August 2011 - Ship Letter to London.

The 1740 Ship Letter was published by Alan Robertson as the only known example of a Circular Ship mark from Ireland. The mark contained within a 30mm single circle reads SHIP / GR / 2. The cover to the left shows an Irish Bishop mark for 3 OC and an abbreviated "CTRY" Country handstamp. When the article was written in 1954 further information was sought. Does anyone have any further examples of this or further information, if so let me know.

July 2011 Cover of the Month - Brownlow Signed Free front

An interesting free front dated 2nd January 1823, signed by Charles Brownlow, MP for County Armagh at Westminster, 1822-1832. Charles Brownlow was born on 17th April 1795 and after a period as MP for Armagh was raised to the peerage of the UK, by Queen Victoria, as 1st Baron for Lurgan on 14th May 1839. He was also High Sheriff of Armagh in 1834. He was deeply interested in improving his estate and took a lively interest in and useful undertaking in the welfare of the people of Lurgan. Unfortunately he died on 30th April 1847 during the height of the Irish Famine. The free front also includes a strike of the Irish Free mark in use at that time. This example is extracted from the February display of the NIPS, further images can be viewed online by clicking on this link.

Be warned I am on the look out for further images for August so be prepared!

April 2011- Paid at Banbridge

An interesting cover from Banbridge to Hillsborough posted on 2 June 1840 and marked in manuscript as Post Paid. Despite the introduction of adhesive stamps the supply was short in rural areas and covers such as this continued to be marked with the postage rate, in this case 1d.  The prepayment is acknowledged by a boxed “PAID AT BANBRIDGE” in red.  It is backstamped with double arcs for Banbridge and a double arc receiver for Hillsboro for 3 JU 1840. 

March 2011- Uganda Missionary Mail

4 Annas in combination with 2½d Annas of British East Africa on cover from Miss Eleanor Browne to Rev C. A. Kent in Weston-super-Mare. The internally used Uganda Missionary Stamp is cancelled by a diagonal stroke of blue crayon with the BEA stamp cancelled with a Mombasa Squared Circle datestamp SP 10 97. This was one of the sheets displayed by John Griffith Jones to the NI Philatelic Society in March 2011. Further details of the collection can be found at the RPSL website by clicking here.

February 2011 Cover of the Month - Post Offices of the Levant - Russian Prepaid Bilingual Letter Card

From time to time I twist a few arms to try and get something different for use on the website. Having pestered our past chairman Mr Thompson for several months he provided me with a lovely selection of new pages that he has started to prepare for a new display. The image to the left is a printed prepaid bilingual (Russian and French) letter card sent from Salonique to Sweden with a value of 4 Russian kopets. There is a blue single circle Russian post office cancellation (R.O.P.I.T.) dated 17th November 1902. The card was first sent to the correct address in Geple with a single pearl arrival handstamp dated 30th November 1902. It was then redirected to Matkaryd in Southern Sweden with a similar single pearl arrival handstamp dated 1st December 1902 and finally redirected to Boras, a city near Gotenberg, with a double pearl arrival handstamp dated 2nd December 1902.

In true style Billy has provided us with a few additional pages and these can be found by following this link or going to the Members Display area. Be warned I am on the look out for further images for March, so be prepared!

January 2011 Cover of the Month - Transitional Period Uprated Postal Stationary Cover

Following the discovery of the recent Thomas Moore one of our members remembered this cover from his collection. John produced this historic GB 1½d brown postal stationary envelope with a Harrison 1½d brown vertical perforated 'coil end' together with a pair attached with a five line Harrison Overprint on a ½d green, totalling 5d single registration rate used from Dublin to Sidcup, Kent, England. It is cancelled Thomas Moore Street, Dublin and dated 30.OC.23. The joiner and date on the coil end have been overinked to show "258 - 26/2/23".

The backstamp reads "SR TOMÀS UA MORDHA / A CLAITH / 30.OC.23" which translates as "Thomas Moore Street Dublin". John noted that in the September 2008 issue of the IPC Journal the question was asked, "just where in Dublin is Thomas Moore Street?" The answer appeared in the December 2008 issue which states thus:- "In fact there is no street of that name, but it was used unofficially at one time for Aungier Street (the birth place of the Irish poet and author Thomas Moore)".