Breaking One Down - Postal History Sunday

In case you had not noticed, we get five Sundays in the month of April this year, which means we have five different Postal History Sunday entries.  For the fifth time this month, I get to invite you to put on your fuzzy slippers, pour yourself a favorite beverage (and keep it away from your keyboard and any paper collectibles) and push those troubles aside for a while.

Yes, treat those troubles the same way a cat treats anything it finds on a table or other flat surface.  Push them right off the edge, watch them fall and then walk proudly away knowing your mission has been accomplished.

In this week's entry, we're going to break down a single cover, taking you through some of the questions I ask myself each time I encounter a postal artifact.

How Much Did It Cost to Mail?

The first thing we can do is simply take an inventory of all of the markings, writing and stamps on the cover itself.  Each thing can give us clues that tell parts of the overall story.  Because my initial interest in postal history started with an attraction to postage stamps, I will begin there... because we have to start somewhere. 

The postage stamp represents 40 centimes in postage paid to the Belgian post office.  The stamp design features King Leopold I and is a design that had been in use since 1849.*  In 1863, the perforations were added to make it easier for stamps to be separated from the sheet.  The stamp denomination (40 centimes) makes it a good guess that the rate might have been 40 centimes. The stamp was printed from 1863 to 1865, which makes it likely the cover was mailed during that period (which it was - 1864).

*for our purposes this is good enough.  For those who are stamp collectors, you might note that there are more distinctions we could make.

The postage rate between Belgium and France was 40 centimes per 10 grams based on a treaty agreed upon by these two countries.  This postage rate started April 1, 1858 and ran through December 31, 1865.  There was a discount to this rate if both the origin and destination were within a certain distance of the shared border between France and Belgium.  The other exception was a 60 centime rate per 10 grams for mail that was not prepaid and sent collect to the destination.

This particular cover did NOT qualify for the special border rate and it was fully prepaid. The "PD" represents "payée à destination," which translates to "paid to destination" and confirms that the post office recognized full payment.  

It is interesting to note that various postal agreements between countries had their own requirements to indicate prepayment.  Belgium and France tended to favor the "PD" markings.  The Netherlands, on the other hand, preferred to use the word "franco" which was often handwritten rather than stamped on the mail.

Where was it mailed and where was it supposed to go?

This is where we look at postmarks and the address panel on the cover.  I'll start by listing the markings:

Mons July 4, 1864 - 6S
Belg 5 - VALnes - 5,  July 5
Paris July 5 (on the back)

The Belgian Mons marking

Mons is a city in Belgian and is the location where this letter was mailed on July 4th.  Mons was identified as an exchange office in Belgium for mail going to (and from) France.  So, after this postmark was applied to the letter, the letter was placed into a mailbag with other letters bound for France.  

The French VALnes marking

The red marking is the French exchange marking and it was applied in Paris at the point when the mailbag was emptied.  This might seem a bit odd, because VALnes was a shortened version of Valenciennes, which is located near the border with Belgium and it certainly is NOT the same thing as Paris!

However, the 5's that can be found in the outer ring of the red marking actually tell us that the postal marking was applied in Paris.  But, they wanted to track that this letter crossed via the train crossing at Valenciennes - which explains why VALnes is there in the first place.

The Paris marking

The Paris postmark is the receiving marking for the Paris post office.  The recipient's address was in Paris, so this tells us the letter was prepared for delivery on July 5, only one day after it was mailed.  A carrier would have taken the folded letter to the street address shown on the front.

I realize that most of us don't walk around with maps of Europe (or anywhere else for that matter) in our heads.  Here is a map of Belgium that shows most of the border crossings and exchange offices in Belgium for the time.  I make no claims of completeness, but it can give you some ideas of what we're working with.

Please note, the bright red outline is Belgium's border.  The darker black lines represent active rail lines at the time.

If you look carefully, you will see that Mons is not situated very far from the border and also not very far from Valenciennes.  The actual border crossing into France for the route this letter took is at Quievrain. 

Mons was very much a junction point for many rail lines to various locations within Belgium and two border crossings that could be taken directly from the city (the other is Erquilinnes).  The train schedules often dictated which border crossing was used. 

Who Was It To?

I admit that I am more interested in the address at this point than I am the addressee.  Perhaps that is because I can't quite decipher the addressee's company name completely.  And I have to admit that, sometimes, you just don't feel the motivation to figure everything out.

