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Sale 92: The Summer Sale

Table of Contents

Postmasters' Provisional Issues

Lot 2371    

Confederacy, Memphis, Tenn., 1861, 2¢ blue, large margins to just touched, portion of adjoining stamp at top, tied by "Memphis Ten." cds on orange buff drop-rate cover locally addressed to Letitia Austin, manuscript "1" at left; right edge repaired where reduced slightly into corner of stamp, paper added at cover edge to improve appearance, stamp also creased, Fine appearance, ex-Matz, Rudy and Dr. Brandon.
Scott No. 56X1    $12,500.

AN EXTREMELY RARE AND DESIRABLE 2¢ MEMPHIS PROVISIONAL USE ON COVER. ONE OF ONLY 13 RECORDED COVERS IN THE CROWN CENSUS.

The Memphis Confederate postmaster who issued the adhesive stamps and press printed envelope was Matthew Campbell Gallaway (1820-1898). He was a colorful newspaper editor and aide-de-camp to General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was postmaster of Memphis until it fell to Federal forces in June 1862. In August 1866 Gallaway, after resuming his position as editor of the Avalanche, was shot through the hand in a murder attempt by a United States tax collector named G. W. Wood (New York Times, Aug. 26, 1866). Gallaway survived and continued working as a newspaper editor until his retirement in 1887.

Realized: $4,500

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