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 pomegranite 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-dimentional.
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 15th 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 a glutinous cement.
5. The Post
Office
Just as the smaller offices today have a dual function so too did they in the
17th 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 licences 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.
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