Lot
530 
Hawaii, Forwarded By C. Brewer & Co., clear strike of red oval handstamp on flap of folded letter datelined "Royal School, Honolulu, Oahu, S. Is. Mch. 23 /46" by Amos Starr Cooke to Aaron Seeley, Danbury Conn., endorsed "Via Mexico" at bottom left, slightly indistinct Vera Cruz Paid (8.13) transit cds, entered U.S. mails with "Pensacola Flor. Sep 12" cds and manuscript "10" due rating for the 10¢ per ½ oz. rate for over 300 miles; letter with preprint paper fold, Very Fine, Gregory Via Mexico census no. 60, ex-Advertiser; with 1996 P.F. certificate. Estimate $7,500 - 10,000.
A REMARKABLE USE FROM HAWAII TO CONNECTICUT VIA MEXICO AND FLORIDA DURING THE MEXICAN WAR ROUTE DISRUPTION.
ONE OF ONLY THREE RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE C. BREWER & CO. OVAL FORWARDERS HANDSTAMP.
Cooke began this letter with the hope that a ship would arrive soon, bound for Mexico; on June 3rd he writes: "that a vessel sails for Mazatlan today at noon, so I must hurry…there has been an arrival of an English war steamer with two masts. She remained in our harbor eight days & was visited by large number of natives & foreigners. This mission & their children were invited & so were chiefs & scholars. To the natives & our children it was a novel sight. I think the time is not distant when we shall have steamers plying between this & other ports of the ocean & the two continents, America & Asia. The Sandwich Islands are becoming the centre of much influence & we hope that influence is growing better, as well as wider…The Congress, Commodore Stockton,is daily expected with a new commissioner, & a new consul. We hope they will do much better than the present incumbents, who are still doing what they can to destroy the Government & foment quarrels between it & the foreign residents. Mr. Brinsmade since his return has joined with them & I trust will soon get to the end of his rope. He has fallen from his former height & will fall still lower if he does not cease his opposition to Government. Other foreigners against their own good unite with Messr. Brown, Ladd, Hooper & Brinsmade, who have no business but to find fault with Govt. …My position brings me in close contact with the Govt. of these Is. & if I should continue in this school I may think it to be my duty to take the oath of allegiance, & become a subject of his Majesty. But in this, I shall make haste, slowly, for at present it appears a leap in the dark…" Peter Brinsdale had gone to Europe for the purpose of creating a joint stock company to take over the the proprieties & rights of Ladd & Co. of Hawaii. However, a contract with a Belgian company, also signed by Kamehameha III, ended in the ruination of Ladd & Co. and Brimsdale's humiliation;
This cover, along two others (census no. 59 and 61), were carried by the French bark "Jeune France" from Honolulu departing Jun. 4th 1846 to Mazatlan. Forwarded in the Mexican post most likely by Messr. Mott, Talbot & Co. to Vera Cruz where marked Paid Aug. 13th and sent out to the blockading squadron probably by the British consul. Then sent by USS "Princeton" to Pensacola Fla. where entered the mails 10¢ due (no ship fee added because letters were entered by a U.S. naval ship). From Pensacola, the letters went north in the Great Northern Mail. Total transit time was just 109 days, quite good considering the conditions.
References: Illustrated and discussed in Fred Gregory's Hawaii Foreign Mail to 1870 on proof. I 122-123, fig. 20-10.
The three recorded strikes of the C. Brewer & Co. Forwarders handstamps:
1. 1846 Mar. 23, Honolulu to Danbury Conn., Gregory fig. 7-26, ex-Advertiser, the cover offered here.
2. 1846 Mar. 25, Honolulu to Royalton Vt., Gregory Via Mexico census no. 59.
3. 1846, Maui to Dorchester Mass. via New York (Feb. 1, 1847), ex-Risvold.