Lot
2001 (
)
Overland Mail, From San Francisco via Los Angeles, illustrated Six Horse Stagecoach design with Hutchings & Rosenfield imprint below, on slightly reduced rebacked cover front to the Post Office Department in Washington D.C., wit neat manuscript "P.O.B. Free, Milpitas, Cal., Feb 1, 1862" postmark at upper right, Very Fine.Estimate $300 - 400.
Realized: $700
Lot
2002
Overland Mail via Los Angeles, blue illustrated 4-horse stagecoach design with "M.L. Haas, Bookseller and Stationer Main Street, Napa City, Cal." imprint below, on cover to North Bloomfield, O. franked with 1859, 10¢ green, type V (35) canceled by grid handstamp with matching "Napa City, Cal., Nov 23" cds, Very Fine, an extremely rare "Overland Mail" stagecoach design.Estimate $750 - 1,000.
Realized: $2,600
Lot
2003
"Overland Via Los Angeles" Six Horse Stagecoach, design with "Published by Randal & Co., Marysville" imprint below, on cover to Dixon, Ill. franked with 1857, 1¢ blue, type V + 3¢ dull red, three singles (24, 26) tied by blue waffle grid handstamps, matching indistinct Marysville, Cal. cds; one 3¢ with vertical crease, Very Fine, a beautiful cover.Estimate $750 - 1,000.
Realized: $950
Lot
2004
"Overland Via Los Angeles, U.S. Mail" Four Horse Stagecoach, blue design with "The Star of the Union - California" imprint below, on cover to Fitchburg, Mass. franked with 1857, 10¢ green, type V (35) with gutterline s.e. at left, tied by "San Francisco, Cal., May 3, 1859" cds; stamp with pulled perf at top right, Very Fine and a rare design; with 1992 P.F. certificate.Estimate $500 - 750.
Realized: $400
Lot
2005
Hornitos, Cal. (Mariposa), manuscript postmark (MAR-1000) on two covers to Clinton, N.Y. from correspondence; one franked with 1851, 10¢ green, type III tied by manuscript cancel, other on 1855, 10¢ green on buff entire, Very Fine.Estimate $200 - 300.
Realized: $375
Lot
2006
Monterey (Cal.), Jan 1 (Monterey), manuscript postmark and "Paid 40" manuscript rate marking on cover to Manchester, New Hampshire "U.S.", Very Fine, an attractive New Year's Day prepaid 40¢ rate use from the first official Post Office in California.Estimate $300 - 400.
The Postal Act of March 3, 1847, authorized the establishment of a Post Office at Astoria on the Pacific Coast (in later Oregon) and set the rate of postage for letters between the United States and the Pacific Coast at 40c. That act also authorized the printing and use of the first postage stamps in the United States. The next year, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in the Mexican state of Alta California and, nine days later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. That treaty ended the Mexican-American War and ceded California to the United States. The Postal Act of August 14, 1848, authorized the establishment of Post Offices at San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco, and "other places on the Pacific Coast" as needed and set the rate of postage for letters sent between places on the Pacific Coast at 12½c.
Monterey was the provisional capital of California under military rule before and after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. A Post Office was applied for and granted and Captain William G. Marcy, Commissary and Quartermaster, was appointed postmaster. The appointment was approved by the Post Office Department on November 21, 1848. The only problem was that the three steamships that might carry the mails on the Pacific Coast via Panama were still en route from New York. In fact, none of the steamers had as yet even rounded Cape Horn.
The first Pacific Mail Steamship Company ship to arrive on the Pacific Coast was the S.S. California. On board was William Van Voorhies who, as the Postmaster General's first Special Postal Agent in California, was charged with the task of setting up postal service on the Pacific Coast. The S.S. California reached Panama in January of 1849, where it picked up an unexpected cargo of Argonauts. The ship reached Monterey the following month. At Monterey, Van Voorhies delivered the first official mails to Captain Marcy along with Marcy's bond as postmaster, which he executed on February 23, 1849. The S.S. California arrived in San Francisco five days later, at which time the crew promptly deserted her for the goldfields.