4 Rue de la Vrilliere

The red circle would show the approximate location of this address.  The illustration is part of a colorized Turgot map from 1739.  So, clearly it is not a perfect representation for 1864, but I liked the three dimensional rendering to show the location.  The prominent feature in the area, the Place des Victoires, has a very interesting history, which is summarized well enough on the wiki.

This portion of an 1864 map of Paris - source of which I have carelessly misplaced for the time-being - shows the location reasonably well.  Rue de la Vrilliere is the diagonal street southwest of the Place des Victoires.  The royal gardens are just a bit further southwest and the Palais Royale is just south of that (near the Louvre).   The history of these sites alone can keep a person busy reading for some time.  I have only linked in wiki pages for this week.  Yes, I know, it's a bit of a shortcut, but some weeks I find that I run out of time.  We'll do better next week.

Who Was It From?

V Dessigny in Mons leaves a fair number of footprints in contemporary records.  If you wish to view any of these in a larger format, simply click on the image.

A Société Anonyme (SA) would be a general equivalent to a corporation in the United States, an Aktiengesellschaft (AG) in Germany or a Public Limited Company (PLC) in the United Kingdom.  This book, located via Google books, shows the record for V Dessigny in 1857, which shows a registration for a coal mining company in the Hainaut province, centered around Elouges, which is West of Mons (on the way to the Quievrain crossing).  Victorien Dessigny served as the 'banker' and an administrator for this concern at the time. 

And, here is another notification that shows V. Dessigny as the banker for the payment of dividends for another company.  While business transactions, of themselves, may not be very exciting - these clippings bring a person and his business further towards reality by showing real impacts on the world around them.

Victorien Dessigny was also involved in oversight of businesses in the Mons area, being assigned a spot on the Tribunal of Commerce in 1864.  A short monograph on the Industrial Revolution in the Mons area by Hubert Watelet mentions a Victorien Dessigny multiple times.  I suspect this was likely the father of the Victorien referenced by these other sources, but I cannot confirm that point at this time.

And there we go, a single cover broken down into most of its component parts.

Have a fine remainder of your day and a wonderful week to come!

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location. 

Validating a Dispensation - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the 140th edition of Postal History Sunday, a project I have undertaken to share something I enjoy with anyone who has interest.  I attempt to write in a fashion that is accessible to a broad audience, including those who already appreciate this hobby as well as those who are simply a tiny bit curious about such things.

This week's entry was inspired by the folded letter written in 1854 that is shown below:

The letter is addressed to "Au tres Revd Mr. F Lhomme, Grand Vicaire et Sup. du Seminaire de Baltimore" which would be equivalent with "to the very Reverend Mister F Lhomme, Vicar General and Superior of the Seminary of Baltimore." The writing is crammed into every square inch of the paper that would not show on the exterior wrapper portion that included the address and postage.  And interesting enough, the letter is written in a hand that is fairly easy to read in English, despite the address panel on the front being in French.

What is a folded letter?

I unfolded the letter so I could scan one side and give you an idea of what it looks like.  When properly folded, the outside surfaces include the address panel and then two flaps that were sealed shut with a wax seal (the red area).  This paper is actually folded one more time, making it too large for me to fit on the scanner.  What you see above is actually about 7 inches wide by 10 inches tall.  When fully unfolded, the paper is about 14" x 10".

Another surface can be seen below, illustrating how diligent the writer was in using the free space for content.

Envelopes are, of course, another form of "wrapper" that is used to keep personal correspondence - well - personal.  They were not as widely used to send mail as the folded letter was in 1854.  You can certainly see the attraction to not also having to have a pile of envelopes nearby in addition to the writing paper. 

I suspect there might be some who could easily be confounded in trying to figure out how to properly write on and then fold a letter such as this one.  In the present day, if you wanted some help with figuring out the folds, you could go to this short article at the Smithsonian's website or this one provided on the Library and Archives Preservation blog at Iowa State University's library.

Why do I suddenly have an urge to write a letter and try this out?

That's a bunch of stamps on that letter!

There are five postage stamps to pay the postage for this letter representing a total of 38 bajocchi (the currency in the Papal State in 1854).  The postage paid was enough to get the letter to travel overland through Tuscany and Sardinia to France, then to England, and to pay for the British ship that would cross the Atlantic.  However, once the letter touched the soil in the United States, US Post Office services were unpaid.  So, the recipient would have to pay an additional 5 cents to receive the letter.

It turns out that the writer of the letter could not prepay ALL of the postage for a letter sent from Rome to the United States in 1854.  There was no agreement to exchange mail between the two postal entities.  That meant a series of OTHER agreements had to be used to get the letter from here to there.

