1847 Lovely Cover

I thought I'd share a photo of this really nice cover I picked up at auction last month. The stamp is really gorgeous, large margins, part of the adjoining stamp at the bottom, vivid proof like impression, intense blackish-brown shade with 2008 PSE cert. Early use Nov 25, 1847, blue NY and Phil. RR postmark on cover. Thanks to the manuscript cancel it made it more affordable.

Nice one, Andy. That blue postmark is handsome. -KS

Very nice cover.

That's a lovely cover Andy,
being a neophyte with early US
could you expand on, and explain the manuscript cancel please?

That is a stunning example of the stamp... I can imagine the value if it was tied by the cancel...

Hi rod222, manuscript cancel is the fancy way of of saying pen cancel "X" on the stamp, also "paid" on the upper left of the cover.

But how did it find its way to a 'John Smyth, New York'?

It always amazed me how simple the addresses were on letters back then. 'John Smyth, New York', in that time period New York spelled out meant New York City, not the entire state.

I suppose the Smyth spelled with the "y" narrowed it somewhat, but I agree with Andy1847 about the simplicity, or paucity of the addresses in the 19th Century. Did everybody know everybody?

"Did everybody know everybody?" I wonder also.... Wikipedia shows the population numbers of New York City; 1840: 312,710 , 1850: 515,547 , so I estimate in November 1847 there must have close to 500,000 people. It is pretty amazing how the mail was delivered with such little information on the letter in those days in a city like NYC. No radio, TV, computers, cell phones, video games, etc.... maybe they were more "in tune" with who everyone was back then, it really makes me wonder.

No, there was no need for the post office to know anybody. There was no delivery back then. Mail was advertised. You had to go down to the post office and pick it up . . after identifying yourself.

Fabulous cover! Good point, Census. As an added point of interest, does any one know when the use of the appellation of Esquire became widely adopted by the legal profession?

The exact time is a bit murky, since Esquire originally covered a wide variety of positions as well as nobility, and British in origin. Here is a simple overview, as well as discussion of usage (legal/casual) in US.

http://www.uslawbooks.com/books/esquire.htm

wow, awesome cover...

Wow thats a really nice stamp ;D

The stamp has good color Andy not a bad looking cover at all mate