1c and 10c Navy (O35, O40). Horizontal pair of 10c, cork cancels and tied by perf toning, "Washington D.C. Jan. ? 8PM" (1877) circular datestamp on legal-size cover with "Navy Department, Official Business" imprint, addressed to "Commodore C. H. B. Caldwell, U.S. Navy, Commanding U.S. Naval Force on South Atlantic Station, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil", red "New York Jan. 4" and London transit datestamps, latter struck mostly off top of cover red crayon "80" (centimes) credit, "Rio de Janeiro 15 Fev. 77" receiving datestamp on back, opened roughly at right, some wear and edge staining, right 10c stamp clipped corner

FINE APPEARANCE. A NEWLY DISCOVERED 10-CENT NAVY "COMMODORE CALDWELL" COVER AND OFFERED TO THE MARKET FOR THE FIRST TIME. PRIOR TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE CALDWELL COVERS OFFERED IN THIS SALE, THERE WAS ONLY ONE 10-CENT NAVY COVER KNOWN.

A descendent of Commodore Caldwell was performing genealogical internet research on his ancestor and found the Siegel description for the Starnes collection Caldwell 30c Navy cover. He realized his family possessed several similar covers and consigned the group to Siegel for auction. In addition to this 10c Navy cover, the collection includes two other 1c and 10c (2) combination covers (one other offered in this sale as lot 389), as well as the twin to the heretofore unique 30c cover (offered as lot 388). Two other covers are each unfortunately missing a stamp (one with a 6c Navy stamp missing a 15c, the other with a pair of 10c stamps missing a 1c). Les Lanphear, in his updated census of overseas Official covers, records 19 Navy Department covers, not counting the six newly discovered Caldwell covers.

Prior to this find the only 10c Navy cover known was the famous U.S. Naval Observatory cover to Paris. The total now stands at four complete franking covers plus the cover with the missing 1c stamp

The 21c postage pays the single rate to Brazil via Great Britain. At this time Brazil was not a member of the U.P.U. Therefore, the U.S. retained 5c of the 21c postage and credited G.B. with 16c for carrying the letter to Brazil. The credit is expressed in centimes, as required by the U.P.U. regulations.

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