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Birmingham Philatelic Society

Postal History – Where Will it End?

Synopsis of a talk given to The Birmingham Philatelic Society by J.G.S. Scott – 1989

Traditionally Postal History has been regarded as an adjunct to stamp collecting and as such tended to be confined within the same artificial parameters set by the size of the album page. This has tended to limit the subject material of any display to the letters, postmarks and stamps that fall within this restriction and has excluded all but the smallest documents let alone three-dimensional objects. While there are exceptions to this generalization it is my contention that an exclusive devotion to the superficial characteristics of a letter, although commendable in its own right, is not Postal History. Stamp or postmark collecting maybe, but it is no more than a microscopic view of a tiny portion of the story of how a communication originates, is transmitted to its destination and is delivered to the recipient. After all, an adhesive stamp is but a symbol of administrative convenience issued by a postal authority to show that a charge has been paid without the need to record the event by a manuscript mark as was the case prior to 1840. Similarly, the Bishop mark was introduced to reassure the writer and the recipient that the letter had not been delayed unduly in transit and the Maltese Cross as a means of defacing the adhesive to prevent re-use. Both stamps and postmarks can tell us about the rates charged and the routes taken but I hope to show that there is much more to Postal History. The main themes follow in their natural order of progression; from the time a letter is written until it is read by the addressee. Together they make up a complete picture but, like a jigsaw, each piece can be removed for special study.

1. The Written Word.

This seems a logical starting point for, without it, would stamp collecting even exist. The theme encompasses the paper, pen and ink used for writing the letter, the method of composition in terms of letter writing styles and the finished product which itself can tell us much about the social history of the age.

a) Pens.

The word ‘pen’ is derived from the Latin ‘penna’ for feather and is indicative of the type of instrument used from early medieval times until the middle of the last century, usually the primary wing feather from a goose although ravens, turkeys and swans were used also. For many years the art of writing was fostered by the church, hence the word ‘clerk’ from cleric, but the growth of commerce and of an educated middle class spread an interest in calligraphy far beyond its original confines. For obvious reasons the quill was an instrument that was quickly worn out and discarded but the same cannot be said of the steel nibs, largely made in Birmingham, that took their place in the 1830’s. Literary names and designs were incorporated by the manufacturers with Macniven & Cameron creating the slogan ‘They come as a boon and a blessing to men, The Pickwick, The Owl and The Waverley Pen.’ Even the nib boxes were decorative objects in themselves although they pale beside the penholders made of wood, ivory, silver, ebony, gold or glass. The greatest drawback was the constant need to replenish the ink supply and although the name ‘fountain’ seems singularly inappropriate, the experiments with ink reservoirs date back to the 1720’s. Now we are in the age of the biro and fibre tip revolution although I have found it easy to resist the collecting temptation, a short term view that one will live to regret in the laser age. In 1703 Edward Cocker listed the following requirements for writing which are indicative of the scope of this aspect alone.

i. A penknife for sharpening the quill.

ii. A hone and oil for renewing the knife blade.

iii. Quills.

iv. Paper.

v. Ink.

vi. Ground pumice, probably contained in a pounce pot.

vii. Flat and round rulers.

viii. Compasses to rule lines.

ix. Sand to throw on letters written in haste.

and lastly a smooth black slate. You could continue with such accessories as pen wipers often made by Victorian daughters for their parents from pieces of black velvet, pen trays and travel writing cases, and a whole range of decorative Mauchline ware originating from a district in Ayrshire which pioneered the technique of printing transfers on wood, often incorporating local views or postal information

b) Ink

A recipe of 1638 suggested a witches brew comprising 3oz. of oak galls, 3 pints of wine or rainwater, 2oz. of gum Arabic and some pomegranate bark or sugar. Henry Stephens took some of the work out of writing when he set up his famous ink factory in 1834 for the manufacture of patent writing fluids. Ink wells themselves range from the glass examples dug up from the refuse of past centuries to the products of the famous porcelain factories and the novelties so popular with the late Victorians.

c) Paper

A cave wall has its restrictions for the purposes of communication and the search was soon on for a more portable medium. We moved from papyrus and tablets through to vellum derived from sheep or goats skin until we arrived ultimately with paper, courtesy of the Chinese. From there we can expand into the themes of paper tax, watermarks, decorative stationery and mourning paper. Even the depth of the black borders was a question of social etiquette indicative of the proximity of the death in question and mourning extended to black wax, black blotters and jet paperknives.

2. Printed Matter

Nowadays printed matter has a connotation associated with the unsolicited junk that arrives with the postman, the milkman and the newspaperman and is then removed unread by the dustman. In days gone by however even the domestic bill could be made more acceptable by the addition of a fine engraving of the premises or product. A little levity is added by the novelty postcard shaped as a hat or a boot and also by the bureaucratic rules associated with them. A postcard could be no longer than 5 7/8” long and 4 1/8” wide; no less than 4” long and 2 3/4" wide. The addition of decorative glitter transformed the card into a letter on which even the message “Guess who sent this” warranted an extra charge. The world of commerce even then was a fruitful source of printed matter ranging from newspaper and magazines to lottery tickets, advertisements and bills of exchange. Mention of newspapers takes one into the realm of the newspaper tax, introduced in 1712 at the rate of 1/2d and raised to 4d ultimately to pay for the American War of Independence among others. A “Tax on Knowledge” was how the reformers described it until its abolition in 1855.

