Lamps

Iron “Betty”, Rush Lamp, Kerosene Table, Railroad Conductor’s Lantern

Autumn 2019 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 5 F201 — Antique Lighting — 9/11/79

The postage face amount on this scarce Collins is over $9.00. It has all four of the antique lighting stamps ($5.00; $2.00; $1.00; and fifty cents) postmarked with the official first day of issue cancel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I'm sure very few first day covers exist with all four stamps on one envelope. Upon returning to the mainland, it was off to the Edison, NJ Post Office for what was an amazing unofficial postmark. They had a slogan cancel available that read "Thomas Edison — A Century of Light— 1879 —1979. " This incredible day of issue postmark also reads "Menlo Park Station" — which was the site of Edison's first laboratory. Along with a second fifty-cent lighting stamp, I had affixed an early 3-cent Edison stamp to create a "combo" first day cover. Then, an unfortunate occurrence took place. The postal clerk took all of the covers away from the counter and out of my sight to receive the great slogan postmark. When he returned, they had the perfect postmark, but each and every envelope received a slight scrape from the canceling machine. It does not affect the value or collectability because all of them have it. The hand painted cachet shows a profile of Thomas Edison and a rendition of each of the four antique lamps. Only 150 of this early high-value Collins cover exist. In a strange sort of way, the slight postal mishap actually adds to the provenance and creation story of the covers. It rarely comes up for sale.