LOCALS continued...

VERY FINE. ONE OF THE FINEST OF THE FIVE RECORDED COVERS BEARING THE PHILADELPHIA DESPATCH POST CIRCULAR BLACK STAMP. THIS IS THE ONLY 15L2 COVER KNOWN WITH THE DISTINCTIVE DOTS-IN-CIRCLE CANCELLATION, WHICH IS FOUND ON ONE 15L2 COVER.

Our census of Philadelphia Despatch Post 15L1-15L2 covers published in the Golden catalogue incorrectly listed this cover as a 15L1. It has been moved to its correct place among 15L2 covers, and, together with the cover offered in the following lot, the total recorded is now five. These are listed here in chronological order:

1) 1842 folded letter (docketed 1842 on back, must be December) to Treasurer American Sunday School Union, ex Caspary, lot 561, Schwartz, 2) Jan. 13, 1843 folded letter to Rev. George Boyd, stamp cancelled by red "T"-shaped handstamp, red "Paid" and "Phila. Despatch Post 10 A.M." timestamp (on flap), offered in this sale as lot ??, 3) Mar. 20 (1843) folded letter to N. R. Potts, stamp cancelled by dots in small circle, red "Phila. Despatch Post 3 P.M." timestamp (ms. "20" below time) and "Paid", offered in lot ???, 4) Apr. 20, 1843 folded letter to Shrack & Co., stamp cancelled by small red outline "3", no timestamp or postmark, ex Gibson, Middendorf, and 5) May 19, 1843 folded letter to Booth, stamp cancelled by large red "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post 10 A.M." timestamp, discovery example (1889), ex Caspary, Boker.

Inside stamped by Scott Stamp & Coin. (Image)

VERY FINE. ONE OF FIVE RECORDED COVERS BEARING THE PHILADELPHIA DESPATCH POST BLACK STAMP. THIS IS THE SECOND EARLIEST OF ALL 15L1-15L2 COVERS AND THE ONLY KNOWN EXAMPLE OF THE DISTINCTIVE T-SHAPED CANCELLATION ON ANY PHILADELPHIA DESPATCH POST OR BLOOD'S LOCAL.

The earliest recorded Philadelphia Despatch Post cover -- a black circular timestamp without adhesive -- is dated December 19, 1842, and the earliest use of an adhesive is an 1842 folded cover with the Black 15L2 stamp.

Ex Ackerman. (Image)

OFFERED "AS IS" -- THIS IS A VARIATION OF THE PHILADELPHIA DESPATCH POST RED STAMP THAT RAISES CHALLENGING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THIS EXAMPLE -- PLEASE READ ON.

Our updated and corrected census of the Philadelphia Despatch Post (Robertson & Co.) Red stamp, Scott 15L1, now contains 14 covers (see Table ??). One of the covers we previously listed in the Golden catalogue as a 15L1 stamp is actually the Black 15L2 (see lot ??? in this sale) -- it has been moved to the correct census list. The discovery of a 15L1 cover -- offered in our Sale 825 (lot 1589) -- creates one new listing, restoring the count to 14. We have not included the cover offered here for reasons that will follow.

CENSUS OF PHILADELPHIA DESPATCH POST RED 15L1 COVERS

In chronological order:

1) Feb. 15, 1843 folded letter to Hollingsworth, stamp cancelled by dots in small circle, red "Phila. Despatch Post 10 A.M." timestamp with ms. "16" date, ex Caspary, Golden,

2) Apr. 19, 1843 folded letter to Ludlow, New York City, stamp cancelled by large "3" and tied by red Phila. Apr. 20 post office circular datestamp, no Phila. Despatch Post timestamp, ex Boker,

3) Jun. 13, 1843, stamp cut square (only one known) and just tied by large red "3" on folded letter to Fritz in Phila., red Phila. Jun. 13 post office circular datestamp, marked "Refused", ex Caspary, Boker,

4) Jun. 20, 1843 folded letter to McNamee, stamp cancelled by large red "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post -- P.M." timestamp, ex Lowe, Golden,

5) Jun. 27, 1843 folded letter to Fabriquettes, New York City, stamp cancelled by red circle of V's, red Phila. Jun. 27 post office circular datestamp and ms. 12-1/2 rate, no timestamp, ex Ferrary, Caspary, Boker,

6) Jul. 28, 1843 folded letter to Lattin & Hamlin, stamp cancelled by "Paid" (two strikes) and "3" (two strikes), sender's ms. "Paid" notation, no timestamp or postmark, Sloane records,

7) Jul. 28, 1843 folded letter to Burlington N.J., stamp cancelled by small red outline "3", red Phila. Jul. 28 post office circular datestamp and ms. "6" rate, Siegel 1985 Rarities sale,

8) Sep. 18, 1843 folded letter to Dr. Blandine, stamp cancelled by outline "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post -- P.M." timestamp, Siegel Sale 825, lot 1589,

9) Oct. 10, 1843, torn stamp tied by red Phila. post office circular datestamp on folded letter to Mt. Pleasant O., ex Knapp (no photo),

10) Nov. 1, 1843 folded letter to Carter & Scattergood, stamp cancelled by small outline "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post -- P.M." timestamp, ex Coles, Schwartz, P.F. records.

