Grid? Soft Fiber? A57? 1885 Help?

Help! Did I ID correctly? How do you get the rest?

OK, so give me a 10K ft lecture in grids and soft fiber. I found this today, and it is just interesting for lots of reasons.

OH, yeah. before you ask... yes, the contents are there... they're letter to my g grandmothers' sister. :)

Design A57 is correct. It can only be #210 or #211B. It is most likely #210. #211B is rare, and it is nearly impossible to ID the soft porous paper while it is still on cover. I'm not good with US classics, so I'll leave it to others to verify, and to describe soft porous paper.

The hinge remnants on the cover are unusual,
is there backmarking?

Not sure what you're asking. Here's back.

I don't think those are hinge remnants. They look more like stains from those little rectangular-shaped white removable self-adhesive labels that some people use to "tape" down things. I've occasionally seen these used in some collections (they may not have known about glassine hinges) and also to hold down or mount larger items.

And yes, they often leave that color stain after a while, especially after long-term exposure to moderate heat levels. Most times people don't notice it because it's used on manila folders and the constant controlled environment of an office. I used to store some archived office files in my garage. When I went to retrieve a manila folder after a few years, I noticed the small labels were falling off and leaving similar colored stains.

So... about the lecture / brain dump on grids? and soft paper?

Bravo k,
I think you have it.
Sorry I cannot offer more on the cover/stamp
I know little about US.
The cork cancel is intriguing though, looks a little like the "shoo-fly" cancel.

It is, however, only a guess. There's only so much you can figure out from only a picture without actually physically examining.

In the title of the thread, you say grid. Do you mean grill? and soft fiber--do you mean soft porous paper?

I don't think that the stamp in question was ever grilled.

rohumpy.. why do you say it was never grilled? Looks to me like it's got remnants of BBQ sauce on it.

Grill, ... yes ... that's it... I'm not understanding grills
Tho bbq's whole other matter.

Nice piece of Steamboat mail.