First Piece of Mail Using a Stamp Could Bring $2.5 Million at Sotheby’s
Stamp collecting is one of the world’s best-known hobbies. The first postage stamps were used in 1840, and the hobby emerged soon after. Now the stamp, a British ‘Penny Black,’ that started it all is going to auction.
How many times have you opened a letter and immediately discarded the envelope? It’s fortunate for stamp collectors and history enthusiasts that, more than 180 years ago, someone in England apparently did the opposite.
The first known piece of mail sent using a prepaid stamp — “one of the greatest leaps forward in human communication”—heads to auction Feb. 2 at Sotheby’s in New York. Presale estimates range from $1.5 to $2.5 million for the piece of history.
If the piece realizes its high estimate, it will become one of the most valuable pieces of postal history to have ever been auctioned. Last November, an “Inverted Jenny” error stamp sold for $2 million.
Dated May 2, 1840, the letter’s original recipient was William Blenkinsop Jr., the 35-year-old manager of a Victorian iron works in Bedlington, a town in the north of England. Sotheby’s state that all that’s known about the letter’s sender is that they posted the missive in London — about 300 miles to the south — and paid for it with a Penny Black, the first postage stamp.
Described in the Sotheby’s auction catalog as “One of the greatest leaps forward in human communication is commemorated by an envelope prepaid by the Penny Black, the first postage stamp. For the first time in history an entire nation of over 8 million people, more than half of whom were literate, could now correspond, exchange ideas, forward news, and ask questions—for the price of a penny.”
Described as “The Genesis of Philately” while on display at the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in 2014, this remarkable survivor is recognized as the first piece of mail sent using a postage stamp.
“Surviving over 180 years, the ornate envelope sealed with a Penny Black revolutionized the way people from all walks of life correspond, exchange ideas, share news and express themselves,” Richard Austin, Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, said in a statement.
“At the dawn of the AI age, this remarkable object speaks to our innate human desire for connection and the ways in which it has evolved to new heights in the two centuries since,” Austin said.
