Lot 46047 - Holywood Ship Letter 1834 (January 20th) – The Exceedingly Rare Holywood “SHIP LETTER”: Large part folded lettersheet from Bahia, Brazil, to London, carried across the Atlantic and landed at Holywood, Co. Down, bearing

Holywood Ship Letter

1834 (January 20th) – The Exceedingly Rare Holywood “SHIP LETTER”: Large part folded lettersheet from Bahia, Brazil, to London, carried across the Atlantic and landed at Holywood, Co. Down, bearing the boxed HOLYWOOD/84 mileage handstamp and a spectacular strike of the ornamental scroll SHIP LETTER, an exceedingly rare marking.

Ships entering Belfast Lough occasionally sought shelter there, and it is probable that a pilot brought this letter ashore at Holywood, where it entered the General Post for onward transmission via Dublin to London. Manuscript markings on the face indicate a General Post charge of 1s10d, although the cover does not explicitly reveal the additional Ship Letter charge.

A remarkable survivor of Brazil–Ireland transatlantic maritime mail, combining an exotic origin with one of the great rarities of Co. Down ship-letter postal history. An outstanding and highly desirable exhibition showpiece.