Harmer-Schau Auctions

Sale 122


 
Lot 537



U.S., Territorial, California: Gray's Express (1850-51) Usage, on damaged cover from Sacramento to San Francisco, with very faint red San Francisco stamp with numeral 2 evident, letter was apparently sent c/o Mr. George W. Goldsmith Co (see trade cards) who then sent it via Gray's to Oliver Goldsmith somewhere in the goldfields with the Wolverine Rangers which was apparently a group of Michiganers organized together to search for gold, incl. very faint red San Francisco stamp with the numeral 2 evident, letter was apparently sent c/o Mr. George W. Goldsmith Co. (see trade cards) who then sent it via Gray's to Oliver Goldsmith somewhere in the goldfields with the Wolverine Rangers which was apparently a group of Michiganers organized together to search for gold, there are other correspondences and stampless covers (damaged) from this period from family in Salem MA and Michigan to Oliver, some which mentions receiving shipments of gold and others expressing deep concern for Oliver upon hearing mounting news of the horrors and dangers of the California gold rush, also other items which pertain to land deals c. 1900 from Alameda County, telegrams, military documents pre and post Civil War, etc., inspect. The few known examples are dated from 1850 through mid-1851, and the firm's offices were closed by May 1852. Per Western Cover Society "Only five covers are known to survive from this early Express" .
Estimate $200-250.

 
Realized $173



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Two Pence Blue