In 1853, the Papal States and France signed a treaty that set a postal convention between them.  The problem with that is that France and the United States did NOT have a postal agreement either.  So, the French used their postal agreement with the United Kingdom to get their mail to the United States.  But, none of this provided any arrangement for full prepayment for letters between Rome and the US.

Did you get that?  It's all as clear as mud, right?  Rome used their agreement with France to access France's agreement with the UK to get this letter to the border of the United States.  Simple?  No.  But, if it were simple it might not be so interesting to study.

The French did sign a treaty with the United States in 1857 and a new convention with the Papal State in 1858.  This provided an option to prepay the mail all the way to the destination between the US and Rome.

Here is an example of the new 32 bajocchi rate for postage to the United States that fully prepaid all the required postage.  This letter was mailed in 1861 and got to France by boat, rather than overland.  At this point in history, the Papal territory (and Pope Pius IX) was not willing to work with the Kingdom of Italy, so mail had to go around, rather than through the rest of Italy to get to France.

The other interesting thing to note is that this letter was mailed in an envelope.  The pre-made envelope started gaining use in the 1840s, but by the 1860s it seems they were really taking hold, based on my own observations of surviving covers from that time.  If you would like to read more about the movement from folded letters to envelopes, you might enjoy this article from the Smithsonian Magazine.

Now, let's move on to the social history that makes up another part of the story for our first letter.

Who was the Reverend F. Lhomme?

image plate after p 58 in Memorial Volume...

The Very Reverend Francois Lhomme (Nov 13, 1794 - Oct 27, 1860) had served as a Professor from 1827 to 1850 and then as the Superior at St Mary's Seminary of St Sulpice until his death.  According to the Memorial Volume of the Centenary of St Mary's Seminary of Saint Sulpice 1791 - 1891, Lhomme served as the primary educator for the Greek language prior to becoming Superior in 1850.

Sulpicians were (and are) an order, originating in France, dedicated to the education of members of the Roman Catholic Church's priesthood. The French Revolution in the late 1700s was not friendly to the Catholics and many Sulpicians emigrated to the United States, forming the first US seminary, St Mary's in Baltimore.  However, for the first fifty years of the seminary's existence, there were very few seeking training to become priests in the United States.  

In order to be able to support the primary goal (educating priests), seminaries undertook to teach others who would not become priests to pay for their efforts to train new, "native" priests for the United States.  Over the first 58 years, only 114 priests were trained and ordained at St Mary's.  Father Lhomme's task was to separate the college from the seminary and during this time (until 1861) another 112 priests were ordained.

A few clues about Lhomme's personality can be gleaned from the sources linked in the first paragraph.  It seems the man was "strict, but with a good heart," a person who worked hard, was trusted, and was known for "self-denial."  The obituary notes that his health was declining in his later years and he actually asked to be relieved from his post as Superior more than once, but no replacement was forthcoming.  I am sure each of us can picture someone who has been in our lives at some time or another that might be a Francois Lhomme.  For me, at least, this makes the man who received this letter a bit more real - rather some distant individual with no features other than a name, title and a few dates.

Who wrote the letter?

Francis Patrick Kenrick from this site

The writer of the letter was Archbishop Francis Patrick Kenrick (Dec 3, 1797 - Jul 8, 1863), who had become Archbishop for Baltimore in 1851.  Prior to this, he had been Bishop in Philadelphia.  Given the amount of text crammed into this single letter, it should not surprise us that Kenrick authored numerous volumes, including an English translation of the New Testament with annotation that was published in six volumes.

I get the feeling that Kenrick would make the volume of writing I have done seem modest by comparison.

At the time this letter was being written, Kenrick was in Rome, by invitation of Pope Pius IX, to discuss the definition of the Immaculate Conception.  I am not certain what this means, but you can read more if you follow this link.  Kenrick, along with Michael O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, were involved in a meeting from Nov 20 to 24, just prior to writing this letter to Lhomme.  Some of the content in this letter certainly reflected this meeting and the ongoing discussion. 

The root of the matter was this.  Catholics in the United States were a minority, and sometimes under violent attack.  The perspectives of the Catholic clergy in the US was often vastly different from those in Europe, where Catholicism enjoyed a privileged status (though it was being challenged).  Kenrick, Lhomme and others were seeking new definitions that would allow the development of the Catholic Church to progress in the New World.  As it was, they already had to bend the rules to offer educational services to persons other than new clergy.