3. Security

I use this topic rather than the more obvious ‘stationery’ because although the development of the envelope constitutes a major part of the theme as expressed by Waterlow’s Self-Sealing Envelope Paper, the use of wax represented a much earlier desire for privacy. Decorative wax seals were used by individuals, companies, post offices and governments until they were replaced by more convenient gummed paper or wafers. Once again the taper boxes, seals of wood, brass and more decorative materials, wax jacks and wafer cases indicate the scope for the three-dimensional. Until 1840 the envelope in this country constituted a separate sheet of paper and hence a double charge but thereafter we enter the field of embellishments ranging from the intricate work of the Valentine to the dreaded OHMS, a fertile source of study in its own right.

4. Consignment

In this final section before we look at the physical movement of correspondence, the writer has to decide how to send his letter. For local messages or those of commercial or national importance a courier might be used and there is a direct parallel between the messengers employed by the Venetian merchants in the 15^th century and today’s motorbike and air couriers in the financial markets of the world. As an example of the Postal History of tomorrow, the Datapost service has all the right ingredients: it is dull to look at, too large for the album page, expensive to use and generally restricted to company business not freely available on the open market. Furthermore, it has already been overtaken by the facsimile transmission service. For larger consignments, often parcels sometimes accompanied by letters, the private carrier with horse and cart would often be used, usually operating from the local inn, and later the railway companies. The bulk of letters were carried by the post office however which itself involved a number of choices. In the days of sail it was commonplace to identify the preferred ship and sometimes the rate of postage varied according to the decision. The letter then had to be weighed on a contraption that sometimes resembles a miniature coalmine headgear and stamps affixed by means of what was aptly described as glutinous cement.

5. The Post Office

Just as the smaller offices today have a dual function so too did they in the 17^th century when the local coffee house was often the forum for the receipt and distribution of mail. Sometimes the location was identified by a crown or by a lion’s head, the mouth of which was the letter receptacle but prints, postcards and photographs remind us of the greater architectural glories of the head post office. Enamel signs have been replaced by illuminated plastic but the posters remain as do the pillar boxes although of a rather less imaginative shape than when they were first introduced from Paris to London in 1855. G.K. Chesterton’s opinion was that “in all created nature there is not perhaps anything so completely ugly as a pillar box”.

6. The Administrative Structure

In the United Kingdom the most visible fount of authority is the Houses of Parliament whose will is expressed by printed Acts and thereafter one descends through Treasury Warrants dealing with postal rates to the Postmasters-General, the Surveyors, the Postmasters and, last but by no means least, the staff. Implicit in this chain of command are the instructions issued by one layer to another and the unions formed to organize the amorphous lower mass.

7. Post Office Duties

One basic function of the postal employee is to issue a receipt for letters handed to him for such services as registration, telegraphic transmission and datapost. The ink and the handstamps associated with this duty are easier to find as impressions than in their actual form particularly in this country where the post office has always had the irritating habit of recalling redundant handstamps. But the post office has accumulated other functions steadily over the years ranging from banking services to more recently, dog licenses and the telephone service.

8. Haste, Poste Haste

The methods by which a letter can arrive at its destination range from the foot messenger to the supersonic aircraft. While a single letter could conceivably be carried by a multitude of different methods, the most usual forms of conveyance, excluding the more exotic pigeon, rocket and balloon posts, can be summarized in a number of headings:

a) Foot Messenger

The small office or city receiving house would often be linked to its head office by a foot messenger sometimes equipped with a bell to signify his ability to receive letters.

b) The Horse Messenger and Mail Cart

The next level of conveyance was the single rider or, where a greater volume of mail was involved in urban areas, the mail cart, the modern equivalent of the bicycle and van linking sub-offices and stations.

c) The Mail Coach

It was John Palmer’s nine day experimental mail coach service between London and Bristol which revolutionized the long-distance carriage of mail in August 1784 and two years later the service linked London and Edinburgh. The coaches were privately owned, often by the proprietor of the inns that acted as the termini, and the mail coach horns and armaments are redolent of the past glories of the coaching era. Tickets were issued for the passengers and private goods carried in addition to the mail and inn receipts for refreshments taken at the regular coaching inns are often embellished with a pictorial representation ranging from Three Swans to The George and Dragon. Some of the drinks of those days can be thoroughly recommended on a cold winter’s night such as negus, made from a mixture of boiling water, lump sugar, lemons, port and grated nutmeg. We tend to view phrase books as being a modern invention but one favourite was published in 1818 with the following useful sentences: “Hark ye coachmen, my wheel has fallen off. The coachman has fainted. Disengage the coachman from the horse. He has a hole in his head and a large swelling. Ought we not to apply a piece of money to make it go down.”

d) The Iron Road

The coming of the railway marked the death-knell of the mail coach but also introduced the theme of the travelling post office and the trackside apparatus.

e) Aerial Post

This method of carriage is almost unique in creating its own form of stationery, of light weight and with appropriate insignia for the use of the letter writer.

f) The Seven Seas

As with the mailcoach services, the bulk of mail was carried overseas in private ships either on an ad hoc basis taking whatever letters awaited a vessel for that destination or under a specific contract. The Post Office did have its own packet service notably from Falmouth to the Mediterranean, the West Indies and South America. The packet vessels too were allowed to carry a limited number of passengers which leads one conveniently into the documentation of travel _ the passports and disinfection procedures associated with cholera and other diseases.

9. Delivery

The arrival at the post office nearest to the recipient leaves only its delivery still to be accomplished. Here the public has its closest relationship with the postman on his round, dressed in the uniform and badges indicative of his position. Victorian music sheets show him to have been a splendid character in red and blue uniforms. It is surprising how little thought has been given by postal historians to the receptacles designed to receive letters in front doors, most letters arrived, sometimes with a form of acknowledgement, and were placed in a letter clip. Some, for one reason or another, never did reach their destination.

So we reach a conclusion. The letter has arrived and often the cycle will be repeated with a reply. Like a rainbow, Postal History has no ending, but I hope the story has intrigued you.

John Scott.