Tetlow's Perfumery Private Die Cancels (Rt19)

I ended up with an obscene number of the Tetlow's Perfumery private die stamps (RT19). All of them are canceled as is most of the ones that I've ever seen. Looking through them I was surprised that I was only able to identify three different cancels shown below:

The "H.T. MAY 1881" is definitely the most common, with the "TETLOW MAR 4 1881" far behind. The line cancel seems to be fairly rare. I found examples the "H.T. .." and "TETLOW.." cancels reading up and down.

One interesting bit is how haphazard the cancels were applied, with many stamps being canceled multiple times.

Does anyone have any background regarding the cancel on this issue? Are there more types?

The law was that they only had to be cancelled if they could not be placed where opening the package would tear the stamp. Most of the time the law was pretty well ignored, which is why most m&m's are found neither cancelled or torn. Tetlow's probably cancelled them in the sheet when the company first got them, but I have never made a study of the specific dates or styles. I suspect that every time they got a shipment of stamps they simply used that date for all the sheets they had received. So there are probably more dates and/or styles out there.

i have seen the 1st and 3rd cancels regularly. I do not remember the middle item. I suspect that the cancel was a roller. I have seen numerous multiple strikes on this issue as well.

From what I have seen the majority of "H.T." cancels appear as multiples. On the left stamp in the photo below, I was able to identify three sets of cancels. It helped that two are at opposite angles. The right stamp has four cancels and in both directions (up and down)!

What I imagine is that the owners gave their young children ink, rollers, a stack of sheets and told them to go at it!

your observation goes along with what I have observed about these items. interesting idea on the application.