380th Auction

1848, TRENT: Folded lettersheet from "TRINIDAD JY 21 1848" to New York, per Royal Steam Packet "Eagle" to St. Thomas, from there in the "TRENT" to Bermuda and New York and charged again with "24" cents, fine and attractive with very few covers known from the West Indies

1848, AMERICA: Victoria 2d. blue and 1847 Embossed 10d. red-brown tied by numeral to envelope endorsed "p Royal mail packet" to new York, upon arrival charged with "12" cents (10c. as double letter and 2c. ship fee), adhesives with faults, yet and scarce entire from the first westbound voyage under the Restored Rate period

1848, EUROPA: Folded letter dated "Boston Decr 27- 1848" endorsed "p Steamer Europa" to London, unpaid, per Harnden Express with red cachet "FROM HARNDEN & Co. COMMISSION MERCHANTS NEW-YORK " alongside, charged "1/-" upon arrival

1849, CANADA: Folded letter dated "Brooklyn Feb 6th 1849" to Manchester, posted unpaid and charged "1/-" upon arrival, interesting entire of te last eastbound voyage in the restored rate period

1849, CANADA: Folded lettersheet from Boston (February 5th) endorsed "p Steamer Canada" to London, paid "48" cents., upon arrival charged with "2/-" as the Convention rate was not effective until the departure of February 15th., interesting entire of the last eastbound voyage of the Restored Rate Period

1849, EUROPA: Folded letter dated "Liverpool 9 February 1849" with matching red "PAID AT LIVERPOOL FE 9 1849" and "1/-" handstamp, endorsed "p. Europa", to New York, upon arrival charged with "6" for the ship fee, fine and attractive entire of the last westbound voyage under the Restored Rate Period

1849, EUROPA: Buff envelope from "Paris N.Y. Jan 6" with manuscript "Paid 29" to Broughty Ferry, Scotland with arrival mark "DUNDEE JA 23 1849", upon arrival charged with "1/-" as prepayment was not possible under the Restored Rate rules. The cover was paid for twice, some wear but an interesting entire from the first eastbound voyage in the Restored Rate period

1849 THE NEW TREATY RATE PERIOD

The early voyages had no accounting hand stamps. These were not available until late March in the Exchange Office in Liverpool and early April in the US and then in inadequate numbers for the volume of mail. For the first four months the system worked imperfectly.

1849, AMERICA: Folded letter weighing 2oz from Liverpool with red "PAID AT LIVERPOOL FE 24 1849" to New York, paid "4/-", manuscript credit of "20" cents to the US, some minor ink corrosion, a fine and interesting entire from the first westbound voyage under the new treaty

1849, AMERICA: Folded letter dated "New York July 3rd 1849" with "5" cents due handstamp alongside to Sheffield, reverse with "AMERICA LIVERPOOL JY 15 1849", upon arrival charged "1/-", fine

1849, CANADA: Folded lettersheet from London to New York, endorsed "p Steamship 'Canada' via Liverpool", U.S. debited with "19 CENTS", upon arrival charged with "24" cents, fine and scarce

1849, EUROPA: Folded lettersheet from London with red "PAID 5 AP 5 1849" alongside to Petersburg, Virginia, credit to U.S. with red "5 CENTS", further red "PAID SHIP" struck unnecessarily and inaccurately, fine

1849, HERMANN: Folded letter dated "St. Andrews Bay 4 th February" to Dublin, manuscript "Paid 24" at upper right, upon arrival red "PAID MR 11 1849" applied, fine entire conveyed on the first trip under the new contract

1849, NIAGARA: Folded lettersheet with manuscript despatch "Roanoke May 24th" to Tuam, Ireland."Paid 24" in manuscript for a ½oz letter, struck "19" as credit to the UK alongside, with arrival mark, fine

1849, NIAGARA: Small envelope from "LIVERPOOL 23 MR 1849" to New York, U.S. debited "19" in manuscript, upon arrival in New York charged with "24", fine entire of the third westbound voyage

1849, NIAGARA: Folded letter from "MANCHESTER MR 15 1849" to Philadelphia, U.S. credited "5" cents in manuscript, slightly stained, otherwise fine

After the signing of the 1848 Convention between Britain and the United States there was only one semieffective American steamship line on the North Atlantic - the Ocean Line. This soon changed. The Collins Line was the first addition in 1851, but between 1855 and 1857 there were four. By 1862 there were none and despite a brief revival at the end of the Civil War the same situation existed in 1868

1846, MASSACHUSETTS: Folded letter dated "London 17 Jan 1846" to New York, paid "8"d. outgoing ship letter fee with red "PAID SHIP LETTER LONDON 17 JA 17 1846", upon arrival "6" cents ship fee charged, interesting entire from the last out of only four voyages

1847, SARAH SANDS: Maiden Voyage, folded letter dated "Chichster 18th January 1847" and endorsed "By the Sarah Sands" to Milton, Massachusetts, paid "1/-", should have been "8"d, upon arrival charged "NEW-YORK SHIP 7 cents.", fine and scarce entire

1848, HERMANN: Maiden voyage, dated "New York 20 Mars 1848" to Cognac, avoiding a retaliatory rate by being transferred directly to France with arrival mark "LE HAVRE 13 AVRIL 48", charged with "9" decimes, fine

1848, UNITED STATES: Final Voyage, folded letter from "GENEVA 29 AOUT 48", endorsed "par le Havre Steamer United States, paid to French port, upon arrival in New York charged "New-York... 29" retaliatory rate, fine and scarce entire

