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Auction: 18035 - Great Britain, Featuring fine Line Engraved and Surface Printed issues, Queen Elizabeth II Errors and Varieties, The Property of a Gentleman
Lot: 2001

Great Britain
Postal History
1649 (17 September) entire letter from Calais, smuggled into England by the Royalist Underground Post, endorsed "For Mr. Ed H" and charged 8d., from James Heath to his brother Edward, sons of Robert Heath, concerning the estate of the now deceased father. Robert and James Heath fled Cromwell's England, Robert Heath died in Calais in 1649. Interesting contents, including "...it may bee I may take a vagery to Rome this yeere, being the jubile, had I money to beare my charges, not as a Roman Catholike, butt an Athenian, covetous of noveltys. Butt I shall bee well advised befre I goe, whether I cannot imploy myselfe better neerer home....."; clean, fresh and very fine, with trivial stain spotting only. Other surviving smuggled letters to Heath are know to have been charged 4d. or 6d., this is believed to be the only known letter charged 8d. A highly important early British Postal History rarity. Photo

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Sold for
£2,100