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Letters of the classic era (generally pre-1875), especially those to and from foreign destinations, generally contain multiple points of interest. Some facets are apparent at first glance while others need hours of research. Trying to decipher them all is a joy for a postal historian! Recently, I came across a letter pictured in Figure 1….
Thomas Fletcher Waghorn (Figure 1) is remembered as the most important personality in the development of the ‘Overland Route’ between Great Britain and India in the 1830s. For almost 200 years, he has been hyped up as a paragon of virtue: someone with boundless energy and enterprise who toiled endlessly to realise his dream of…
The straight-line ‘PACKET LETTER / SOUTHAMPTON’ or the circular ‘SOUTHAMPTON PACKET LETTER’ (both ‘SPL’) handstamps (Figure 1), were applied at that southern English port on mails arriving on packet boats. I have not been able to find much documentation or literature as to the raison d’être of this stamp. In Willcocks (1975, p. 146), Alan…
Postal history covers and entire letters saved from the wreck of the Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Company’s (P&O) steamer Ava1 are well-known to Indian postal historians, especially those specializing in 19th century mails. These are also sought after by collectors of worldwide maritime disaster postal history. As Hoggarth and Gwynn (2004) make it clear in…
The title of this post has been inspired from that 2017 movie’ quirky title: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. For centuries, countries in Europe were at loggerheads resulting in innumerable wars. While history remembers the generals and admirals who won laurels, wars couldn’t have been fought without the poorly paid and much neglected soldiers and…
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…
