M&m Related Covers

I've been keeping my eye out for M&M related covers on ebay and recently scored these two inexpensively. Both are probably fairly common, but I like 'em!

You are referring to advertising covers featuring merchants which issued US Match and Medicine revenue stamps, right?

Those are the ones!

Southpaw: Here's some biographical information on the addressee on the last cover you posted, Washington Chase, of Newcomb, NJ NY:

Washington Chase was from Newcomb, New YORK, not New JERSEY.

Sorry, my mistake.

There are several varieties of the Merchants covers, and they come in several colors. One of the more commonly available companies.
Most if not all of the M&M companies had mailings and used some type of advertising envelope. They range from fairly common to very scarce (and they tend to be popular), and can have values in the hundreds of dollars.

This is the only M&M related cover I own but I don't think it's specific to your interests though but I thought you may enjoy having a look.

This is a medical cover but not an M&M cover, which specifically relate to the companies that issued the private die match & medicine stamps. Only covers from the tax periods of 1862-1883 or 1898-1901 are considered M&M covers.

Ahh..gotcha! Thank you for the correction. And sorry for spamming up your nice thread.

Thanks wt1. What's interesting is the title Esq. which most often back then meant lawyer. At least that's what I was led to believe.

You raise an interesting issue. You're right about the title "Esquire" being used for lawyers, but depending on what time period is involved (and what country) the title had extended to others, too.

In the case of the biographical clip about "Washington Chase, Esq." it may be that he was accorded that title because of his service as a Justice of the Peace.

An interesting study on the subject can be found here. Note the final paragraph:

http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blo.../09/esquire/

Edit:
One final thought on the subject: It could be that the writer who addressed the cover had mistakenly included "Esq." in the name, incorrect though it may be.

Another reference suggests that the use of "Esq." is usually done by someone else and is not a title that a person typically uses to describe himself. An analogy is given as to how a Judge does not call himself "The Honorable" or "My Honor", but a person addressing a Judge would properly use the terms "The Honorable" or "Your Honor".