Washington DC: 1821. Envelope or Cover. This stampless folded letter contains a one-page payment transmittal letter from the Military & General Agency private land bureau likely resolving a claim related to military service in either the American Revolution or the War of 1812. The letter is written on..... More
Baltimore: 1842. Envelope or Cover. This 3-page stampless folded shipping document and letter measures 15.75” x 10” unfolded. It features vignettes of an early steamboat, a three-masted sailing ship, and an early pioneer 4-2-0 locomotive with box car along the upper border and touts its delivery service to “Baltimore, Washington..... More
Warren, Massachusetts: 1843. Envelope or Cover. This one-page stampless folded letter of recommendation written on a partially-printed bifold sheet measures 15¾” x 10” unfolded. The printed Quaboag Seminary letterhead at the top of the page measures 7” x 6”. The letter is addressed, and was given directly to, S. B...... More
Envelope or Cover. This three-page stampless folded letter was written on “feby 17, 1856” and sent “in care of [the] American Legation,” which, at the time was located in Mexico City, to the prominent Washington lawyer, James Mandeville Carlisle. It was sent through Vera Cruz, as attested to transit marking..... More
Unbound. These four certificates were once in the collection of The Printing Museum in Houston, Texas. Upon its closure in 2024, they were purchased by a Texas antique dealer. 1864 – Aden Typesetter and Distributing Machine Company. New York, New York. Stock certificate for one share at $1,000 each..... More
New York or Philadelphia: 1868. Unbound. This Bill of Lading measures 13¼” x 8¼”. It is from the Liverpool, New York and Philadelphia Steamship Company and was issued on 4 September 1868. It bears a nice illustration of a steamship and is fracked with a 10-cent blue Washington Power of..... More
Philadelphia, Pennsylvanis: 1870. Unbound. This certificate, measuring approximate 10.75” x 7”, was issued by The Railroad Car Trust of Philadelphia to Thomas M. Drysdale on March 2nd, 1870. It features an illustration of an industrial scene showing factories, a steamship, a locomotive, a freight car, and a passenger car. It..... More
Buffalo, New York: 1898. Envelope or Cover. This letter, from a mother in Philadelphia to her daughter, Grace, in Buffalo, was written just over a week after the Battleship Maine exploded and sank in the Havana, Cuba harbor, killing over 260 sailors, many in their sleep. Although it..... More
Austin, Texas: Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway, 1911. Unbound. This reward poster, titled “One Thousand Dollars Reward”, measures 7¾” x 11”. It was jointly issued by C. B. Anderson, the Post Office Inspector at Austin, Texas and M. J. Forman, the inspector at Houston. In nice shape with mailing folds..... More
El Paso, Texas: 1913. Envelope or Cover. This lot contains three letters, all written between 7 October and 14 December 1913, by Willie Jones, a Southern Pacific machinist in El Paso, to his mother in Rochester, New York. They contain a total of 13 hand written pages. All are in..... More
University of Virginia [Charlottesville, Virginia]: Circa 1849. The cover was sent to John Harwell Cocke at his famous Bremo Plantation in Fluvanna County from the University of Virginia and is noteworthy for the red strike of the school’s oval postmark with manuscript date and “10” rate mark. It is the..... More
This letter was sent from Quindaro in the Kansas Territory to on of its residents, Richard W. Clark, at St. Louis, Missouri in care of Jonathan Jones. It bears a three-cent Washington stamp (Scott #26) and a postmark with a manuscript date of “Dec 16”. Although there are..... More
Envelope or Cover. This mailing envelope is addressed to “Sewing Machine / Tribune Office” and franked with a 1-cent Franklin stamp (Scott #7) that has been cancelled with a red New York carrier hand stamp, indicating it was delivered within the city. An American Philatelic Society Expertizing Certificate stating that..... More
Cimarron, New Mexico Territory: 1867. Envelope or Cover. This three-page stampless letter was sent by A. J. Thomas, a hay farmer from Cimarron, New Mexico Territory, to J. B. Culver in Delaware, Ohio. It is franked with a 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #65) tied to the envelope with a “Cimarron..... More
Envelope or Cover. This stampless letter measures 15½” x 9¾“. It was sent by A. M. Fannin and M P Allen to their relatives, care of “Miss L. A. Fannin / Madison / Ga.” It bears a faint circular red “Augusta & Atlanta R.R.” station agent postmark and a manuscript..... More
St. Louis, Missouri: 1819. Envelope or Cover. This stampless folded letter measures 7.5” x 12”. It is datelined “St. Louis 14 August 1819” and was sent to Moses Taylor at Mount Vernon, Ohio in care of the towns postmaster, Henry B. Curtis, by Aaron T. Crane and Abraham Beck, early..... More
San Jose, California: 1882. Envelope or Cover. This two-page letter was written on letterhead with a large illustration of the California State Normal School in San Jose (today San Jose State University. It was written by Addie Turner to her cousin, Iva Hurless, in Savana, Illinois on October 3, 1882..... More
Chunking China: 1922. Pin-bound report; unbound photographs. This lot consists of multiple items: a 14-page investigation report package from the American Consular Service at Chunking, China dated 22 July 1922, its official Consular Service mailing envelope, a birds-eye-view postcard showing Bathang, Tibet, and 15 photographs of or by Shelton in..... More
Willoughby, Ohio: 1851. Envelope or Cover. This three-page letter on illustrated school stationery is dated September 1, 1851. It was sent by Alvan Nash, the Principal of the Willoughby Female Seminary in Ohio to Miss Ellen E. Pierce at Hamlet, New York. It is enclosed in its original mailing envelope..... More
Madison [Ohio]: 1840. Envelope or Cover. This three-page stampless folded letter measures 16” x 12” unfolded and is datelined “Madison [Ohio,] Sept. 20th 1840.” It was sent by B. F. Fuller to his nephew, N. L. Janes at Berkshire, Vermont. It bears a manuscript postmark, “North Perry / O Sept..... More
Greenfield, Massachusetts: 1838. Envelope or Cover. This three-page stampless folded letter measures approximately 15½” x 9½” unfolded. It was sent by Major Elihu Clark on the order of Brigadier General Gardine Dickinson in Greenfield to Captain Stephen Baker in Chesterfield. The letter is datelined “Greenfield, Sept. 4th 1838” and the..... More
New York City: 1897. Unbound. This example of the first U.S. paid-reply postal card set (Scott #UY1) is unsevered; the postal message card (Scott #PM1) remains attached to its postal reply card (Scott #PR1). The indicia on both one-cent cards feature a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant as President. The..... More
New Orleans, Louisiana: 1846. Envelope or Cover. This broadside prospectus for the New Orleans Polytechnic School was used by its proprietor, D. Macaulay, to send an obsequious yet boast full letter to an editor, John Stockton Little, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who had just released a revision of Alexander Graydon’s previously..... More
Peking (Beijing), China: 1910. Envelope or Cover. This three-page letter is written on illustrated Chinese stationery (each leaf has a different illustration) measuring 5” x 9”. It was sent on 29 May 1910 by a young woman in Peking, Debra or Delia Seavens, to her Uncle Wilson Smith in Montclair..... More
Vienna, Austro-Hungary and Wurzburg, Germany: 1900. Envelope or Cover. This lot consist of a undated a seven-page letter from Vienna, seven-page letter from Wurzburg along with its mailing envelope, and five vernacular photographs. All are in nice shape. Mailing folds have some minor splitting. The first letter, written by..... More
