January, 2003
The January seminar by Calvet M. Hahn was meant to show what could be done in
philatelic research by the use of auction catalogs, using the philatelic local
of the Bayonne Despatch as an example. In putting together the list of sales,
it turned out that #10, from the Paige Blake sale had a much better photo than
the Levi records photo used in the leave-behind and it showed this was a Philip
LaTourette cover, also the following lot (56) was a VF example of the unused
stationery, reported in the Eno sale, which may be where Blake obtained it or
it may be a second unused example.
The text used the basic information from contemporary philatelic journals supplemented
by general information about Bayonne. Once it was suggested that there were
10 positions, but no multiples, the four corner pieces were identified and possible
left and right side position pieces suggested so that illustrations of each
position on the plate could be shown. The doubling of the center suggests that
it was a loose woodcut or rubber stamp (there was less wear than on the borders),
which wiggled so that there are 'double transfers' of the center. The photos
were not sufficiently clear to show if there were ten different centers inserted,
or electroplated copies of one.
The Bayonne City Despatch-History, Census and Plating
© Calvet M. Hahn 2003
(Note: Cover scans are found after the article)
This local was in existence for approximately three months in the spring of
1883, when the intercity postal rate was 3¢. Its main office was in the
A. J. Theobald Hardware Store, 16th St. and Avenue D in Bayonne City (located
between Broadway and Avenue E on modern road maps) with Roswald Edward Smith
as its manager. Chartered as a city in 1869, Bayonne is located on a peninsula
between Newark Bay and New York Bay and is the third largest manufacturing city
in New Jersey being the petroleum distribution center for the newly formed Standard
Oil Company. It still had the villages of Bayonne, Bergen Point, Centerville
(Van Buskirk or Constable Hook) and Pamrapo (Saltersville) within its geographic
limits in 1883. Each of these villages had its own postoffice.
Philatelic History
A group of three young stamp aficionados who had been schoolmates in Bayonne
backed the operation. Each later became a stamp dealer. They included dentist
Dr. E. H. Mitchell and 19-year old Harry Craft (publisher and editor respectively
of the Bayonne Philatelist in 1883-4 and the Independent Philatelist 1884-1891)
and Philip LaTourette a stamp dealer, whose family operated the LaTourette hotel
in Bergen Point who authored a number of articles in the Philatelist. William
P. Brown, a major early stamp dealer located in 1883-4 at 25 Ann Street where
he did print work for Dr. Mitchell and the Independent Philatelist and by February
1885 at 2-4 Stone Street in New York, apparently advised the group and suggested
that adhesives be issued.
As an article in #4 of the Bayonne Philatelist by 'F.M.B.' noted, in late 1882
or early 1883 a number of new locals began including Allen's Dispatch, the St.
Louis and Cincinnati City Delivery, and the Ledger Dispatch of Brooklyn. While
not mentioned, the Bayonne City Dispatch was another. In issue #2, LaTourette
advertised from New York that he had Ledger Despatch stamps for sale.
Dr. Mitchell in the March 1887 issue of the Independent Philatelist noted that
the post's adhesives were introduced April 15, 1883, upon the advice of a New
York businessman (probably stamp dealer William P. Brown) as reported in the
Bayonne Evening Journal of June 12, 1883 and stamped envelopes introduced in
May 1883. It ceased operation by July 1, 1883 due to the government's attack
on delivery companies. He cited his source as R. B. Maxwell of the Bayonne City
Press Association, who published the data in the Bayonne Times of August 5,
1886. Mr. Maxwell's information was that the post was formed April 1, 1883,
with a rate card of one, two, and three cents and letters at eighty cents per
100, with twenty messengers available each hour.
As a census of surviving covers indicates, the Bayonne City Dispatch was basically
a philatelic local, although LaTourette may have seen some advantage in handling
mails from his family's hotel. No covers are recorded prior to May 9th the date
the first philatelically inspired covers are recorded, while purely local deliveries
basically ceased ten days later.
The post operated in the Bergen Point area primarily south of 20th street, where
the LaTourette Hotel, Dr. Mitchell's office (opposite the railroad depot), and
the Bayonne Philatelist (27 W. 8th St.) were located. According to the 1883
Poor's Manual of Railroads map, this depot is where the Central Railroad of
New Jersey (formed February 22, 1849) crossed from Elizabethport to Bayonne
on the way to the Jersey City terminal where ferries went to New York as of
1864. The rate in that area was 1¢, with a 2¢ rate from 20th to 30th
Street and 3¢ elsewhere. Only covers with the one and two cent rates are
known, and only one of the latter, census #5. Beginning May 19th, most covers
are to-the-mails and carry U.S. adhesives.
