Nb History Help, What Exactly Do I Have??

Definition of Messrs in English:
plural noun

Used as a title to refer formally to more than one man simultaneously, or in names of companies:




I should have say "Messrs is not an form of address to a company in that case "

The company name was Mills Bros. & Huestis, not Huestis & Mills

Don't forget NB have more than 33% of French, a bilingual province and they are use to use messieurs for a group of man not a company

Here are a few examples of Messieurs in different abbreviations from my stampless rate collection. It was very common in the 19th Century to send letters addressed to companies in such manner.

(BTW, one of the covers shown below is EXTREMELY rare. I believe that there are only 2 or 3 examples actually known. Do you know which one? and why?)

Well Gleen those are all from US, The Op start a tread in Canadian Stamp and cover with NB history in the title

area66: I know that the tread is in Canadian stamps, but the covers (even though US stampless) do show the general convention of the time using the honorific "Messrs" and its variants was prevalent both in BNA and USA. I've even seen the honorific used well into the 20th century.

I did a screen shot of one of the covers in the "WWII Airmail covers" thread currently on the Stamp Community. Notice how the company is addressed.

it's obvious that I was not clear

Messrs can be use in 3 way

For a group of 2 men and more
For a group of men working in a company
for a company


ex. if I want to right to 2 brothers in the same family ...Messrs Pierre and Paul Smith
If I want to write to 2 executive in a company name Stamps for Cheap .... Messrs Tremblay and Smith
if I want to write to a company ..... Messrs GM Canada

In the cover the OP show it was write directly to the 2 owners of the company , so it was not the company himself.

I have seen it many a times. When the Connell house does their high teas it is a great little first date spot.




I won't forget, the 33% won't let me forget.




I agree, they may not be Canadian but we do share a shared culture and lexicon. No harm done, it was insightful. I only got to live 6 years in the 20th century and I do not remember ever addressing a bussinees as Messeir.


Thank you for all the replies. Stamps are really a by product of the covers for me and I learned so much about not just stamps but general Canadian history and language from this thread.

Here's another Messrs cover. From the early 20th Century. And it was complained that I was showing US covers in a Canadian thread. This one is from Canada.

To repeat. "Messrs" on a letter was usually a way of addressing Companies, not people.