CORINPHILA AUCTIONS 297 - 308 Day 3

1851 (Aug 15): Stampless entire letter written from Sofala, River Turon to Carlisle, England and redirected upon arrival to Allonby, sent registered from Sydney with two line "Registered / Sydney" handstamp with "PAID / ♚ / SYDNEY" datestamp below (Oct 11) both in red and prepaid '1/-' in red manuscript. Double arc Carlisle cds in blue on obverse (Feb 14) and reverse with London cds in red and Maryport arrival (Feb 15) in blue and charged '3/2d.' due to pay. The entire with fascinating contents: "After all my thoughts of Californias I am at the diggings but in Australia....it is a friend going to Sydney who will post this. In it you will find specimens of gold from the diggings here obtained by myself...we cannot trust the Post here...last month I made £56...there are thousands here ands claims are scarce". Sofala was one of the first Gold Mining towns in Australia: the Post Office opened on the day after (August 16) this letter was written. A remarkable and rare entire.rnProvenance: Prestige, Melbourne, 11 May 2012, lot 426.