The letter begins by informing Lhomme that he may celebrate "the Purification," which I assume to be Candlemas (Feb 2) as a "revalidation of such dispensation."  A dispensation is a relaxing of established rules.  The letter continues to discuss such things as "mixed marriages" (Catholic and non-Catholic) and other topics that might require further dispensation from the Pope in order to help Catholicism to become relevant in a different society and culture.

As is often the case, the story can become far more complex and detailed if we want to dig further.  I do not want to sell myself as being an expert in Catholicism or Catholic history, so I refer you to the links provided if you feel you want more.

Otherwise, I have granted myself a dispensation from perfection.  Just this once.

Have a fine remainder of your day and a wonderful week to come!

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location. 

Night Flight - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to Postal History Sunday!   This week we're going to take a foray into an area of postal history where I have much less familiarity.  The motivation for this is twofold.  First, I felt as if the large envelope shown above and mailed in 1924 likely had a good story surrounding it and I was interested in beginning my exploration. That is usually enough reason for a Sunday topic.

Second, I find it useful to move myself out of my knowledge "comfort zone."  It's a good reminder to me that many things I see when I look at an item in my area of "expertise" is not always apparent to everyone else.  It helps me to improve my ability help others see what I am seeing if I put myself in the position of not immediately recognizing what is going on myself.

So, let's see how I do this time around!

US Air Mail services in 1924

Biplane equipped with lights for night flying ca 1924 - from USPS site viewed 4/15/23

Air Mail service in the United States was still very much in its experimental phase, but by 1921 it was clear that the service was dangerous (to the pilots) and the time savings for the mail was certainly not enough to encourage customers to pay the extra postage it took to use air mail. The exception to this rule (cost-benefit) was the trans-continental route (completed Sept 1920) that ran from New York City to San Francisco.  A time savings of 22 hours could be achieved with mail traveling on planes during the day and trains at night.

It is important to remember that pilots of the time did not have much by way of instrumentation to help with navigation and had to rely on what they could see on the ground.  To give you an example, the first scheduled flight to carry mail for the US Post Office from Washington DC to New York City in May of 1918 was less than a roaring success.  

The pilot, 2nd Lieut. George Boyle, shook hands with President Woodrow Wilson for a flight that was to make its first stop in Philadelphia.  Taking off with a map on his lap, Boyle ended up heading the wrong direction.  Once he realized the mistake, he landed in a field and damaged the propeller.  The mail was driven back to Washington and taken by train to Philadelphia.  

Now, just imagine exactly how difficult it was going to be to fly mail planes at night.  Unlike the present day, where even large towns have airports with flood lights and every town has streetlights, most of the continent was quite dark when the sun went down.  Add to this the uncertainty of the weather that a pilot might encounter as they traveled from East to West and vice versa.  The National Weather Bureau existed and did what it could to provide forecasts, but there was a great deal of ground to cover.

Beacon light, 1924 - USPS site

Postmaster General Harry S New indicated that the US Post Office was aware that night flying was going to be necessary in his 1923 Report of the Postmaster General, signalling a new trans-Continental schedule that included night flying to begin on July 1, 1924.  Beacon lights were installed along the route from Chicago to Cheyenne, Wyoming every three miles to guide the pilots in the section of the route scheduled to be flown at night.  Pilots and planes were changed six times (Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City and Reno) and the mail would leave in the morning in New York City, scheduled to arrive in San Francisco late the next day.

Other advances of note included the development of altimeters to help determine if the aircraft was climbing or descending.  Could you imagine trying to figure that out if there were heavy clouds or if it was a moonless night?  A gyroscopic needle was also tested to help determine if the wings were level.

This is, of course, a very brief and selective history that I have given here.  If you want more, let me suggest you start with the summary history provided by the US Postal Service.  There are many more pictures in this companion web document.  If the topic area interests you, the American Air Mail Society just might be a good place to learn more.

Using the trans-continental service

Shown above is a envelope that was sent from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on August 15, 1924 (6:30 pm) to San Francisco, California. The back of the letter has a receiving postmark for San Francisco dated August 17 at 7 PM.   This letter likely traveled by train from Fairhaven to New York City so it could be placed on board the plane departing the next morning.  It then traveled via the trans-Continental route to San Francisco.  In other words, this is a solid example of the air mail service working as advertised.

The route itself was broken into three zones.  The western zone (San Francisco to Cheyenne), the central zone (Cheyenne to Chicago) and eastern zone (Chicago to New York City).  The postage rate required to use this air mail service was 8 cents per ounce for each zone along the route (effective July 1, 1924 to Jan 31, 1927).  This letter traveled through all three zones and must not have weighed more than one ounce, so the postal cost was 24 cents (8 cents x 3 postal zones).  