11) Nov. 8, 1843 printed notice to Gilpin, stamp cancelled by small outline "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post -- P.M." timestamp, ex Gibson, Lowe, Golden,

12) undated folded cover to Richards, stamp cancelled by large red "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post 3 P.M." timestamp, Christies/Lowe Jun. 18, 1985 sale,

13) undated folded cover to Bache, stamp cancelled by large red "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post -- P.M." timestamp, Schwartz collection,

14) Date unknown, folded cover/letter to Charles Keen, stamp (assumed 15L1) cancelled by large "3", "Phila. Despatch Post 3 P.M." timestamp (markings assumed red), Tapling collection, British Library.

CENSUS OF PHILADELPHIA DESPATCH POST BLACK 15L2 COVERS

In chronological order:

1) 1842 folded letter (docketed 1842 on back, but must be December) to Treasurer American Sunday School Union, ex Caspary, lot 561,

2) Jan. 13, 1843 folded letter to Rev. George Boyd, stamp cancelled by red "T"-shaped handstamp, red "Paid" and "Phila. Despatch Post 10 A.M." timestamp (on flap), offered in this sale as lot ??,

3) Mar. 20 (1843) folded letter to N. R. Potts, stamp cancelled by dots in small circle, red "Phila. Despatch Post 3 P.M." timestamp (ms. "20" below time) and "Paid", offered in lot ???,

4) Apr. 20, 1843 folded letter to Shrack & Co., stamp cancelled by small red outline "3", no timestamp or postmark, ex Gibson, Middendorf,

5) May 19, 1843 folded letter to Booth, stamp cancelled by large red "3", red "Phila. Despatch Post 10 A.M." timestamp, discovery example (1889), ex Caspary, Boker.

The establishment of the Philadelphia Despatch Post is documented in an advertisement in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Dec. 8, 1842. A larger Robertson & Co. advertisement is illustrated here, which contains information that differs from the smaller Public Ledger ad. Notably, the stamps are priced at 3c individually, 31c per dozen and $2 per hundred. Valuable-letter registration for 6-1/4 cents and a 6c rate on letters beyond two miles are quoted (no examples of either service are known). The firm's address is 93 Chesnut Street, not 83 South Second Street as in the earlier advertisement. Published research by Robson Lowe, Edward T. Harvey, Norman Shachat, Steven M. Roth and Calvet M. Hahn has explored the vexing questions of ownership and transition from the predecessor posts to the successor, D. O. Blood & Co.

The cover offered here has been excluded from our census of genuine 15L1 covers because the stamp, while having impressions of the genuine "Phila. Despatch Post" circle, "Paid" and tall "3" handstamps, possesses two troubling characteristics. First, the "R & Co" manuscript control mark, which is always present on the Philadelphia Despatch Post adhesives, is in a different hand than usual (see photo detail). Second, the paper differs from other 15L1-15L2 stamps, and the reverse has writing on it, which indicates that it was cut from another folded letter. The usage itself poses a problem, because the letter is addressed locally and should have been delivered by the Philadelphia Despatch Post without the post office's involvement. Curiously, the odd manuscript "R & Co." and local-usage enigma occur in one other example -- listed as number 3 in our census -- which is a cut-square stamp (the only one known) barely tied by tall "3" handstamp on a local letter with Philadelphia Jun. 13 (1843) post office datestamp.

The style of writing -- the angular "R & Co." on the stamp -- is also found on cut-out bogus adhesives affixed to covers and reported as "Some New Varieties" (of genuine locals) by Charles J. Phillips in Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal (Oct. 31, 1904). These are sophisticated fakes, with stamps similarly affixed by wax seals and tied by filing creases in a very convincing manner. The identical "R & Co." on the stamp offered here is the most damning evidence against it. The cover was acuired by the Halls from Charles J. Phillips in 1926 (signed by him on back) and was noted as coming from the Ferrary collection, although it was not photographed or lotted individually in the sale. Phillips, in his 1904 article, states that he was shown the group of "new varieties" by William Moser at the Berlin exhibition. He further opines "All these covers were found in the correspondence of an old and prominent lawyer in Philadelphia...and the stamps are undoubtedly genuine." The correspondence was addressed to St. George T. Campbell, and there are many genuine covers known from this correspondence, but it seems like that some were used to create bogus Blood's varieties.

We offer this cover "as is", because we feel that there are too many factors against its genuineness. (Image)