COMPLETE PRO-OCEAN 1d POSTAGE "PETITION TO PARLIAMENT" WITH ...

Estimate

£360 - £500

COMPLETE PRO-OCEAN 1d POSTAGE "PETITION TO PARLIAMENT" WITH 1852 LONDON CROWNED "FREE" DATESTAMP; 10 Dec. 1852 giant EL (c.10x4 ins. being several sheets of paper attached to each other with 239 different signatures, and rolled into a continuous letter folded 25 times and totalling some 2.4 metres in length!) being a scroll-like manuscript Petition to Parliament seeking "the establishment of a System of Ocean Penny Postage", meaning a 1d to be charged for sea postage from any British port to any port overseas (but especially in the United States and Canada), separately from inland rates within either country. It was sent by post endorsed "Petition to Parliament" from "TAUNTON" (fine red-brown cds on reverse) to "H. Labouchere M.P." in London, and has a very fine strike of the very rare red crowned London "FREE/+" ds of 11 Dec. on the front. Labouchere was M.P. for Taunton from 1830 until 1859, and he was President of the Board of Trade from 1838 to 1841 and and from 1847 until 1852. This cover and that in the previous lot are the only recorded examples with this post-1840 crowned "FREE" mark. Important Exhibition Item. [Ex Robson Lowe PH auction, 13 Feb. 1985; lot 1326, realised £351 inc. BP.] [Illustrated in BPPP, p.67.] Cross Reference: TRANSATLANTIC MAIL, FREE MAIL, MULREADY STATIONERY & PROPAGANDA COVERS, SOMERSET