VERY RARE PRE-WAGHORN RED SEA/EGYPT ROUTE "INDIA/Packet Lett...

Hammer

£4,400

VERY RARE PRE-WAGHORN RED SEA/EGYPT ROUTE "INDIA/Packet Letter/PAID" COVER VIA BOMBAY TO SUEZ & ON TO G.B.; Very fine 26 Jan. 1834 EL from "Jaulnuah" [Hyderabad] to Plymouth endorsed "By Hugh Lindsay [Steamer]" on the front and so with a partly fine rare claret-red boxed "CAMPJALNAH/POSTPAID" mark on the top flap neatly endorsed "Overland Postage 1r--/[+]Inland do --6/Total Pd 1--6" and signed "E. Rajagopall[?] P.O. H.W." (just affected by tiny seal tear). On the front is a watery (as usual) claret-red Bombay "PAID/Packet Letter/PAID" mark and the final GB "2/11" charge (1s-9d Steamer postage Alexandria to Falmouth + 1s-2d inland rate from Falmouth to London & on to Plymouth). Only a handful of covers carried by this Red Sea route before the start of the Waghorn service have been recorded; the High Lindsay left Bombay on 1 Feb., and her mails (c.2,000 letters ex India) reached Suez on 3 March - they left Alexandria on 10 April and Malta on the 'Flamer' Packet on 30 April arriving in Falmouth on 13 May (pcopies of relevant newspaper announcements included), hence the 15 May London backstamps. This cover was found in a loose group of mixed covers by a Cavendish describer and then researched; it has probably not been on the market since the 1960s. A superb Exhibition Item from this rare early Egyptian transit route. Few known. [Ex Vandervelde.] Cross Reference: MARITIME MAIL, EGYPT