5c Orange Brown (1b). Margins touching or slightly in on three sides, tied by several strikes of red grid cancel, used with Honour's City Post, Charleston, South Carolina, 2c Black on Bluish, Period after "Paid" (4LB8a), First setting, position showing upturned pearl at left and inverted period after "Post", full to large margins, tied by pen strokes carefully applied across each corner which leave the "Honour's City Post" name unobscured, red "5" rate handstamp on blue folded letter with sender's "Paid" notation, datelined Charleston, December 17, 1850, to John L. Manning at Columbia, South Carolina, vertical file fold at center, tiny pre-use nick in left margin of 5c stamp, carrier stamp has faint pre-use crease

VERY FINE. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED COVER WITH THE 1847 ISSUE AND HONOUR'S CITY POST 4LB8 STAMP. ONLY FIVE INTACT 1847 COVERS ARE KNOWN WITH CHARLESTON CARRIER STAMPS, ONE OF WHICH IS PERMANENTLY HOUSED IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY COLLECTION.

John H. Honour, superintendent of the Charleston Penny Post, advertised the commencement of carrier service in the Charleston Mercury on May 9, 1849. For a 2c fee the carrier department would carry a letter to or from the post office, or between correspondents in the city.

Our census of 1847 Issue covers with Charleston carrier stamps lists six in total (one is a front panel only), which is confirmed by the USPCS census. There are two 10c covers with the earlier oval Honour's stamp (4LB1, offered in the previous lot, and 4LB2), two covers with the 5c used with Honour's 4LB5 (both 5c pairs -- one is in the British Library collection) and this cover with 4LB8a. A 10c on cover front with 4LB8 was sold in the 2013 Siegel sale of United States from the Gross collection (Sale 1041, lot 245). The June 4, 1851, cover with 4LB8b listed in Larry Lyons's census (The Penny Post, October 2007) has a P.F. certificate stating that the stamps did not originate.

The two 5c and 4LB5 covers are rated 10c for distance beyond the 300-mile radius. This is the only single 5c franking (under 300 miles) among the combination covers noted above. The absence of a Charleston post office datestamp suggests that it might have been brought to the post office by the carrier and urgently prepared for the next train trip to Columbia, South Carolina.

The small rectangular "Paid/Honour's/City Post/2 Cents" carrier department stamp was first printed in 1850 from a setting that shows certain distinctive features. Specifically, the space between stamps is wider than that of the subsequent settings, and there is a period after "Paid" rather than a comma. Impressions are uniformly clear, and the typographic error positions in later settings did not exist in the first setting that produced this stamp.

The recipient of this cover, John L. Manning, was a state senator at the time of mailing, and in 1852 he was elected governor. The letter is from an educator and promoter of "Southern Education" and the "Abolition of Abolition Text Books" in Southern schools.

Ex Ward (Sale 285, lot 537), Hall and Gross.

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