Stampless Hawaii Covers Pre 1851

Examples from my collection. I have seen numerous websites showing the actual covers I own, perhaps taken from catalog auctions.

U.S. to Hawaii, Baldwin Correspondence. Three folded letters addressed to Reverend Dwight Baldwin, one dated Sept. 27, 1832, one dated Oct. 12, 1839, last dated Nov. 8, 1845, one with no indication of rate so carried entirely outside of the mails, one paying 10c rate in 1845 sent care of board of commissions for foreign missions, one paying 25c rate in 1840 and sent via Boston, Very Fine, two ex Van Dyke Provenance - Robert A Siegel Auction Sale Date — Tuesday-Friday, 15-18 Dec, 2020 Sale 1230 Lot #1380

I could not get the back of cover for the last image to load. Will need more practice I suppose. Newbie here, less than 24 hrs on SCF.

Nice group. Bugs me that a previous owner put their marking on the backs of covers and stamps, in this vase a very large marking.

Very nice. I lost a bid for a Baldwin cover a couple years ago.

Good Hawaii material is often quite competitive at auction.

txstamp, thanks for viewing. I like the provenance too being (ex. Van Dyke) which will retain its future value. I'll post more stampless covers later, possibly this weekend, as I still have a day job. From the last couple of auctions that I viewed (Siegel, Rumsey), whatever the high estimate was, multiply that by 3 is what you "might" have a chance to win. Some bids I placed, was good for 2 seconds. I certainly cannot compete with dealers or agents. On a totally different note, let me know if you want to see old Galveston covers. My collection goes back to the territory of Texas.

Definitely - I enjoy early TX material. I have a couple Republic covers myself, albeit ugly ones.

Image of back of cover from last posted image of Dwight Baldwin cover. This is the Dwight Baldwin whose historic home was destroyed during the Lahaina Fire Aug 8, 2023.

Very rare covers. Per Richard Frajola, "The below pair of letters was carried in 1848 from Norwich, CT to Lahaina, Hawaii by the ship "Tsar" - both were sold in the JC Morgenthau auction of William Wolters Hawaii in a Dec 1926 sale. A great sale of Hawaii material from one of the pioneer collectors of Hawaii. I believe these have not appeared on the public market since 1926."

Enjoy!

I recall seeing those when he had them for sale. Very nice.

I posted the last picture I took of the Baldwin house in the general forum, which you can access when you get 50 posts, I believe.

I agree these are very nice examples of early mail sent to Hawai'i, and sadly I also agree that it was unfortunate that someone decided to deface (in my opinion) their backs with such large and attention grabbing rubber stamps that detract from the beauty of the covers. All of these covers raise the question of where are the covers that were sent from Hawai'i to the US as those would be of far greater postal history interest to most collectors.

Seybold was one of the worst offenders, but my 10,000 foot observation is that most people have figured out over time that this isn't a good idea. Most at least use pencil now and on reverse only.




These seem to gravitate to a small number of large collections at a time. Just my 2c.

Where are the covers? I would say most of the covers are in private collections throughout the world. The rare ones are hard to find. The mediocre ones, that I have, appear to have lately jumped in auction prices, letting me to believe that Hawaii covers in general are not easily available.
According to the State of Hawaii website, "the Hawaiian Kingdom as a diplomatic equal to the world powers of the time with a "government capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations." With this recognition foreign relations blossomed, international treaties were signed, and over 110 Hawaiian Kingdom consulates were opened around the world.
In case members of the SCF did not know, Hawaii's state flag resembles the Union Jack of Great Britain because many of King Kamehameha's advisors were British and the islands were once placed under England's protection. The flag consists of eight horizontal stripes, representing the eight major islands and the British Union Jack.

If anyone is interested in viewing Hawaiian documents signed by Hawaiian Royalty, let me know and I can post some images from my collection. Mahalo!

These are far from mediocre covers! Very interesting postal history. The nice thing about stampless covers is you are usually assured of having the letter included. I wonder, do the contents of any of these include descriptions of the Hawaiian people or the island geography?

GregAlex, I have not opened the covers "letters" to examine its contents. I would like to think that it may contain historical significance but maintaining these one of a kind items in its present state is more important to me, rather than unfolding these items and risk any mishandling (upon my part). I have my "Hawaii Collection" digitized under a separate website that is shared to the world. Perhaps when I reach my 50 postings, I can post the link. Thanks again for viewing.

Brian - I've opened an awful lot of French stampless covers without problems. These have already been opened after all. Unfortunately, mine tended to be to or from notaries, rather than personal correspondence.

GeoffHa, The covers shown above addressed to Rev Dwight Baldwin, one of the first missionaries to Hawaii and is an important part of Hawaii's history whose historic home was recently destroyed to the Lahaina fire. I suspect personal correspondence is contained from what I can see without opening it. Although the contents "may" be enlightening, it is not important to me at this time.
You being from the UK, thought I'd share a postal card from my collection, postmarked in 1889. I do not believe that the addressee was prominent in England. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't know of Mr F, but what I don't know far exceeds what I do. Some notes on Wickham.

https://www.stnicholaswickham.org.u...am-Guide.pdf