For comparison, it cost only 2 cents per ounce to send a similar letter via surface mail (mail that traveled on the surface of the earth - land or water) from anywhere in the US to anywhere in the US.   The difference, of course, was in how quickly the mail arrived.  The air mail route from New York to San Francisco averaged about 34 hours in travel time.  Surface mail might take 4 1/2 days - or three days slower - during that same time period. 

I suspect the letter shown above might be more of a souvenir item, given the nice (but upside down) design on the envelope.  Philatelists of the time were often keen to create and secure examples of items that were carried under special circumstances, including this new trans-Continental route being flown at night.

Another example from 1925 is shown above.  This envelope is a larger envelope and is an example of a commercial use of the air mail service.  The letter was mailed at the Hudson Terminal Station in New York City and received a postmark at 6:30 PM on November 16.  It was clearly marked that it was intended to be taken "via Air Mail" and it also bore a 24 cent stamp that was designed for the air mail postage rate across three zones.  There were also stamps for two zones (16 cents) and one zone (8 cents).

Since the letter was sent the evening of November 16, it was able to board the departing plane on the morning of the 17th.  This time, the letter got an arrival postmark for November 18 at 11:30 PM.  If you will recall, the prior example arrived at 7 PM.  So, clearly, things did not go quite as well this time around.  Not enough to make much difference to the recipient, who would likely receive delivery the next day in either case.

Now that we have two typical examples of air mail letters that traveled through all three zones and used the night mail service to cross the continent, we can return to our initial item that got my attention in the first place!

This larger envelope was mailed in Cleveland, Ohio on November 17, 1924 at 2:30 PM.  Cleveland was the first location on the west-bound trip where the plane and the pilot were changed.  So, it is my assumption that this letter was ready to join mail that had been placed on the plane in New York City on the new plane that was bound for Chicago (and another transfer to a new plane).

from this USPS site

Cleveland was still in the eastern zone of the trans-Continental route, which means it would still travel in three zones to get to San Francisco.  The cost would, once again, be 24 cents per ounce of letter weight.  But, this time, instead of one 24 cent stamp, we have three 16 cent stamps to pay the postage for a total of 48 cents.  This letter must have weighed more than one ounce and no more than two ounces.

This packet was addressed to the editor of a newspaper in San Diego and the very light receiving postmark appears to be for November 19 in San Diego.  This seems to confirm that the letter came into San Francisco on the November 18th flight.  It then took the surface mail route to San Diego the next day.

 

This is, in my opinion, an excellent example of who might avail themselves of the air mail service despite the significantly higher costs. Perhaps a telegraph message would be faster still, but at a cost of 60 cents for a very short message (maybe fifteen words), this was a bargain.  Consider that it takes almost five sheets of modern 8 1/2 x 11 printer paper to get to one ounce and you can see that a fair amount of material could have come in this envelope.

The sender of this item, the NEA (Newspaper Enterprise Association) Service in Cleveland, was a syndicate that distributed news articles, cartoons and sports features to newspapers.  At about the time this item was mailed, NEA Service was distributing material to over 400 different newspapers.  It is likely that the contents of this envelope were important and timely news stories of that time.  Perhaps someday, I could dig into the archives of the NEA proof books and figure out what might have been important enough to send on the night plane to San Francisco. 

Thank you for joining me for Postal History Sunday.  I hope you found it enjoyable and that you have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location. 

Republic to Empire - Postal History Sunday

Welcome!  You've managed to arrive at the proper place for the April 9, 2023 edition of Postal History Sunday.  This is the place where I afford myself the opportunity to share something I enjoy with those who might have interest.  It doesn't matter if you already love postal history, or you are just idly curious.  I'll do my best to make it interesting and accessible to as wide of an audience as I can.

So, put on your fuzzy slippers, find a comfy chair and get yourself a favorite beverage.  Take those troubles and hide them away for a time.  If you're lucky, you won't know how to find them again once we're done here.

This week's article starts in the year 1848 when the people of France overthrew King Louis-Phillippe and elected Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte president of the Second Republic.  Following England's lead, postal reform that made postage more affordable was among the early actions undertaken by this new government.  And as of January 1, 1849, France issued their first postage stamps to show prepayment for these cheaper postal costs.

The postage stamps depicted Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, motherly love, and fertility, reflecting the rural nature of much of the country.  The top of these adhesives were inscribed with the "Repub Franc" for République française.

