- £350.00
United States. (Transatlantic Mail - BRITISH SHIP LETTER). 1832. Folded letter written from Boston/ Mass. dated '25th July 1832' addressed to Schiedam, Netherlands with Boston departure circular 'Boston/ Ms.' in red dated 'July 28' with hand-struck 'PAID', manuscript '4/2' pre-paid rating, mail landed at Portsmouth with stepped 'PORTSMOUTH/ SHIP LETTER' in black (Robertson S. 13) with oval 'POST PAID SHIP Lr/ LONDON' in red '28th July' (Robertson S. 48) and London transit date stamp (manuscript '1/4' in black ink indicating postage from Portsmouth to London) and bold Dutch entry cachet 'Engeland/ over Rotterdam' in red on reverse with Schiedam arrival backstamp '31st Aug' with manuscript '50' Dutch cents due rating.
Prior to 1835 letters to Holland were held for postage at London until all transit fees were paid, therefor agents in the U.K. had to be used.
Letter paid '4s2d' for a letter to Holland with one enclosures. This amount consisted of 2 x 11d transit to London less 2 x 2d reduction for foreign letter mail from outside London plus 2 x 1s4d foreign fee to Holland. Dutch marked '50' cents postage due for a 15 - 30 gram weight letter packet from England.
A scarce Boston/ New York to Netherlands use via England as most mail in this period was carried via France.
Richard Winter recorded 2 covers (one lot 534) in his 'Schuyler Rumsey Transatlantic mail sale in 2013.
This is the 4th cover now recorded and the most interesting. Letter mentions the 1832 Cholera outbreak in Canada and New York in June that year.
