Sale 1211 — The William H. Gross Collection: United States Postal History
Sale Date — Tuesday-Wednesday, 29-30 October, 2019
Category — 1847 Issue to Continental Europe
5¢ 1847 on a petite cover to Austrian Silesia (today part of the Czech Republic)5¢ Red Brown (1), mostly large margins to clear at bottom right, tied by three strikes of red "5" numeral handstamp, blue "Baltimore Md. Sep. 23" (1850) circular datestamp on small envelope to Freiwaldau, Silesia, then part of Austria and now part of the Czech Republic, from the Glenn correspondence, sender's directive "per Cunard Steamer"--carried on the Cunarder Asia, departing New York on September 25, 1850, and arriving at Liverpool October 5--also manuscript "via Berlin", red London transit backstamp (October 6), "AMERICAperENGLAND" rectangular framed backstamp applied at Aachen, succession of rate markings including black "1/4" British debit to Prussia, re-rated in Germany with blue "16" crossed out and "49" and "Posto 49" (Austrian kreuzers), partly readable blue "Freywaldau" straightline backstamp, receipt docketing "12 Oct.", original letter enclosure in English datelined September 20, 1850
Extremely Fine. This is one of the two finest of the nine 1847 Issue covers to Silesia recorded in the USPCS census and in Burkhard Krumm's article, "1847 Covers to the German States" (Chronicle 256, November 2017). All of the covers to Silesia have a single 5¢ stamp and come from the Glenn correspondence--dated from July 16, 1850, through May 28, 1851.
In the above-referenced article by Burkhard Krumm, he provides useful information about the destination of this and the other covers to Silesia:
There is some confusion about the location of Freiwaldau, since there were two towns of that name at that time, separated by only 170 miles. The town to which this correspondence was addressed is now called Jesenik (south of Breslau) and is part of the modern Czech Republic, but was in Austrian Silesia in 1850. The other Freiwaldau town is today called Gozdnica and belongs to Poland (west of Breslau). In summary, the Glenn covers were sent to imperial Austria and not to Prussia, but the destination was still within the German confederation (Deutscher Bund)...
Ex Duane B. Garrett and John. R. Boker, Jr. With 1985 P.F. certificate.