The superintendent of the local was Roswell Edward Smith and there were telephone
connections with the New York and New Jersey Telephone Company as well as collection
boxes in three hotels and four rail depots as well as in the Bayonne City Hall.
Messengers had numbered 'special messenger' badges for identification. For express
material, the local used the Sweeny's Bayonne City Express and the Seaman's
Bayonne City Central Express Co. Subsequent interviews with one of the company's
carriers indicated it was a highly profitable operation and that packages were
charged 25¢ each (a typical express company charge of two bits).
Both adhesives and stationery were issued. The Bayonne Journal article reports
that adhesives with the team of horses pulling a stagecoach were typeset and
printed in sheets of ten, imperforate, 22½ by 28½ mm. While the
overall stamp was typeset, the center cut seems to have been a woodcut that
was loosely inserted creating double transfers. John Bowman reported the stamps
are irregular in size being 22 x 28 mm along the top and right sides and 22.5
x 28.5 mm along the bottom and left. He was also the first to report that double
transfers were known, although Robert Kaufmann had illustrated one in his June
1989 Postal History Journal article.
Postal Stationery
Some time during May, by the 15th if not the 13th, to meet a call for a stamped
envelope a rubber stamp was made of the same design as the adhesive and imprinted
in red on yellow envelopes. Only one size was issued 84 x 142 mm. The Scott
Specialized lists this as 9LU1 one-cent purple on amber. An unused copy was
sold as lot 194 in the Eno sale at Harmer Rooke March 7, 1951 and later at the
Irwin Heiman sale of February 24, 1965 as lot 121, while a used example addressed
to George Thomas, Ave. D in Bergen Point was lot 1218 in the R. Kaufmann sale
of 9/5/1979 and lot 322 in his 1979 net price sale as well as lot 1580 in the
Richard Schwartz sale.
Of the two recorded postal stationery items (census #39 and 40) only 39 is illustrated
and it clearly shows the rubber handstamp created is not identical to the typographed
adhesives in that the letters are much thicker and different in shape from the
adhesives in the words 'Bayonne City' 'ONE CENT', and the 'H' of Dispatch among
other things, while the whip in the illustration is closer to the ears of the
first horse and the two rules have marks on the left end not seen on the adhesives,
census 39.
Cancellations
Two types of purple handstamp cancellations are known. The more common reads
BAYONNE CITY/Date /DISPATCH, while a rarer second version, of which nine are
recorded in the census, reads BAYONNE CITY,/Date/DISPATCH PAID. It is only found
on covers dated between May 9th and 15th. These are census numbers 1, 3, 4,
5, 6, 8, 9, 20 and 21. Gordon Stimmell illustrated this on a cover of May 12,
1883 to Dr. Mitchell in his 'Blizzard Mail' article on page 8 of the January
1995 Penny Post. It is an item introduced in May probably primarily for non-philatelic
delivery, as only four are addressed to the putative owners of the company (census
4 and 8 to Dr. Mitchell, #9 to Harry Craft, and #20 to Philip LaTourette.
There are also several killers used. The most common is the local's purple concentric
3-ring circle found on all but two adhesive covers. However, a cover to Harry
Craft has a bold four bar vertical cork grid. It was lot 856 in the Siegel sale
of 10/23/62 described as ex-Knapp, but I can't find it there, but not when offered
later in the Robson Lowe March 1, 1973 sale where it was lot 1597. A modified
version of the killer is found on a June 19, 1883 cover to H. Vreeland, Pamrapo
(Saltersville). (PF259288) with a 3¢ banknote (Scott 207). The grid is
crosscut. The Hall cover (lot 418) to Craft had the normal purple concentric
circle. Stimmell also illustrated a rare illustrated cover (printed by William
P. Brown) from Dr. Mitchell to stamp dealer R.R. Bogert, Room 38, Tribune Building,
Nassau Street, N.Y. that went outside the mail. It is an 1884 or later use.
Out of the almost 45 covers reported in the census, there are three items with
no date (census 34, 35, and the out-of-period 1884 or later letter to Bogert
41) and two items with no identified addressee (census 10, 22).
