If the stamped letter achieves its estimated price, Sotheby's says it will become one of the most valuable postal works ever sold at auction.
The world's first letter sent by stamp is set to sell for up to $2.5 million.
The letter was dated May 2, 1840. The original recipient was William Blenkinsop Jr., a 35-year-old manager at a Victorian building in Bedlington, a town in northern England. Sotheby's said that all that was known was that someone had sent the letter from London, about 300 miles south of Bedlington, and prepaid for it with a Penny Black stamp.
After receiving the letter, Blenkinsop Jr. turned the envelope upside down and refashioned it into a "Mulready" - an envelope elaborately decorated with images representing the British Empire, which acted as another prepaid payment method introduced at the same time as the Penny Black stamp.
The envelope was returned as "Mulready"
That second envelope reached Mr Blenkinsop, most likely Blenkinsop Jr.'s father, who lived in Dalston, Carlisle, 75 miles from Bedlington, and he kept it, although both letters were lost.
"Over 180 years old, the 'Mulready' envelope, with its ornate Penny Black stamp, revolutionized the way people from all walks of life exchanged letters, exchanged ideas, shared news and expressed themselves. At the dawn of the AI age, this remarkable object speaks to the innate human desire for connection and the ways it has evolved to new heights in the two centuries since," Richard Austin, Sotheby's global head of books and manuscripts, told CNN .
Both sides of the envelope still clearly show the date of sending, the first side is dated 2.5.1840 and the second side is dated 4.5.1840.
Penny Black stamp from 1840
Teacher and social reformer Sir Rowland Hill conceived the idea of the Penny Black, the world’s first stamp, to standardize the complex, expensive, and unpredictable postage rates of the time, which were charged to the recipient of a letter. The system was difficult for both users and the postal service to use, and many were sometimes unable to recover the cost of shipping goods and letters if the recipient did not pay.
The Penny Black stamp was extremely successful and was subsequently adopted worldwide.
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