Post office

Both postage stamps Post Office are the first stamps emitted for the postal service of the Mauritius, then British colony. They were emitted in 1847.

History of the Post Office

In 1847, the postmaster J. Stewart Browning decided to apply part of the postal reform which was implemented at the the United Kingdom in 1840. The governor Sir William Maynard Gomm supported it.

The engraver Joseph Osmond Barnard was selected; born in 1816 with Portsmouth, it had emigrated in Maurice in 1838. It was described then as “painter miniaturist, clock and watch maker and engraver”. It prepares a project and receives a first order for 500 specimens of each of the two stamps. It was paid 10 books 10 shillings for a facial value total of 6 books 5 shillings; this first emission was thus overdrawn.

Description

The stamp takes again the graphics of the British Penny Black : the queen Victoria is represented of profile. She is surrounded by several mentions: “POST OFFICE - POSTING - MAURITIUS” and the facial one of 1 penny or 2 pence.

The 1 penny was emitted out of orange and the 2 pence in dark blue (this last is also called Blue Penny ). The effigy of the Victoria queen is turned on the left; the bottom is covered with vertical sizes and oblique faces of right on the left and from top to bottom for the 1 penny; vertical and oblique sizes of left on the right and from top to bottom , for the 2 pence. On the section of the neck, the initial ones of engraver “J.B. ” for J. Barnard. These stamps were removed in consequence of the delays which the pulling even caused, which was to be made stamp by stamp, on the plate; another disadvantage, it was to remove with the scissors, the margin of each stamp and the difficulty of gumming them then, if they ever were it.

Mention “POST OFFICE” was abundantly commented on a few years later. Some philatelists affirmed that it was an error because the usual mention on the stamps of the United Kingdom was “POST PAID” (paid port). The latter was useful in the following emissions. However, before the emission of these stamps, the stamps on date of Port-Louis are marked “POST OFFICE”. Moreover, the mention “POSTING” on the stamps, announces that they constitute a stamping, therefore that the port is paid; the replacement by mention “POST PAID” on the following emissions makes doubled bloom with “POSTING”.

It is more probable than Barnard obeyed the orders of the silent partner or than it simply announced the postal use of his stamps and taken again the mention being reproduced on the seals before 1847.

Continuation

The stock of Post Office which was composed of thousand units, was quickly past. According to Jean-Baptiste Moens (purchasing and retailer of eight of twenty-seven the known “Post Office”, they are it “in a few days”, quoting a letter of the Master of the stations dating of May 2nd, 1848), but no reprinting took place. The post-office employees thus returned to the former system of cash payment of stamping.

In 1853, the stamp is re-emitted with a new mention “POST PAID”.

Philately

These stamps are among the rarest and famous stamps of philately: it is known only twenty-seven specimens in 2006, six new stamps and obliterated blackjacks, of which some on letter. One of these letters is one of the invitations to the ball of the woman of the Gomm governor.

The original plates engraved by Barnard were sold in England in 1912, and belonged to the collection of several rich person philatelists.

Anecdotes

The history of these stamps is marked of two anecdotes which contributed to its celebrity.

First of all, in 1847, the creation of these stamps and the support of the Gomm governor for this project would have been related to a great ball which the wife of this one prepared. She would have appreciated to send her invitations freed from these new labels. One of these envelopes still exists and is preserved at the British Library.

For the short period of use of these stamps, with Bordeaux, two kids recover with some under a package of envelopes thrown by a bank of Armateur. They resold them with a Mrs Desbois, paper and candy box, which was interested in the stamps Mauritians. It went to the bank to seek in the files with the assistance of the woman of the owner, Mrs Borchard. They saved fifteen envelopes of the destruction thus.

Among them, are the “envelope of Bordeaux” ( Bordeaux Cover ), the only letter known with being freed with the two stamps from the series Post Office from Maurice. It was sold with the biddings by David Feldman for the sum of 6.123.750 Swiss francs in November 1993.

Posterity

In October 2007 with Broadway, takes place the first of Mauritius , a Play which puts in scene two young sisters who discovered two Post Office , confronted with three collectors which want theirs to buy. The playwright Theresa Rebeck and its actors whose F. Murray Abraham consulted two philatelists for the realism of the part, their role and the imitations of stamps used: Robert Odonweller, honorary companion of the Royal Philatelic Society London and governor of the Collectors Club off New York, and David Petruzelli.

See too

Victoria of the United Kingdom (philately)

Sources

Jean-Baptiste Moens, Stamps of Maurice , 1878.
Jean-Pierre Mangin, “Errors in any kind: the best off ”, article published in the Echo of the timbrology n°1804, February 2007, pages 30-31. This article gives a progress report on the history of the mentions “POST OFFICE” and “POSTING PAID”.

References

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