Sale 1115 — A European Connoisseur's Collection of U.S. Classic Issues
Sale Date — Tuesday, 15 December, 2015
Category — 1c-10c 1869 Pictorial Issue (Scott 112-116)
3c Ultramarine (114). Bright color, tied by large circular segmented cork cancel, paying 3c rate between consular post offices in Japan on folded cover from Pignatel & Co. in Nagasaki to Eccard & Raud in Yokohama, no Nagasaki datestamp at this time (it was introduced in 1872), the cork cancel is unlisted for either Nagasaki or Yokohama in the Frajola-Perlman-Scamp book, sender's "Pignatel & Co. Nagasaki (Japon)" double oval handstamp and manuscript directive "Costa Rica" (Pacific Mail Steamship Co. branch-line steamship), receipt docketing "1870 Nagasaki, 26 Decbre, Pignatel & Co., R 31 do, 2 Janvier 1871"VERY FINE. THIS PRISTINE COVER IS THE ONLY RECORDED 3-CENT INTERCONSULAR RATE USE BETWEEN NAGASAKI AND YOKOHAMA WITH THE 1869 PICTORIAL ISSUE. CERTAINLY ONE OF THE FINEST OF ALL 1869 ISSUE COVERS ORIGINATING IN JAPAN.
The sender, Pignatel & Co., was one of the largest of the Western trading firms, and Eccard & Raud was a major silk exporter. This cover was carried on an eastbound Pacific Mail Steamship Co. branch-line steamer that originated in Shanghai and stopped at Nagasaki on its journey to Yokohama. The table of PMSS Co. branch-line trips in the Frajola-Perlman-Scamp book is, by the authors' own admission, based on incomplete records. The eastbound trip of the Costa Rica that carried this cover is not listed, but the receipt docketing can be used to determine the trip dates. According to the docketing, the letter originated at Nagasaki on December 26, 1870, and arrived in Yokohama on December 31 (it was answered January 2, 1871). The trip from Shanghai to Yokohama was usually seven or eight days at this time, so the Costa Rica probably sailed from Shanghai on December 23 or 24, picked up the mail at Yokohama on December 26 or 27, and reached Yokohama on December 31. None of the listed trips by other steamers fit these dates.
Very few interconsular covers originating in Nagasaki are recorded, and all others with 1869 Pictorial Issue stamps were prepaid 6c for the rate from Japan to Shanghai, China. This is the only known 1869 Issue cover from Nagasaki to anywhere else in Japan, paid at the 3c interconsular rate.
Pencil note on back indicates this was sold by the Weills from the Ward stock in August 1965.
