1841 USED MULREADY LETTERSHEET LYNN GREAT BRITAIN (03/27/2011)

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1841 USED MULREADY LETTERSHEET LYNN GREAT BRITAIN

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1841 USED MULREADY LETTERSHEET LYNN GREAT BRITAIN

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Sold Date: 03/27/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Stamps

Very interesting Great Britain 1p Mulready lettersheet (postal stationery) cancelled with black Maltese cross, postmarked Lynn, Mar 23 1841, to Thetford, with Thetford, Mar 24 1841, receiver on face. Message is from East of England Bank regarding a credit. Mulready stationery was introduced as part of the British Post Office reforms of 1840, when a universal postal rate of 1 penny per ounce was established. William Mulready, a well known artist at the time, was commissioned to illustrate the front panel of the lettersheets and correspondence envelopes. The father of the British postal reforms, Rowland Hill, expected the Mulready stationery to be even more popular than the 1p Penny Black and 2p Penny Blue postage stamps which were introduced at the same time as the Mulreadys, May 1 1840, but the adhesive stamps prevailed with the public. It seems that the Mulready design, which incorporated a munificent allegorial Britannia at the top ruling over her dominions, proved so elaborate that it generated widespread ridicule and lampooning in the press. Some even believed it was a covert conspiracy by the British government to control the supply of envelopes, and hence limit the flow of information carried by the postal service, which had become a sole government monopoly under Hill's reforms. Many hilarious private parodies were created, which further led to the demise of this stationery by 1841. Very good condition, strip of soiling at top back (please see scan), two tears in letter sheet, measuring 1 inch and 2 inches, all of which not visible from face. *** We have been in the postal history business since 1953 and are members of the American Stamp Dealers Association, American Philatelic Society, National Stamp Dealers Association, Philatelic Traders Society (Great Britain), Canadian Stamp Dealers Association (Canada), International Federation of Stamp Dealers Associations, Collectors Club of New York and numerous other philatelic organizations.