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Auction: 144 - August Philatelic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 25

Full Rigged Ship illustrated postmark, fresh folded letter with integral address leaf datelined "Whampoa (China) April 5, 1834" to Capt. William Allen at Salem, Mass. and endorsed "pr Globe," entered the mails with red octagonal "Phila/6/Oct" datestamp and manuscript "39" rate, plus a mostly clear strike of full rigged ship postmark, very fine; a new discovery, being one of only two "full rigged ship" handstamps applied to a cover from China, the other being the example sold by us as lot 1172 in the auction of the Floyd Risvold collection on 27-29 January, 2010, which realized an impressive $62,500.00 plus the buyer's premium.

The was an early American merchant sailing vessel and a predecessor of the Clippers, with an average speed of not over three knots per hour. A "slow boat to China" in other words. It is said that the "would beat her head three times against a billow and then fall off and sail around it." This cover arrived in Philadelphia after a long and tedious journey of almost six months and was carried on the same trip as the Risvold example.

Sold for
$5,000