Post by jamesw on Jan 24, 2016 3:36:34 GMT
Two similar covers purchased today at Unipex. These were two of six similar cover, from which I chose the better pair. Both sent by the same person (identical handwriting) to the Reverend T.W. (Thomas Wilson) Paterson, Rector of Trinity Anglican Church in Bradford Ontario from 1873 - 1876
The cover postmarked January 20 is sent to Bradford Ontario, about 15 minutes from where I live. The July 5 cover was sent to Hasting, which is on Rice Lake about 3-4 hours east of here. Cottage country, so no doubt the good Reverend was doing some fishing.
The Hastings cover can be dated by the Colborne receiver cancel on the back which puts it in 1872. The January cover has no year, but did contain this beautiful invitation...
The invitation is for an event on December 5 1872. So the quandary is, is the sender, probably Mr Waterman, Esq. posting this on January 20 1872 in advance of an event 11 months away, or is it being sent on January 20 1873, telling the Reverend of an event he's already missed? Hard to say. Could be the invite was in the wrong envelope (possibly one of the other four I left behind) but it did fit rather snuggly into this one, like they were made for each other.
The other interesting thing are the stamps on these covers. I've never been great at i.d'ing these large bureaus, but I see a distinct difference. The pair from the January cover are on greenish paper and the printing is very crisp and clean. The stamps on the July cover are on a whiter paper and there printing looks quite fuzzy and rather indistinct. In this image, one of the January stamps is on the right, July is on the left.
See if you can see the differences.
Any expert opinions would be greatly appreciated.
The cover postmarked January 20 is sent to Bradford Ontario, about 15 minutes from where I live. The July 5 cover was sent to Hasting, which is on Rice Lake about 3-4 hours east of here. Cottage country, so no doubt the good Reverend was doing some fishing.
The Hastings cover can be dated by the Colborne receiver cancel on the back which puts it in 1872. The January cover has no year, but did contain this beautiful invitation...
The invitation is for an event on December 5 1872. So the quandary is, is the sender, probably Mr Waterman, Esq. posting this on January 20 1872 in advance of an event 11 months away, or is it being sent on January 20 1873, telling the Reverend of an event he's already missed? Hard to say. Could be the invite was in the wrong envelope (possibly one of the other four I left behind) but it did fit rather snuggly into this one, like they were made for each other.
The other interesting thing are the stamps on these covers. I've never been great at i.d'ing these large bureaus, but I see a distinct difference. The pair from the January cover are on greenish paper and the printing is very crisp and clean. The stamps on the July cover are on a whiter paper and there printing looks quite fuzzy and rather indistinct. In this image, one of the January stamps is on the right, July is on the left.
See if you can see the differences.
Any expert opinions would be greatly appreciated.