GB C. 1902: Special Experimental Cancellation

I saw this cancel listed on a GB stamp site as a 'special experimental cancellation,' but nothing more was said about it and it's not listed in my "Collect British Postmarks." Does anybody know anything about this cancel and what the purpose of the experiment was?

Opinion:
In 1865 the GPO could not handle the explosion of mail from companies
sending catalogues, publications etc & etc.

Some companies were given the privelege of cancellaing their own mail that was in this category.

Your Postmark, I believe, belonged to Smith, Elder and Company

I would not in the main sense, call it experimental, although it does have
that atmosphere. It belongs in the hiearchy of "Postmarks, Printed Matter"
Six large companies have been identified using these cancellers, each of a differing design.

Bibliography : Curt Furnau.

Thanks, rod222. Does your book include an illustration?

No, not exactly, they possibly had several designs.
Yours is not listed.

Smith, Elder and company is the first image "S"

Curt Furnau is not exhaustive.

Thanks, rod222!

It's incredible how many really quirky cancellations were used in the late Victorian/early Edwardian period - and how few of them seem to be listed in "Collect British Postmarks." I find that book just about useless.

To my eyes, it looks like an I and an S followed by periods, plus a third letter, possibly another I or a T. I say this because of the lack of curvature on the initial I, rather than a curve along the lines of the outer curve.

The dots also look more like periods as they are aligned with the letters I and S rather than with the innermost circular arcs and are not present in the equivalent positions in the upper arc above the S.

Don

itma, I see what you mean - it certainly could be "I. S. T."

Most interesting - but if so, we'll probably never know.

I.S.T. could possibly be Ipswich Sorting Tender where mail to London was sorted on railway trains. There is a reference to this in "The History of the Postmarks of the British Isles from 1840 to 1876 - John Hendy (1909)" in Fig. 424 on page 71. This is available as a pdf file (I know, adding the word "file" to "pdf" is redundant!) at http://www.gbps.org.uk/information/...20(1909).pdf.

Although the book only covers to 1876, I found other references in the documents listed on the GBPS web site which suggest that Sorting Tenders were used well into the 20th Century.

It seems that sorting tenders were an odd sort of fish. As I understand it, they were used for mail to London from towns which were to close to allow for a complete sorting of the mail on the train. So, they were put on trains going away from London and then back to London. Apparently this was done only at weekends when the GPO's normal facilities in London were closed.

Nicely spotted Frank! well done you.

Ergo, still remains "Postmarks Printed Matter"
but identifies it as "Inland Section" as opposed to FS=Foreign Section.

Once again a myriad of hammer types.

So I.S.T. may be, "Inland Section" with the "T" as a hammer qualifier.

This thread a great example of "Philately at work"

Similar example from my collection, Inland Section "I.S.X"
Further weight goes towards an early "Postmarks printed matter"
due to the impression.

Early Pmks were cut from felt, up to1906?

Our examples seem to be this type.

Thanks for the detective work, rod222. The I.S.X example suggests that mine is in fact I.S.T

itma, thanks for the suggestion. Ipswich Sorting Tender would seem to make sense, but, if so, what would "X" stand for in Rod's example?

Perhaps the letters were randomly chosen?

Opinion:
Sorting tender does not match date, or type of hammer. (Would be steel)

Happy to stand corrected.

I spent the morning doing searches on this, but with no success.

Rod:
I do agree that IST is unlikely to be as I suggested as the later postmarks spell out "Ipswich Sorting Tender".

Frank,
I have been collecting GB "Postmarks on printed matter" for 10 years,
It is consistent with many of my impressions.

For information, search "Stitt Dibden" or "Curt Furnau"

Here is the best impression cracked so far,
from our member "Jubilee"

https://goscf.com/t/8111&whichpage=2#69340

As noted, they are often difficult, because of felt hammers.

By 1871, the number of printed articles in the mail, had reached 99 million.
There should be millions of these impressions out there, but ignorant collectors in the past "binned" these, as they were not understood, and appeared "smudged"

More "Inland Section"