6 December 1837 Waghorn Cover

6 December 1837

Postal cover from waghorn (), bearing unknown handstamp in unknown. Dated February 1838. Scarce example of postal history from this office. Corinphila - 1837 (Dec 6): Large part entire letter concerning business matters from France to Wetmore & Co. in Canton, China endorsed at base "Par Alexandrie et les Bateaux à vapeur de Marseilles", and carried privately outside the Mails to Marseille as no French charges are apparent; from there carried on the steamer "Dante" (Dec 8) to Malta and onwards to Alexandria on "HMS Firefl y" arriving in Alexandria (Dec 22). Two fi ne strikes of oval framed "Care of / Mr. Waghorn / Alexandrie" struck in red (Sidebottom type 6) on obverse and over fl ap on the reverse of the cover. Carried from Suez (Jan 1, 1838) on the EIC "Berenice" to Bombay (Jan 21) and forwarded as endorsed "Care of Messrs. Leckie & Co., Bombay" and Leckie would have paid the 1 rupee Red Sea postage prior to the cover being sent as an enclosure to Calcutta where struck with framed "CALCUTTA / G.P.O. / SHIP LETTER" (Feb 10) in red and sent on per "Sylph" to Canton. A fi ne cover to a very rare destination bearing one of the rarest of all Waghorn cachets. Signed Todd AIEP. Note 1: Journey time to Calcutta, 66 days. This is probably the fi rst of the two recorded covers with this Waghorn handstamp, mentioned in Sidebottom on page 150. Note 2: Peter Smith's census in "Egypt Stamps & Postal History" on page 30 recorded just three examples of this marking. Sidebottom recorded just two. Note 3: Illustrated in "Thomas Fletcher Waghorn Überlandweg Aegypten" by Bernard Koch on page 31.

"Camellia"