There are a total of eight covers with the scarce 'Despatch Paid' handstamp
(1,3,4,5,6,8,9,20) of which four are addressed to the putative owners of the
company (4,8,9,20). Beginning May 19, 1883, only the four covers bearing both
U.S. stamps as well as the Bayonne local are reported in the census. There are
twelve covers (#1, 4, 5, 6, 21, 22, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 41; 27 and 32 are care
of Tourette) that are not addressed to one of the three stamp aficionados who
apparently backed the organization and there are two covers each to Dr. Mitchell
(#4, 8) and Craft (#9, 33), and 23 to LaTourette.
Census
1) 5/9 Despatch Paid to H. H. Johnston Ave. D, City Golden Siegel lot 474; upper
right corner of plate, position #2.
2) 5/9 no paid to Philip LaTourette, 16th St., lot 151 Siegel 3/26/96
3) 5/9 Dispatch Paid to Dr. Mitchell Bayonne; lot 515 John Fox 3/30/61, lot
315 Siegel 8/13/63; Lot 1688 Lou Robbins Dos Passos sale 9/22/81
4) 5/9 Despatch Paid stamp with position 2 top right margin to L. D. Wood -Ave.,
Bayonne, Lot 990 Siegel 4/25/68; lot 1578 Schwartz sale Siegel 6/27-9/00
5) 5/10 Despatch Paid to Chas. M. Packard 28 street, Hook with double strike
of circle killer on two copies of the local; the left stamp is shorter than
the right and appears to be a bottom left corner copy (position 9); lot 1576
Schwartz sale 6/27-9/00
6) 5/10 Despatch Paid to C. H. White, Maple Ave. City left pointing adhesive.
Lot 289 H. Lazarus sale 11/27/61; lot 169 Lazarus sale 6/16/62; lot 1577 Siegel
Schwartz sale 6/17-9/00
7) 5/12 (?) no paid apparently position 1 upper left corner stamp to Philip
La Tourette 16th St. (PFC 126585)
8) 5/12 Despatch Paid to Mr. Mitchell; bottom sheet margin copy Stimmell holding
illustrated Penny Post Jan. 1995.
9) 5/12 Despatch Paid to Harry Craft Ave S City; lot 418 Hall sale 11/13/00
10) 5/12 local no identified address on buff cover. Lot 55 Paige sale 6/10/55.
11) 5/12 no paid to Philip LaTourette Jr. lot 129 Pelander 2/4/55
12) 5/13 double strike no paid to Philip LaTourette, 16th St., City (PFC 61688)
13) 5/13 no paid sideways adhesive to Philip LaTourette Esq. 16th St., Bergen
Point New Jersey (purple manuscript address) (PFC 187552); lot 228 Fox Hollowbush
sale 8/15/66; lot 857 Siegel sale 10/22/68
14) 5/13 no paid large lower left margin (position 9?) to Philip LaTourette,
16th St. lot 637 in Lehman Fox sale 10/29/54; lot 907 H. R. Harmer sale 1/20/62(?);
lot 1590 in the Hugh Richardson Siegel sale of 12/13-16/83; lot 151 Siegel 3/26/96
15) 5/13 to Philip LaTourette 16th St City /s/ Perry; lot 389 Stolow 2/16/65;
lot 1340 Seigel 5/14/66
16) 5/13 no paid to Philip LaTourette 16th St. the purple target goes through
the DI of Dispatch; lot 55 Zimmerman 3/9/68
17) 5/13 no paid in same hand as census 13 to Philip LaTourette, 16th St., Bergen
Point; lot 711 J. A. Fox 1/6/67; lot 914 Siegel 1/18-19/2000
18) 5/23 no paid to Philip LaTourette, 16th St. left sheet margin adhesive with
slight double struck purple killer; lot 913 Siegel 1/18-19/2000
19) 5/15 no paid to Philip LaTourette 16th St. City Lot 420 Siegel 11/13/2000
Hall sale; this may be lot 193 of the Needham/Boker/Eno sale of 3/7/51
20) 5/15 Despatch Paid to Mr. Philip LaTourette Bergen Point; lot 1590 Donald
Malcolm sale Siegel 9/28/72; lot 766 Kaufmann sale 7/22/80-
21) 5/15 Despatch Paid and sideways adhesive to Zeph Donnell, present. (1991
PFC 240912) Lot 150 Siegel 3/26/96; lot 349 Meyersburg Siegel sale 6/25/97
22) 5/l5 no paid to Bayonne, seems to be position #1, 'eL Esq.'; lot 1596 Lowe
3/6/73
23) 5/15 no paid to Philip LaTourette lot 1328 Harmer 7/22/76; lot 320 Fox 5/30/81/
lot 624 Mohrmann and lot 142 Mohrmann 1l94
24) 5/16 no paid to Philip LaTourette 16th St. Lot 1135 Herst sale 2/18/66;
lot 1579 Schwartz Siegel sale
25) 5/16 no paid double concentric circle portion of stamp above to Philip LaTourette
16th St. (PFC 105734); lot 710 R. Kaufmann 12/16/81
26) 5/16 (?) no paid sideways stamp to Philip LaTourette 16th. Bergen Point
(PFC 101602); lot 989 Siegel 4/145/68; Lot 297 John Kaufmann 7/10/81.