The folded letter shown at the beginning of this post bears an example of the 20 centime stamp that was most commonly used to pay for a simple letter destined for a domestic (in country or internal) destination.  This particular letter was sent by Gallien & Toupet, bankers in Granville, France, to an individual in Lavaur, France.  The letter was mailed on June 23, 1850 and arrived at its destination on June 26 after going through Paris on the 24th.

The cost of a simple letter in 1849

This letter represents a significant reduction in postage.  Prior to this point, the cost of a letter in France was a function of both weight and the calculated distance traveled.*  The distance from Granville to Lavaur is about 840 km in distance, which would have required 1 franc (100 centimes) in postage, five times the cost required to mail these letters under the new rate structure.

This letter weighed no more than 7.5 grams and qualified for the 1st Rate Level (a simple letter) - 20 centimes in postage.

This rate was effective from January 1, 1849 to June 30, 1850 and followed this rate progression:

*note: calculated distances were approximately equal to straight line distances.  A letter could take a less efficient route to get to its destination and that did not add to the postage.

How did it get to where it was going?

The back of the folded letter includes a couple of circular postal markings that help us understand how it got from Granville to Lavaur.  The marking on the right was applied in Paris on June 24 and the marking on the left shows the arrival in Lavaur as Jun 26.  

The Paris postmark is a "transit mark" because it shows us one of the intermediate points between the origin and the destination.  France usually processed mail and applied transit markings when a letter was transferred to a new mail route.  The Lavaur postmark would be referred to as an "arrival mark" and provides evidence as to when the postal clerk at the destination post office processed the mail to be prepared for delivery or pick up.

The map below can be enlarged if you click on the image.  It provides you with an idea as to where Granville (in the Manche department, Normandy region) and Lavaur (in the Tarn department, Pyrenees region) are, as well as their position relative to Paris.  A direct route between the origin and the destination would be about 840 km.  However, during the 1840s-60s, most mail would go through Paris.  That adds a little to the overall distance traveled and shows how a calculated distance might be different than the actual distance a letter was carried

At the time this item was mailed, there was no railway line near Granville.  The closest rail would have been at Rouen.  So, we can assume that the letter traveled by coach to Rouen or to any point on the rail line from there to Mantes.  The rail line terminated at  Gare Montparnasse in Paris (known as Gare de l'Ouest - which translates to "Western Station"), which was the site for a well documented 1895 derailment.

While that derailment has nothing to do with the cover I have shared, it still adds a bit of interest.  Both the train engine and coal tender broke through the wall of the station and fell to the street below.

1895 derailment from Wikimedia Commons

From Paris it is most likely that the letter rode the trains as far as it could on the line through Orleans, taking the coach the rest of the way to the destination, likely via Cleremont-Ferrand.  A three day transit for this distance where much of it was by horse-drawn carriage seems quite reasonable.

The map below gives an outline of the development of rail in France.  With only a few exceptions, the focus of the development was to create a "star" with Paris at the center.  This explains why many internal French letters during this time would have a Paris transit mark.

What was in that letter?

I am not terribly familiar with the banking forms of the time, however, it looks like Mr. J Naraval of Lavaur had a balance to his favor of over 13,000 francs in his account with Gallien & Toupet.  The tally sheet at the left appears to be withdrawals or payments from the account, which are deducted from the prior balance in the top right table.  

Further down, there is confirmation of a deposit of 3382 francs to the account.

After a cursory look, I did not find a contemporary reference for Mr. Naraval.  I did take note that the Gallien & Toupet firm could be found in a bankers listing for 1870.  After a little more searching, I found images of other letters from this firm dated from 1847 to 1850. 

Backing off of cheap postage a little in 1850

Our next item is a folded letter sent by V Pailhas, a banker in Libourne, France, to a Mr Leurtault in Coutras, France.  The letter was mailed on March 6, 1852 and arrived at Coutras, only 20 km away, on the next day (March 7).

The reduction in postage rates introduced in 1849 just might have been a bit too aggressive and France backtracked a bit with the new rates just a year and a half later.  The first rate (for a simple letter) was raised by 5 centimes and the second by 10 centimes.  Heavier letters remained the same cost.

This letter required 25 centimes in postage for the 1st Rate Level as it weighed no more than 7.5 grams.

A new 25 centime blue Ceres stamp was issued in conjunction with the new rates and was released on the same day the new rates were placed into effect, replacing the black 20 centime value.  This stamp also featured Ceres, the Roman goddess of prosperity.  This subject may well have been chosen as a nod towards the agrarian economy which also avoided making any particular political comment. 

