2¢ Brown (113), horizontal pair, used with pair and single 10¢ Green, E. Grill (89), tied by cork cancels, backstamped at Bath, Maine (April 27), right 10¢ tied by red "New York 12 May 5" (1870) 12¢ credit datestamp on cover to Callao, Peru, Callao receiving backstamp, right 10¢ with couple short perfs and small pre-use paper fold, still fresh and Very Fine, stamped for the 34¢ rate via American and British Packets, but the rate had been reduced to 22¢ in March 1870 (12¢ credit confirms 22¢ rate)
2¢ Brown (113), horizontal pair and single, each with horizontally split grills, on cover originating in Nagasaki, Japan, and addressed in French to Shanghai, China, stamps tied on arrival by quartered cork cancels of Shanghai, docketed with Nagasaki May 12, 1870, origin from Pignatel & Co. (one of the largest of the Western trading firms at the time), sender's manuscript steamer directive "Per Costa Rica"
Fine overall condition; one stamp in pair creased before use, minor separations and wear along folds, two tape stains at sides have been expertly removed, small ink notation at bottom left also expertly removed.
Very few interconsular covers originating in Nagasaki are recorded, and all but one bearing 1869 Pictorial Issue stamps were prepaid 6¢ for the rate from Japan to Shanghai, China. This cover is the earliest recorded example of the reduced 6¢ interconsular rate and one of only two known covers with this rate paid by the 2¢ 1869 Pictorial Issue. It is a wonderful artifact of U.S. postal services between Japan and China.
During this period, consular mails were carried by Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co. branch-line steamers from Shanghai, China, to Yokohama, Japan, with intermediate stops at Nagasaki and Hiogo, Japan (and the reverse). The entire trip took approximately eight days. This cover was carried on a westbound PMSS branch-line steamer that originated in Yokohama and stopped at Nagasaki on its journey to Shanghai. The table of PMSS Co. branch-line trips in the Frajola-Perlman-Scamp book is, by the authors' own admission, based on incomplete records. A sailing of the Costa Rica (or any other branch-line ship) corresponding to the May 12, 1870 Nagasaki docketing is not listed. The likely reason for the stamps being cancelled in Shanghai instead of Nagasaki is the cover was posted too late to be included in the bagged mail from Nagasaki, or was posted directly to the ship purser.
Illustrated in Rose, United States Postage Stamps of 1869 (p. 34) and Frajola-Perlman-Scamp, U.S. Post Offices in China and Japan (p. 188). Ex Ryohei Ishikawa, Jonathan W. Rose and Edgar Kuphal ("European's Large Gold" collection).
VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE MIXED FRANKING -- MIXED COUNTRIES AND MIXED ISSUES -- PAYING POSTAGE FROM CUBA TO THE UNITED STATES AND BEYOND TO SPAIN. ESPECIALLY DESIRABLE WITH THE NEW YORK FOREIGN MAIL GEOMETRIC CANCELS.
There are ten recorded mixed franking covers sent from Cuba to Spain. This cover is one of the most attractive of the Quadrado correspondence, because it has a large number of stamps, all of which are tied on the front, including by NYFM cancels.
Ex Boker
VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A COLORFUL AND EXTREMELY RARE MIXED-ISSUE COVER TO ROME WITH RED BALTIMORE FOREIGN MAIL MARKINGS, SENT FULLY PAID TO ITS DESTINATION BY NORTH GERMAN UNION CLOSED MAIL.
Rome at this point was still part of the Papal States, defended in part by French troops and not yet incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. The most common route for mail from the U.S. to Rome was via French Mail. The mate to the cover offered here (ex Vogel, Siegel Sale 995, lot 2203, realized $8,500 hammer) was the subject of an article by George Hargest in Chronicle No. 45. At the time of mailing, Baltimore was an exchange office for some foreign mails. This letter was routed through New York where it went by Closed Mail via England to Ostend, then by the travelling post office from Verviers to Cologne, where the bag was opened and an accounting was made. It was then likely exchanged with the Italian railway post office that carried the letter to Rome.
With 2008 P.F. certificate