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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 142

(x) Packet Letters
The Cunard Line, 1833-1886
The last Admiralty packet left Falmouth on 6 June 1840, Thereafter Cunard steamers assumed the transatlantic route under contract to the Admiralty, using Liverpool as their home base. From January 1848, Cunard's transatlantic service altered weekly between Boston and New York, however after July 1848 the New York steamers did not stop at Halifax. There are five different routes
Route 5, August 1861-September 1868
Transatlantic Closed Mail
This was another route from Great Britain to New York by Cunard steamer from Liverpool, thence by sailing vessel (not steamship) to Bermuda
Owing to both the higher postage and the irregularity of the sailing vessels between New York and Bermuda, the service was unpopular and seldom used
Only three covers are recorded using this route to Bermuda and none from Bermuda. All three are represented in this collection
1861 (12 Sept.) entire letter from London "via New York" to Mrs. Lightbourn at Hamilton, per Persia to New York and per Brig Penguin to Bermuda, bearing 1855-57 wing-margin 6d. lilac cancelled with "87" duplex, underpaid 3d. and with "insufficiently/stamped" handstamp completed for 6d. including 3d. for "Half fine", the "6" due figure deleted on arrival and replaced with "9d" in blue crayon to include Bermuda's share of the fine with "2" in red crayon; light soiling though the earliest of the three recorded covers by this route and the earlier of the two that were underpaid. Photo

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Estimate
£1,500 to £2,000