This postage rate was effective from July 1, 1850 to June 30, 1854 and followed this rate progression:

At this time, there were different rates for local letters, but the price of prepaid and unpaid letters remained the same.  Later on, unpaid letters would require a higher postage rate as the French postal administration encouraged its patrons to move towards prepayment of postage.

How did it get to where it was going?

Libourne and Coutras are only 20 km apart and are located to the northeast of Bordeaux, in the department of Gironde.  With that distance, it is possible that this letter could have qualified for the local letter rate for mail within the arrondissement.  However, both settlements were separated by a river, which marked the boundary between two arrondissements - thus requiring the normal internal (domestic) rate structure to be used.

The local rate would have been half the cost (10 centimes) if the letter qualified.

Coutras is bounded by the Isle River to the South and the Dronne on the West.  The Isle flows into the Dordogne at Libourne.  The map is dated for 1865, so the rail lines depicted were not active in 1852.  However, many rail lines followed the the primary carriage roads that already existed in the area - which can give us a good guess as to the carriage routes in 1852.  

There is a road noted from Libourne to S. Denis on this map and it does not seem like a stretch to assume there was a bridge or ferry from S. Denis to Coutras that would have served as the mail route.

As a historical aside - the Battle of Coutras was fought in this area during the 1587 religious wars.  King Henry III's edict that gave precedence to the Catholics and prohibiting Protestantism in France resulted in unrest.  This battle was won by the Protestants (Huguenots), who were led by Henry of Navarre.

Depiction of Battle of Coutras by German painter and engraver Frans Hogenberg, wikimedia commons

The representative of the crown, Anne de Bartenay de Joyeuse was killed while attempting to surrender.  At least one historian indicates that this may have been in response to Joyeuse's history of executing prisoners himself (Mattingly, Garrett (1959). The Armada. Houghton Mifflin Company).

What was in that letter?

The sender, V Pailhas jeune in Libourne, was a banker who could provide the service to buy bonds for various enterprises in addition to standard banking services, such as those provided by the recipients of the letter, Monsieur Leurtault & Fils (Leurtault & Son).  They can be found on this 1858 list adverstising the bond purchasing service:

from Journal des chemins de fer, Vol 17, Feb 6, 1858

Of interest to me is the use of "jeune" after the name, which translates to "young."  I have seen this a few times in period literature and letters and I presume, perhaps incorrectly, that this would be the equivalent to how we use "junior" to indicate the younger individual in a father/son lineage where each has the same given name.

As I was digging for Monsieur Pailhas, I found a few other possibilities that did not match the 1852 date.  Is it possible that his son was a brewer/maltster in 1877 - or did he move on to another job?  And is this his ancestor, getting into trouble in Libourne in 1793 during the first French revolution?  Or this his father or grandfather in 1811, selling drapes and canvasses in 1811?  Given the consistent location in the Libourne area, it is not at all unlikely that there is some relationship between these persons, even if it is not a direct lineage.  Maybe someday I'll figure it out.  Or, I'll just leave at this and someone else can solve the puzzle if it interests them.

Once again, we have a standard ledger format that illustrated withdrawals and acknowledgement of the receipt of money for the account.  I wonder how many people could figure out accounts in this fashion without the help of computers in the present day?

The political winds blow and change French postage stamps

Louis Napoleon III and the National Assembly disagreed with each other more than they agreed.  Napoleon III's response was to dissolve the sitting National Assembly and replace it with members that supported his policies and ambitions.  

We can see this tide turning in France's postage stamps of the time.  In accordance with recently passed law that required all postage stamps to bear his likeness, a new issue with President Louis Napoleon's image was created in 1853.  These stamps still indicated that France was a republic with the “Repub Franc” showing prominently at the top.

Our next postal history item is a folded letter sent by Foret pere & fils, bankers, in Yssingeaux, France, to an individual in Bas, France.  The letter was mailed on Mar 30, 1853 and has a marked arrival on March 31 at Monistrol, which is near Bas.  All locations are in the Haute Loire department of France.

What it cost to mail

The 1850 rate increments lasted for about four years (July 1, 1850 to June 30, 1854), so this item was mailed with the same rate table as our second item.  This particular letter was heavier than 7.5 grams and weighed no more than 15 grams (2nd rate level), therefore it required 50 centimes in postage.

Here is a reminder of the rate progression for the time:

How did it get there?

This is another case where the origin and destination are in the same department (Haute Loire), so the distances are not great.  You might notice that a road runs from Yssingeaux to Monistrol, which identifies the most likely route for the mail to travel.

