Waghorn Sidebottom 2

1837

Cover is currently Institutionalized in London (not available to collectors)

5 December 1837

1836, "CARE OF MR. WAGHORN/COSSIER" (Sidebottom 2; Smith 2). Bold strike of two-line handstamp on folded letter datelined Calcutta Dec. 5, 1836, addressed to Glasgow, Scotland, manuscript "Regd. No. 401 W & Co" below at right, which might be in Waghorn's hand, Calcutta G.P.O. Dec. 5 oval despatch datestamp on back, manuscript directive "Overland despatch via Cossier" along top and "Full Post Paid to Calcutta" on back, Madras and Marseilles transit datestamps, "Pays d'Outremer" boxed handstamp and "Purifie Lazaret, Marseilles" with corresponding disinfection slits, boxed "1/2" handstamp, cover with edgewear and tear at bottom FINE AND ASTOUNDING RARITY. ONE OF ONLY TWO RECORDED COVERS WITH THIS THOMAS WAGHORN "COSSIER" HANDSTAMP AND THE ONLY COVER IN PRIVATE HANDS. ONE OF THE KEY PIECES TO ANY INDIAN OR EGYPTIAN OVERLAND MAIL COLLECTION. It is theorized that "Cossier" (El Qoseir) was selected as a transit point because Waghorn had a caravan route across the desert to the Nile, where it would continue down to Alexandria. It is known that Waghorn preferred this route over Suez for various reasons, despite almost all other covers traveling via Suez. The other recorded Cossier cover has the same dates, so it is possible only one mailing via Cossier was made (no others with different dates are known). At the time Sidebottom's informative book The Overland Mail was published in 1948, only one example of the Cossier marking had been recorded (illustrated on p. 149). When Peter Smith published Egypt Stamps & Postal History: A Philatelic Treatise in 1999, the same cover was still the only one known. That cover, ex Byam and Jeidl, is now institutionalized in London, leaving the cover offered here as the only available example. According to the description in the Cavendish sale of the Manning collection, this cover was acquired in the 1960s, and its prior whereabouts was unknown. Therefore, this is only the second public offering of this cover in more than 60 years. Ex Manning.