1848,WASHINGTON: Small envelope from "GIESSEN  11/6" endorsed "for New York via Bremen" with "ST.P.A. BREMEN 14/7" to Cambridge, paid "9" to Bremen, send unpaid to New York thus integral cds. "NEW YORK SHIP AUG 5 29cts." struck, fine and scarce

1848, WASHINGTON: Folded letter dated "Leipzig February 28th" to New York, sent under separate cover to Bremen, posted unpaid by forwarding agent John Heckenham with departure cancel "ST.P.A. BREMEN 14 3", upon arrival "24" cets charged, fine and interesting entire

1850, ARCTIC: Maiden Voyage, unpaid folded lettersheet endorsed "p Arctic" to London with black integral cds. "NEW YORK 21 OCT 20", upon arrival charged with "1/-", fine

1850, ATLANTIC: Maiden Voyage of Collins line, unpaid folded letter with integral cds. "NEW YORK 21 APR 27" to Carlisle, after transit of 13 days, despite damaging paddles in drift ice, arrival in Liverpool clear "AMERICA MY 10 50A" struck, not delivered in Carlisle and re-directed to Stockton with arrival mark "STOCKTON MY 13 1850" and "1" charged, fine

1850, BALTIC: Maiden Voyage, envelope with full content from New York, endorsed "per Steamer Baltic", with black integral cds. "NEW YORK 21 NOV" to Liverpool where charged with "1/-" and "AMERICA LIVERPOOL NO 28" on reverse, very fine

1850, FRANKLIN: Maiden Voyage of the "Franklin" and the Havre Line, unpaid folded lettersheet endorsed "p. Franklin Steamer via Southampton" with clear strike of integral cds. "NEW YORK 42 OCT 5" to London, upon arrival charged with "2/-", fine and scarce

1850, PACIFIC: Maiden Voyage and the 2nd of the Collins Line, unpaid folded letter from New York to London, endorsed "p. Pacific Steamer" with very clear strike of integral cds. "NEW YORK 42 MAY 25" as debit to the UK, upon arrival charged as double-letter "2/-", two file folds one through cds., a fine and rare entire

1850, PACIFIC: Folded letter dated "Nvlee Orleans le 10 aout 1850" with matching red "NEW-ORLEANS AUG 14" and "PAID 5" to Paris, only inland postage paid thus black two-line "U.S. STEAMSHIP POSTAGE NOT PAID" struck, also red boxed "COLINIES &c Art 13" applied, upon arrival charged with "15" decimes, fine and interesting entire

1851, ARCTIC: Folded letter dated "Glasgow 29th July 1851" with matching red "GLASGOW PAID JUL 29 1851 to Philadelphia, prepaid "8"d. outgoing ship letter rate, reverse with "SHIP LETTER LIVERPOOL JY 30", upon arrival black integral cds. "NEW-YORK SHIP AUG 11 7cts" struck, a fine and rare entire conveyed during the only American contract steamship voyage known to have been designed for ship letters only, only three covers recorded from this voyage

1851, FRANKLIN: Folded letter dated "New York 14th Nov 1851" to Cognac with clear steamer cachet "NEW-YORK and HAVRE Steamer Franklin Steam Navigation Company" alongside, upon arrival in Havre red "OUTRE-MER LE HAVRE 28 NOV 51" applied and charged with "6" decimes, some ageing, the "Franklin" was the only Atlantic steamer to have used an "Name-of-Boat" cachet

1852, HERMANN: Ceres 10c. horizontal pair and 1 fr. single tied by grille sans fine to folded letter from "PARIS 8 NOV 52" to Philadelphia, upon arrival in New York integral cds. "NEW YORK 21 NOV 23" struck, adhesives some faults, yet and attractive entire of the scarce 15g. rate 

1852, PACIFIC: Ceres 40c. orange, two vertical pairs tied by grille sans fins to double-weight folded letter with adjacent cds. "PARIS 13 DEC 52" to New York, upon arrival charged with "21" as single rate, adhesives some faults, still attractive, certificate Ceres (2002)

1853, BALTIC: Unpaid folded letter from "GLASGOW JUN 14 1853" endorsed "pr. US Stm Pckt. Baltic" to Montreal, charged with "1/-" in error, error corrected and charges with 1/4d currency, rarely letters to Canada were carried by Collins steamships to Canada,

1853, HERMANN: Folded lettersheet from "HONG-KONG 22 JU 1853" to Boston, sent unpaid per "Malta", "Madras", "Indus" und "Sultan" via Marseilles to Calais, from there to Southampon and New York with "NEW-YORK SEP 1 AM Pkt" arrival, fine

1853, HUMBOLDT: Unpaid folded letter from Boston endorsed "per Steamer Humboldt" via Forwarder "RÖLKER & MÖLL NEW YORK" with black integral cds. "N. YORK Am. PKt. 23 OCT 22" to Bremen, charged with "13" silbergroschen resp. "29" grote, fine and interesting entire from the last complete voyage before being wrecked going westbound on Sisters Rocks, 12 miles off Halifax in a dense fog on 6th December

1853, HUMBOLDT: Small envelope written in Pisa and endorsed "p Humboldt", sent under separate cover to Forwarder Green & Co., Paris with company cachet struck on reverse, upon arrival in New York charged with 40 cents and black integral cds. "N. YORK Am. Pkt. 40 AUG 16" struck, few faults

1853, NASHVILLE: Maiden Voyage, folded letter from "SAN FRANCISCO 1 DEC" with adjacent straight-line "PAID 26" vie New York to Cognac, put on the "WINFIELD SCOTT" which ran aground, the mail was recovered, with the "GOLDEN GATE" to Panama and with the "YANKEE BLADE" to New York, upon arrival charged "6" decimes, interesting entire being conveyed on the 1st of two voyages for the line