World Stamps
Pair of essays linked to Riel rebellions top $1,800 in Eastern auction

By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent
Eastern Auctions, in Halifax, held a sale Feb. 19-20 of British Commonwealth stamps and postal history that also included one of Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway inverts — in this case, perfectly centered and never hinged. It sold for $6,850, including the firm’s 15 percent buyer’s premium.
A couple of mysterious essays for a stamp inscribed “Republique Canadienne – Canadian Republic” were said to date from the time of Louis Riel’s rebellions. Riel led two unsuccessful uprisings, first in 1869 and again in 1885, of the mixed-race Metis people against Canada’s newly established central government.
Next to nothing is known of the origin or fate of these essays, although the auction firm cited one 1944 source that dated them to the first uprising.
Connect with Linn's Stamp News:
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Keep up with us on Instagram
The sale catalog noted that fewer than 10 examples are known in red. One, on watermarked paper, sold for $1,100, while the other, on unwatermarked paper and with the lower left corner slightly clipped, got $770.
Both Riel rebellions were put down by military force. A soldier’s letter sent to England at the 2¢ concessionary rate by a rifleman with the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade in the summer of 1870 is reportedly the only known 2¢ soldier’s letter from the first Riel rebellion. Franked with a 2¢ “Large Queen” and postmarked in transit in Montreal, it fetched almost $12,000.
MORE RELATED ARTICLES
Community Comments
Headlines
-
World Stamps
Apr 15, 2021, 4 PMNew printing quantity for Canada’s Snow Mammals
-
World Stamps
Apr 14, 2021, 6 PMCanada Post to issue Eid stamp April 22
-
US Stamps
Apr 14, 2021, 2 PMHorses lament slow mail delivery in March cartoon caption contest
-
World Stamps
Apr 14, 2021, 1 PMAmos Media seeks managing editor for Scott catalogs