5104
Rare Pre-Civil War Stamped Cover
Sold
$3,500
Timed Auction
Discovery Sale: Online - Only - Closing Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021
Category
Description
A spectacular use of sixteen 12 c. black stamps, issue of 1857 (Scott #36) on a registered cover posted from Albany, NY, to Aberdeen, Scotland, in May, 1858, paying for a package eight times the standard rate for an ounce
Condition
Cover shows some soiling and wear, unsurprising considering it enclosed a heavy raft of papers when mailed. The stamps are in two strips of 6, a horizontal pair, and two singles, separated at top and bottom by scissors, with some short perforations as a result.
Provenance
Illustrated in Brookman's Postage Stamps of the 19th Century, Vol. I, p. 245. Pencil notes verso, signed by expert Stanley B. Ashbrook in 1945, give plate positions and provenance from the S.W. Richey Collection of Cincinnati. Accompanied by page from auction catalog in which it was offered in 1993.
