbons” Philatelic Literature Review 71 no. 4 Whole no. 277 (Fourth Quarter 2022). Philatelic Literature Review is the journal of the American Philatelic Research Library. Some years ago, while leafing through the auction catalogue of the George T….
