Prior to this cover, no use of a boxed "No.1" receiving house handstamp had been recorded in the Bath Penny Post. The cover is a Norwich Union Insurance form addressed to Dublin and bears inside an address of "Batheaston".
The entire has a "BATH / Penny Post" handstamp and two Bath circular mileage marks dated 1st and 2nd November 1817, with a Dublin lozenge receiving mark on the reverse dated 5th November 1817.
The two Bath circular mileage marks are probably because the letter arrived too late to catch the mail coach.
The Bath Penny Post was announced in September 1810 as having receiving houses at Walcot, Batheaston, Bathford, Widcombe, Twerton, Weston and Winifred's Dale. The assignment of the boxed "No.1" handstamp to Batheaston is slightly problematic as later examples from Batheaston in 1830 have boxed "No.2" receiving handstamps, so if these are both correct then the handstamp transferred between the two dates. An example of the boxed "No.2" exists from 1813 but unfortunately it has no address associated with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment