Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 21042 - The Opium Wars Collection
Lot: 19

First Opium War
The Opium Trade
Opium Clipper Ships
Sylph: 1834 (4 Oct.) entire letter from Russell Sturgis in Canton to his wife in Macao (letter number 7) and marked as carried on the "Sylph"; the flap, which opens well for display, bears a fair to good strike of the large "Boat office/10 Cents/macao" in red along with some Chinese delivery characters in pencil. The letter begins, "The Sylph has anchored some way below the factories on account of the tide ...". Clean and fine. A good example of this marking. Macao Boat Office cover 7 of 61 as recorded by Choi Cheong Too

Sylph was a clipper ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1831 for the Parsi merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong-based merchant house Jardine Matheson, in 1833 Sylph set a speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport opium between various ports in the Far East. She disappeared en route to Singapore in 1849.


鴉片煙快速大飛艇 "Sylph": 1834年10月4日廣州Russell Sturgis 寄給住在澳門的妻子(第七號信). 由"Sylph"遞送, 蓋有較清晰的"Boat Office/ 10 Cents/ Macao" 紅色圓戳, 旁有中文記號. 保存良好, 據Choi Cheong Too記錄澳門輪船局郵函共為61件中的7件.

Sold for
HK$7,000

Starting price
HK$6500