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Hand Struck Stamps
Waghorn Sidebottom 16 — marking, 1853, Black

Forwarding Agent · Marking

Waghorn Sidebottom 16

Date
1853
Colour
Black
Rarity
1 example recorded
Note
Unlisted in Sidebottom or Smith
Submitted by
System

Census

Census records

1 cover recorded
COV-1813 pre stamp cover
COV-1813

27 March 1853

1851, "ROBERT KNIGHT/OVERLAND AGENT/BOMBAY/Care WAGHORN & CO." (Unlisted in Sidebottom and Smith). Clear strike of oval handstamp across flaps of folded letter datelined Bombay Mar. 27, 1853, addressed to a wine merchant in Madeira, Portugal, lightly struck Bombay despatch and London transit datestamps, red "INDIA" and "Returned for Postage" handstamps, various rate markings VERY FINE STRIKE. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED EXAMPLE OF THIS ROBERT KNIGHT WAGHORN OVERLAND AGENCY HANDSTAMP. Sidebottom and Smith do not list this marking in their books. Waghorn was out of the overland business by 1844, but the overland service continued through various competitors. Waghorn died in January 1850, a few years before this cover was mailed. The handstamp style is similar to other forwarder markings of the period.

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About Waghorn Sidebottom 16

Sidebottom 16 is the latest mark in the Waghorn series, recorded from 1853 and listed in neither Sidebottom nor Smith. It postdates Waghorn's own death in 1850, so its use points to the continuation of the forwarding business under successors, or to a late survival of the name on the Egyptian transit, rather than to Waghorn's personal agency.

Recorded in black and documented here from surviving covers, it closes the catalogue at the far end of the timeline, well after the overland route had become an official government and P&O concern. As an unlisted mark from the 1850s it is among the scarcest and most intriguing in the series, and the census records here are the main evidence for its existence and dating.