Bombay letter
The Bombay letter or Jerrom letter is one of the most valuable philatelic collectibles, pasted with two red Mauritius .
features
It is a folded letter with two red Mauritius postage stamps (Moens numbers XVIII and XIX) used by post . These two stamps are stuck next to each other at the top right. The stamps are each canceled with a lattice round stamp. There is also a stamp with "MAURITIUS GPO" with the stamp date January 4, 1850 on the top left of the letter. The letter is addressed to the clergyman Thos. Jerrom Esq., The Esplanade, Bombay .
history
In 1897 Charles Howard discovered the letter in an Indian bazaar and sold it to WH Peckitt for 1,600 British pounds a year later . In 1905 it was returned to Peckitt for 2,000 British pounds via a stopover. Then it came in 1906 to GH Worthington, in 1917 to Alfred F. Lichtenstein , who bequeathed it to his daughter Louise Boyd Dale. After her death, the New Orleans company Raymond H. Weill Co. bought it for $ 380,000. In 1989 Christie's unsuccessfully tried to sell it for 3 to 4 million Swiss francs. In 1990 Guido Craveri bought it, who then sold it to Chan Chin Cheung. Then in 1996, Craveri bought him back from Cheung. In 2007 it went to a Russian collector through David Brandon.
literature
- Jan Billion, David Feldman, Andreas Hahn: The biographies of all Mauritius post office stamps. In: Lieselotte Kugler, Andreas Hahn (Ed.): The Blue Mauritius. The meeting of the queens in Berlin. A publication by the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications. Exhibition catalog in German and English, 2011, ISBN 978-3-9813202-1-3 , p. 221 f
- LN Williams: Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps. Volume 1 (The Stories), Publisher: David Feldman, Geneva 1993, ISBN 0-89192-435-3 , pp. 199 f
- LN Williams: Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps. Volume 2 (The Biographies), Publisher: David Feldman, Geneva 1997, ISBN 2-9700125-1-0 , p. 141
- Bombay letter is for sale again. In: philately No. 457, July 2015, p. 6