27) 5/16 no paid to Joe Levich c/o P. LaTourette lot 419 Siegel Hall sale
28) 5/17 no paid to Philip LaTourette 16th St. City (PFC 293983)
29) 5/17 no paid to Philip LaTourette 16th St. (PFC 104511) orange yellow cover
lot 735 Lowe sale 9/9/81
30) 5/17 (?) no paid to Philip LaTourette (address into handstamp) with local
tied by two purple circles; lot 858 Siegel 10/23/68
31) 5/17 no paid to LaTourette sideways stamp lot 246 Herst sale 3/14/72; lot
408 Siegel sale 4/4/67
32) 5/17 no Paid to Joe Levich c/o LaTourette (PFC 310672)
33) Bergen Point May 19 c.d.s and cross-cut grid killing 1¢ gray blue #183
and 2¢ vermilion 206 which overlaps local to Henry P. Hyde No. 9 Barrow
St., NYC lot 1574 Schwartz Siegel sale 6/27-9/00.
34) Date unknown the 'T' of Tourette touches adhesive and St. of Street is under
the 'La'; lot 617 Kaufmann 9/7/79.
35) Date unknown, to Harry Craft with bold 4 vertical bar grid. Lot 856 Siegel
10/23/62 and lot 1597 Lowe 3/1/73.
36) 6/14 Bergen Point with 3¢ green #207 no local hand stamp to printed
Agent Adams Express A. J. Theobald 16th St. (hardware store office) (1984 PFC
139947); lot 1575 Siegel Schwartz sale 6/27-9/00
37) 6/14 Bergen Point c.d.s. no local handstamp to Jacob Johnson, Bergen Point
with Scott # 183 and 206 tied by negative killers (PFC 139948)
38) 6/19 black Bergen Point c.d.s. and 4-bar cross-cut grid ties this and #207
no local handstamp to H. Vreeland, Pamrapo, NJ. (PFC 259288)
Three covers were sold as lots 257-259 in the Kelleher Emerson sale of 2/23/39;
they are probably duplicated above. The Collectors Shop sale of 12/5/46 had
a very fine cover example as lot 56, and Y. Souren offered a superb cover in
Stamps 5/9/36, both are probably also recorded above.
39) 9LU1 5/15 no paid to Geo Thomas, Esq. Ave. D. Bergen Point; lot 364 Middendorf
net price Frajola sale (where less than three copies are reported); (Kaufmann
lot 1218 9/8/79; 1979 Kaufmann net price lot 3ll; Lot 1580 Siegel Schwartz sale
40) An unused 9LU1 was offered as lot 194 in the Needham/Boker/Eno sale of 3/7/51
to Irwin Heiman and was re-offered as lot 121 in the Heiman sale of 2/24/65
41) An out-of-period out of the mails cover to stamp dealer R.R. Bogart on Nassau
St. is from Dr. Mitchell using an Independent Philatelist illustrated envelope
(February 1884 or later) was illustrated by Stimmell in Penny Post Jan/95
Plating
There are apparently plating differences in the adhesives printed and possibly
two printings: While there are no multiples so plate position cannot be determined
there are several apparent position pieces-an apparent top left margin example
(A) (census # 7), one that seems to be the upper right corner (B) (census #1
and 7), a lower left corner copy (I) (census #4, #5, left stamp), a lower right
corner item (J) (census #4) as well as several that seem to be either left or
right margin examples. I have identified ten varieties.
These are: A) A probable upper left corner position (#1) is seen on the LaTourette
cover, census #7. It has a large upper left corner break, but otherwise the
outer frameline is complete. The Philatelic Foundation photograph indicates
a complete inner frameline. There may be an extension of the left frameline
at bottom. This extension is also seen on census #16, which is also probably
also position #1.
