Commercial Covers

A couple of new acquisitions have arrived and this commercial illustrated cover for my Iowa collection is one of them. Marshall Canning Company was originally in Marshalltown, Iowa, purchased by Western Grocers in 1909, and again sold to Consolidate Grocers Corporation in 1944. I don't know when it moved to Hampton, nor do I know if it is still in operation, I doubt that it is.. The Marshalltown address can be seen under the brown overprint in the corner card. I don't remember ever seeing the Brown Beauty product line. Glad to have it for my collection, however.

Don

 

I purchased this illustrated commercial cover primarily for its colorful corner card, but, secondarily, for its cancellation. It was posted in Oklahoma City, but the cancel dial does not include "City" after Oklahoma. Oklahoma was the original territorial name for Oklahoma City, but the cover was cancelled in 1919, twelve years after statehood and I thought that was odd, especially since the return address of the real estate business used Oklahoma City. Turns out it was not unusual, however. A local postal historian told me the OKC post office did not get around to adding "City" to the cancelling dial until 1923!

Don

 

I was rummaging in the shoe boxes again and found this cover, long lost and forgotten. I believe it was part of a lot of illustrated commercial covers I bought to get a couple that I wanted. The rest I resold on eBay. This one must not have sold. That's understandable. It's pretty ratty, but seems like it would have appealed to tobacco topicalists.

Detective Don

 

Among my recent acquisitions are a few commercial usage first-day covers that included three produced by the Texas Refinery Corp. To date, this one of the first stamp in the 1961-1965 Civil War series, Sc. 1178, is the earliest Texas Refinery cover I have. I need to find a checklist of the covers from this company. So far, I have seventeen of them, but that is no where near complete.

Don

 

I recently acquired this commercial cover from Shellmar Products solely for its colorful cachet. I could not find any evidence that Shellmar is still in business. Not much philatelic value, but it enhances my Commercial Cover collection and it would be a good addition to a bird topical collection.

Don

 

Hey! Someone moved this thread. Maybe one of out new moderating team. It's better placed in this forum.

Here's another of my earlier Texas Refinery Corp first-day covers. This one for the Camp Fire Girls stamp, Sc. 1167 featuring Percy. Unfortunately, there is no accompanying letter with it so we will never know what Percy's important question was.

Don

 

I received this today with a nice selection of older French issues,which are still valid for postage.It is interesting to note that every stamp has been cancelled very neatly.The sender and post office took great care with the franking.On the reverse side are more stamps,and a complete miniature sheet,again carefully cancelled.The French Postal service did a good job !!
Just wish I could say the same about Royal Mail.I received three envelopes with nearly 25.00UKL worth of stamps...and not a single one was cancelled !!!

 

Beautiful cover Anglobob! Not often in this era of automated cancel machines do so many stamps come through without scuffs, pulls, cancel smears or tears (not saying this one was run through a canceling machine).
I have seen clerks here take hand canceled covers put them into trays and send for a second round of cancels.

 

The Hess-Mallory Company was a dry goods wholesaler in Sioux City, Iowa, and I bought this cover with the company corner card recently on eBay thinking it was a commercial usage first-day cover. It appears so on the surface. However, after an internet search on the company and the addressee I discovered that there are at least nine other first day covers on Hess-Mallory stationery and all are addressed to Jack Osborn, the addressee on this cover. After learning this, I concluded that Osborn, or maybe a close relative, worked for Hess-Mallory and Osborn was using its stationery to service first day covers. It is, indeed, a first-day cover for the 13th Amendment, Sc. 902, with an Iowa connection so I'll be putting it in my Iowa collection, at least until I get some solid evidence that Hess-Mallory was producing commercial usage first-day covers. Shucks, I need to pay closer attention to what I'm buying. Fortunately, it wasn't expensive.

Don

 

Those who have viewed my FDC commercial usage posts may recognize Percy, the ghostly sales manager for the Texas Refining Corporation. He is on this cover, a non first-day, with a group of buildings that are the corporation's offices in Fort Worth, Texas. The RFC's offices are the white buildings in the cache. From what I can determine Texas Refining has been in this location since its incorporation in 1922. This is the only illustrated cover from this business I have seen to date that is not a FDC.

Don

 

Reminds me of the stamp dealer Souren - I've not seen a cover from him which was not an FDC...

 

A package I recently received while on holiday.A nice selection of new stamps,carefully placed and with nice cancellations.

 

Welcome back Bob!

Enlarging the image allows us to see how beautifully some of those stamps are engraved!

Don

 

A new acquisition from eBay. I know little about the company, Edgar T. Ward's Sons Company, but it appears that it manufactured precision tools, metal parts, rods, and steel tubing. There was also an office in Boston, Massachusetts, that may have been the home office. The cover is also curious for its name, The Shaft. The postage paid is only 1 1/2 cents suggesting it carried printed matter of some kind, perhaps, a newsletter or a house organ. I bought it for its corner card and the possible double entendre it suggests. Not a preferred item to receive in the mail. Posted only two days after Pearl Harbor, it may not have received much attention at the time. It's headed for my Commercial Cover collection.

Don

 

Here is another ratty cover out of that dollar box at the 2019 Grapevine stamp show. Not high on condition, but I couldn't pass up the magnificent image of the trumpeter squirrel. The postmark is partially obscured by the printing, but it is dated November 8, 1935, exactly 84 years to the day that I bought it. The '8' in the postmark is also inverted.

Don

 

This is a curiosity piece that I received in mail recently. It carried a grand sheet of Mexican aviation cinderellas that I purchased on eBay. Inflation is upon us. There are 47 stamps on this envelope which is too big to get a decent scan. Certainly not a record for the number of stamps on an envelope, but it impressed me. I guess I'll soak them off and put them in a bag of commemoratives I plan to sell at one of the local stamp club auctions. I will put up the aviation cinderella sheet later.

Don

 

I'd leave it just as is...impressive cover.

 

Hi David:

I still have it intact and will keep it so based upon your and Molokai's advice. It does pose a storage problem though. I'll find a spot for it somewhere.

Many thanks for your comments. They provide insights about the cover I didn't have before. As an aside, I was a window clerk in the Omaha post office many years ago (early 1960s). I also worked as a substitute clerk for the Postal Transportation System. Made some trips on RPOs between Omaha and Chicago, Omaha and Cheyenne, Omaha, and Denver, and worked in the PTS terminals at Council Bluffs and Omaha. Didn't like RPO work and transferred into the Omaha PO. I liked the window clerk job the best. I sold many a commemorative stamp in that job. We had all the current commems then. I wish post offices stocked them now. I went to our local post office a couple of weeks ago and asked to buy a half dozen postal cards. No luck. The station didn't carry them.

Don