Realized: $3,500
Lot
2007
Sacramento, Sep 1 (Sacramento), manuscript postmark (Williams SAC-2460) and "Paid 40" rate on 1849 folded letter to Yellow Springs, Iowa, letter datelined "California, Sutters Mills, August 19th '49" and lengthy four page letter regarding trip to California, with details of gold mining the American river and sending correspondences, "write direct to California Sacramento City (Sutters)", Extremely Fine, one of the earliest usage of the Sacramento manuscript postmark, ex-Straley.Estimate $1,500 - 2,000.
Complete images:
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Realized: $4,500
Lot
2008
Sacramento / Oct 24 1849 / Paid / 40, straightline postmark with integral rate marking on folded letter to Yellow Spring, Iowa, "family" pencil docket, letter (3-1/2 pages) is from a 49er to his brother back home and datelined "Cold Spring, Weaver Creek, Cal. Oct. 21st '49", letter reads in part "I have not received an answer to any of the letters that I have written… The fault is in the mail I know… is said the two last steamers failed to bring letters on account of the mail not having arrived at the Isthmus… after digging some three or four hundred dol. where we first stopped, we packed up our mules and went to the Middle Fork…Spent three weeks damming the river, was lost labor there was no gold in the channel of any consequence… Came back to the same bar that we left and went to work, the water having raised some, have worked about one month made four hundred dol. each and expenses… intend going south in a few days thinking it will be pleasanter wintering there…I wish you could see… Gallowstown … with its thousand men at work digging up what had been streets to the depth of 10ft scooping the gold from the surface of the permanent rock… men don't generally dig on Sunday, they only build houses", Extremely Fine and choice, a choice strike of a rare postmark, ex-Parker and Kramer; with 1981 P.F. certificate.Estimate $1,500 - 2,000.
THIS IS THE FINEST KNOWN STRIKE OF THIS VERY RARE CALIFORNIA STRAIGHT LINE POSTMARK.
Gallowstown may refer to Hangtown, which was an early name for Placerville after three men convicted of robbery and murder were hanged there.
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Realized: $4,250
Lot
2009
San Diego, Cal, Sept 3rd (San Diego), manuscript postmark on folded letter datelined "Camp Riley, August 31st, 1849" written by George Clinton Gardner who served as assistant to William H. Emory in surveying the California-Mexico boundary, addressed to Capt. F. Gardner at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., with manuscript "Camp Riley, San Diego, Cal." notation at lower left, carried to New York and entered the mails with red "40" rate handstamp, forwarded to Palatka, Florida with "Jefferson Barracks, Mo., Jan 29" cds and manuscript "for'd 10" totaling "50", forwarded again to Tampa with "5" rate added for a "55" total due rating, with lengthy three page letter with content in part…I arrived here on the 14th of July after about 20 days sail from Panama, and I can tell I was glad to get on land, for there was nothing more disagreeable to me than the Steamer California in which we came, after landing on shore which was 4 miles from San Diego at what they called the "hide houses". I had found that Major Emory had sent the ambulance down to meet us, so we all got in and soon found ourselves in the great city of San Diego, mentions infighting among military members - so much so as to have Major Emory arrest Lt. Evans and Major McKinstry for there behavior, Very Fine, featured in article in the June 2015 edition of Western Express, ex-Schaefer.Estimate $3,000 - 4,000.
A REMARKABLE LETTER FROM ASSISTANT TO MAJOR WILLIAM H. EMORY DURING THE EXPEDITION TO SURVEY THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BOUNDARY.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo that ended the U.S. war with Mexico required an International Boundary Commission to establish the official boundary between Mexico and California. The U.S. commissioner, John Weller sent William H. Emory to conduct the survey and his assistant, George Clinton Gardner, arrived aboard the PMSS "California" at San Diego on July 14, 1849.Complete images:
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Realized: $5,250
Lot
2010
San Francisco, July 2 (San Francisco), bold straight line handstamp with red manuscript "July 2" and matching "40" rate on 1849 folded letter to Painted Post, N.Y., with three page enclosure datelined "Sacramento City, June 26th" from recent arrival…"we are off for the diggings on the north fork of the American river about fifty miles from this place.", Very Fine, carried on the second of three sailings of this postmark on the S.S. "Oregon" that departed on July 2, 1849.Estimate $750 - 1,000.
Realized: $1,050