Also of interest for this item is the fact that there is no receiving postmark for Bas, instead, there is a postmark for Monistrol.  This is a pretty good indicator that Bas did not have its own post office and was serviced by the Monistrol office - making them both a part of the same 'arondissement' or postal district.  To further clarify, if a person in Monistrol wanted to send a letter to someone in Bas (or vice versa), it would qualify for the local postage rate.  But, this item started in Yssingeaux, which was outside of that postal department, so it required the normal internal letter mail rate.

 

What was in that letter?

At present, this folded letter is only one sheet of paper, clearly not enough to require the second rate level that was paid for by postage stamps.  This suggests that there were other enclosures that are no longer with the item.  It could have been individual receipts, money, promotional material or reports.  Or perhaps it held separate sheets reporting on outgoing money / expenditures.  

If you notice some notations in a different hand, it is possible that the information on other sheets were transferred here at some point.  I will never know for sure what caused the letter to be heavier than 7.5 grams - but it can be interesting to consider the possibilities.

Like so many surviving pieces of postal history in Europe at this time, this is essentially another 'banking' account ledger.  It certainly makes sense that this is the type of mail that might have a higher 'survivability rate' simply because these documents were kept as part of the bookkeeping for individuals and businesses. 

Foret pere & fils (father and son) focused on "recouvrements," or the collection of money, on behalf of their clients.  The list in this ledger shows debts collected, including from whom, the location and the amount.  Or perhaps they show amounts to be collected.

It is also noted at the top right that Foret pere & fils also dealt in "escompte," which I presume would be the provision of a payment service as opposed to a collection service on behalf of the client.

As a postal historian, I can say I am grateful for this money transfer system.  Without it, there would be much less for me to collect and explore in postal history.

French Republic becomes French Empire

The coup d'etat in December of 1851 allowed President Louis Napoleon III to continue as president and replace members of the National Assembly with those who would support him.  This paved the road for a later proclamation that France was to become an empire under his leadership as emperor.  

These actions were reflected in the postage stamps used to pay for mail service.  In 1852, it was mandated that French postage stamps should depict Napoleon III and the Ceres stamps were removed from circulation the following year.  The heading at the top of the stamp at that time still proclaimed that France was a republic (Repub Franc).  This time, the stamps would be modified yet again, changing the "Repub" to "Empire."

Perhaps you noticed already, but this new stamp had a denomination of 20 centimes.  This new design was motivated both by political changes and by a new postal rate structure.  The new rates were effective on July 1, 1854 and would remain in effect for quite some time (Dec 31, 1861).

The first major difference in these postage rates is the different cost for prepaid mail versus unpaid mail.  This was an effort to get postal patrons to buy into the idea they needed to move away from a system that collected money at the destination by making that option more expensive.  The postage rates for the first two levels returned to the 1849 amounts and the cost for heavier prepaid letters decreased.

If it hadn't been clear before, it was now.  The labor and time costs of collecting postage from recipients (and the possibility that delivery would be refused for an item) could be significant.  On the other hand, the French Post Office could provide cheap postage rates if mail was correctly paid up front.

To bring today's blog to its conclusion, here is a folded letter that was mailed on March 5, 1859 in Nantes, France.  The destination was a small town outside of Brest which is now called Gouesnou.  The address given is "Goueznou pres Brest" or "Gouesnou near Brest."

The back of this folded letter shows an arrival postmark at the Brest post office on March 7.  The lack of a postmark for Gouesnou tells us that there probably was no post office in town.  A rural carrier most likely provided service in this case. However, I cannot state with complete certainty that this is the case.  Maybe that's something I can track down and confirm at a later point in time.

And here we are!  By looking at some of the changes in postal rates and stamp designs we were also able to look at the broader history of France.  Postal mail was a critical communication tool during this time period, so it makes sense that it would reflect the politics, technologies and economic realities of the time.  

While that's part of the reason why I find postal history and philately (the study of postage stamps) to be fascinating subjects, this Postal History Sunday illustrates other reasons.  Each item can connect you to events that occurred decades afterward (a derailment in Paris) or centuries before (a battle in Coutras).  If there are contents or if the addressee or writer is someone of note, you can get a small snapshot of what their lives must have been like.  

A piece of postal history is surrounded by stories - and as a postal historian, I can choose which stories interest me each time I look at an item.  I can explore each story more deeply, or I can be satisfied with brief description.  But, in all cases, I have a chance to learn and explore - and I value these opportunities.

Thank you for joining me this week for Postal History Sunday.  I hope you enjoyed some or all of this post.  Perhaps you even learned something new!  Have a good remainder of your day and a fine week to come.

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.