B) This is an upper right corner, position #2, This is may be seen on the Johnston
cover, census #1 (Golden lot 474),
which also shows a thinning of the heavy outer line at lower left, but a complete
inner line except at top, where the inner line is missing. This position is
also seen on lot 83l in the Kaufmann #58 5/13/89 sale.
C) The White cover, (census #6, lot 1577 in the Schwartz sale) shows outer frame
damage at upper right otherwise only seen on the larger right Packard (census
#5) example. This stamp shows the inner portion of the upper left break but
not on the outer edge. It almost does not show the bottom mid-point break. Both
it and the White cover stamp have a small mid-point bottom frameline break and
a medium large break at the upper left and a minimum break at the lower left
corner. It seems to be a right margin example, e.g. from positions 4, 6, or
8. Census #13 shows the outer frame damage at upper right, the minimal mid bottom
frame break, but a larger upper left corner break and a somewhat larger bottom
left corner break suggesting a later pull from the same position.
D) The Mitchell cover of May 12 (census #8) has two inner line breaks at top
and a missing inner line at lower left, (Stimmell's Penny Post article on Blizzard
Mail illustrates this). There is an upper left break, but none at the other
corners. The left frameline appears somewhat damaged opposite the 'D' of DISPATCH.
(E) The LaTourette cover of May 13th (census #15) has a weak 'H' in DESPATCH
and an apparent curve in the upper left frame line, (lot 389 in Stolow sale
of 2/16/l965 or lot 1340 in Seigel March 14/1966). Lot 711 of the Fox 1/6/1967
sale also dated May 13th (census # 17) also shows this as does the Hollowbush
sale lot 228 or Siegel 10/22/68 lot 857 La Tourette cover (census #13) of the
same date. The Vreeland cover (census #38) also seems to share these characteristics.
These stamps seem to be left margin examples, e.g. from positions 3, 5 or 7.
The best of the inserted center double transfers (an on-cover stamp census #31)
has a relatively narrow upper left break a large mid-point bottom break and
a large upper right break. It has the weak 'H' of Dispatch and therefore is
position E. On cover, the upper right break fits census #10, 15, 28
F) The Hall Craft cover (lot 418, census #9) shows almost complete inner framelines
and very narrow breaks in the outer frames, suggesting it came from an early
printing as does the Hall sale lot 419 Levick cover (census 27). Census #22
(Lowe lot 1596 in the 3/1/73 Basle sale) also seems to show these characteristics,
but with a larger upper left corner break. All these appear to be left margin
stamps, e.g. from positions 3, 5, or 7.
(G) The Hyde cover (census #33 lot 1574 in Schwartz sale) with the two adhesives
has an almost complete inner lines all the way around although they are beginning
to break up. There are thin outer line breaks at upper left, upper right and
lower left. The Adams cover (census #36) shows similar characteristics, but
the inner framelines are more broken.
H) The illustrated Independent Philatelist cover adhesive shows no break at
either upper left or bottom midpoint. There is a thin lower left break and the
lower portion of the left inner-line is missing. (See Stimmell's Blizzard Mail
article in Penny Post.)
I) A bottom left corner position (position 9, Schwartz lot 1575) is seen on
the left of the two stamps on the Packard cover (census #5). This left stamp
is smaller than the right. It has a clear thin break at the upper left but almost
no bottom mid-point break. It is characteristically weak at lower left. The
stamp also has a medium large upper right break. The rule under Dispatch appears
doubled at the right. The Wood cover (census # 4, Schwartz lot 1578) shows traces
of another stamp at left and seems to be a bottom sheet margin example, position
9. It has only a thin break at upper left and a medium large upper right break.
It appears to have a small bottom break, but does have a characteristic lower
left bottom corner break. There does not appear to be any doubling of the rule
under 'Dispatch'.
(J) The heavily inked Craft cover, census #35, is the closest we have to a bottom
right corner margin example (position 10, lot 1597 in Robson Lower sale of March
1, 1973). There is a thin break at the lower left corner and only a nick at
the bottom mid-point. There is no upper right break. The top border may be somewhat
thin towards the left; any upper left break is not visible due to the cancellation.
This Craft grid killer adhesive cover has a blot between the lower inner and
outer lines. Another example of this position is census #3, the earlier Mitchell
cover which shows the thin lower left break and a wide break at upper left (obscured
by the killer on the Craft cover). It also shows another characteristic, a nick
on the underside of the top frameline over the 'C' of City.
