Sale 1211 — The William H. Gross Collection: United States Postal History
Sale Date — Tuesday-Wednesday, 29-30 October, 2019
Category — 1851 12¢ Black
A superb 12¢ 1851 bisect cover--only five recorded with the rare Sonora, California, year-dated straightline handstamp, all from the Jarvis correspondence12¢ Black, Diagonal Half Used as 6¢ (17a), upper right diagonal half, ample to large margins, tied by blue "PAID" handstamp (with edge of device showing as a frame), matching "SONORA, CALIFORNIA/JAN. 12, 1852" two-line datestamp on blue folded letter datelined "Vine Springs Garden, Jany ["7" crossed out] 8, 1852 Thursy Eve" (January 8 was a Thursday), to the Hon. Leonard Jarvis in Surry, Maine, manuscript "Paid 6cts" to the left of stamp
Extremely Fine; slight bleaching along file fold.
The 12¢ stamp was bisected to pay the 6¢ transcontinental rate, effective July 1, 1851, due to a shortage of 3¢ and 1¢ stamps. Seven bisects are known used from Sonora, five of which have the Sonora straightline datestamp. The Jarvis family, the source of the covers, owned 60 acres of land in California named Vine Springs, on which they grew grapes and made wine.
Ex Stephen D. Brown, Dr. Scott Polland, Marc Haas, Louis Grunin, Robert Zoellner and Joseph Hackmey. With 2005 P.F. certificate.
