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Auction: 6001 - Transvaal - The Dr. Alan Drysdall Collection
Lot: 1127

TRANSVAAL 1874 Typographed by P. Davis and Son at Pietermaritzburg Cover 1874 (Oct./Nov.) envelope ex the Oates correspondence to Leeds, marked "Per Private Steamer" and rated "1/-" (deleted) and "4" in red crayon and bearing 6d. blue (2, one affixed over envelope edge and with perf. defects) lightly cancelled with target "8" obliterator at Marico and in combination with Cape of Good Hope 4d. deep blue cancelled with a further fine strike of the obliterator and Cape Town c.d.s. for 17 December, a further strike of the Cape Town c.d.s. and Leeds arrival c.d.s. for 5 February also on face, the reverse showing Marico (4/12), Klerksdorp (8/12) and Kimberley (10/12) c.d.s. An attractive and rare cover from this famous correspondence. Photo Estimate £ 2,500-3,000Note: The letters sent in this envelope were written by Frank Oates between 1 October and 3 November 1874 before he left Tati to make his last attempt to reach the Victoria Falls. He succeeded but died from malaria on 5 February 1875, during the return trip. The letter was probably carried to Shoshong by ox-wagon, and by runners organised by the missionaries from there to Molepolole, Kanye and Linokana to Zeerust, Klerksdorp and Kimberley as recorded by the datestamps. The letter was put aboard the "Walmer Castle" which sailed on 10 January and was delivered in Leeds twenty-six days later The cover is endorsed "Per Private Steamer" and the postage was therefore 6d. for the ZAR interstate rate plus 4d. for the Cape inland transit rate plus 4d. for the "private steamer" rate per half ounce. The two ZAR stamps are evidence that the letter weighed more than half an ounce, and it should therefore have also been franked at double the Cape rate. The manuscript "2" at upper left corner confirms this, and the manuscript "1/-", written in Cape Town, the amount of the deficient postage. The manuscript "1/-" at right, written in the UK, is an instruction that the addressee was to be charged 1/-, i.e. the deficient ocean postage (8d.) plus a fine of one rate (4d.). The "4" in red crayon is an accountancy mark, being the amount due to the UK GPO A monogram on the Oates Correspondence by Kenneth Wright and Alan Drysdall, was published by the authors in 1988

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£2,700