Sale 1188 — United States Stamp Treasures: The William H. Gross Collection
Sale Date — Wednesday, 3 October, 2018
Category — 1847 Issue Demonetized Use from Canada, Unique Matching Bisects
These extraordinary covers with 10¢ 1847 vertical bisects were mailed on the same day in 1851 by the same man to different addressees, using the left and right halves of the same stamp--122 years later they were reunited, and today they still remain the only recorded matching 1847 bisectsDESCRIPTION
10¢ Black, Vertical Half Used as 5¢ (2b), the left and right halves of the same stamp, each with ample margins at side and bottom, just in at top, well tied across cuts by red square grid cancels, matching “New- York Feb 25” (1851) circular datestamps; left half on blue folded letter datelined “New York Feby 24th 1851” to Joseph Winn at gas company office in Salem, Massachusetts; right half on blue folded cover to Edward Walcott at gas company office in Providence, Rhode Island, receipt docketing “James J. Scott, Feby 24/51”; both mailed on the same day by the same sender, James J. Scott, who cut one 10¢ stamp in half and used each bisect to pay the 5¢ rate to different recipients
PROVENANCE
* Winn letter--Siegel Auction Galleries, 9/26-28/1972, Sale 417, lot 839, to Haas
* Walcott cover--John McKnight Storrow; Col. Edward H. R. Green (Storrow collection), Harmer, Rooke sale, 5/26-28/1943, lot 70
Both covers together (reunited by Marc Haas):
* Marc Haas, Richard C. Frajola, 1/25/1986, Sale 25, lot 769
* Dr. Leonard Kapiloff, Siegel Auction Galleries, 6/9/1992, Sale 743, lot 157, to Boker
* John R. Boker, Jr. (collection sold privately to William H. Gross, 1994)
CENSUS, LITERATURE AND EXHIBITION REFERENCES
* USPCS census no. 8587-8588
* https://www.uspcs.org/resource-center/censuses/1847-cover-census/
* Hugh J. and J. David Baker, Bakers’ U.S. Classics, p. 173
* Richard B. Graham, “Great Stamps Make Greater Covers,” American Philatelist, October 1977
* Elizabeth C. Pope, “Reunion,” Chronicle 80, November 1973, pp 196-197
* Jonathan W. Rose, Classic United States Imperforate Stamps, p. 25
CERTIFICATION
* Walcott cover--The Philatelic Foundation (1966)
CONDITION NOTES
* Very Fine covers with vertical file folds clear of bisects
VIEW PDF OF HISTORY AND COMMENTARY at https://siegelauctions.com/2018/1188/28.pdf
