Lot no. 8106

1860: 1857/61, 5¢ brown, Type II, used with horizontal strip of four 10¢ green, Type V, all tied by dark red circular grid cancels on folded cover addressed to “Augustine Heard, Shanghae, China”; manuscript “Via Marseilles” partially obscured by the stamps; red New-York Br. Pkt and London Paid transit marks; magenta manuscript “40” credit and Hong Kong “1” on front; 48 mm large oval “FORWARDED BY GRINELL, MINTURN & CO. NEW YORK” company handstamp and Hong Kong transit back stamps; stamps properly pay the 45¢ rate to Shanghai China via British Mail and Marseilles. 2016 Philatelic Foundation certificate (Scott 30A,35). In 1830, Augustine Heard  (1785-1868) settled in Canton, China, where he became partner in the trading firm of Samuel Russell & Co. by then the leading American Opium dealer in China. Heard set up his own company, Augustine Heard & Co., in 1840, with Joseph Coolidge and John Murray Forbes. The firm became successful and grew rapidly to become the third largest American firm in China. By 1850 had branch offices, beside the headquarter in Canton, in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Foochow with agencies in Amoy and Ningpo. As with many others American firms involved in trade with China at the time, Augustine Heard & Co. encountered financial difficulties in the 1870s and finally went bankrupt in 1875.