Blue Mauritius, book cover

Welcome to the Blue Mauritius Research Companion

This website contains biographical and bibliographical information about the Post Office Mauritius stamps and subjects related to them. It is based on my research for the book Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps.

Post Office Mauritius (05), two pence, used (V) (1847)

  • Image of Post Office Mauritius (05), two pence, used (V)
From
1847
To
1847
Functions
Cover and Stamp
Alternative Names
  • Caunten fragment
Location
Private hands
Summary

2d. Used, on piece of the original envelope, addressed to ‘H. Caunten, avocat, au Port Louis’. The stamp is cancelled with PAID in a rectangle and has been repaired at the foot.

Details

Events

1847
Used on a letter to H. Caunten at Port Louis.
1887
Henri Adam Junior obtained the piece from Caunten. Albert Rae then purchased it for 300 Mauritian rupees (£23).
1889
Rae consigned his collection to a Parisian dealer for Fr.12,500 (£500), from whom the ‘Post Office’ piece was bought by a certain Perrissin for Fr.4,000 (£160). (The Parisian dealer, according to Rae himself in Mauritius Illustrated in 1914, was a Monsieur Le Roy d'Etionnel, not Monsieur Ch. Roussin, as stated by Moens in 1899.)
1890
Offered for sale by Whitfield King & Co. at the London Philatelic Exhibition in May for £200, but not sold. Dorsan Astruc purchased the piece from Perrissin in June for Fr.3,500 (£140) – one of the few times a ‘Post Office’ was sold at a loss. P. Mirabaud purchased the piece from Astruc in July for Fr.3,750 (£150).
date (?)
Bought by the American George Worthington.
1917
Alfred Lichtenstein bought part of Worthington’s collection, including the Mauritius portion.
1947
Louise Boyd Dale inherited the Lichtenstein collection on the death of her father.
1968
The Dale-Lichtenstein collection was auctioned by H. R. Harmer (Boyd Dale died in 1967) and the piece was bought by Raymond H. Weill Co.
1970
Acquired privately by Hiroyuki Kanai from H. R. Harmer.
1982
Acquired by a German collector.

Prepared by: Helen Morgan

Original Recipient

Owner

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