Around the houses ~ Robert A. Siegel: The "Ice House" cover

As the only fully documented and authenticated example of the US 90¢ 1869 stamp used on cover, the Ice House cover has long stirred the imaginations of postal historians. The existence of the cover was fantasized for years before it was found. Then, four decades after its discovery, it was stolen and thought lost forever. Then, after another four decades, it resurfaced almost magically, only to spend several more years in a legal limbo. Now, with this sale, it will finally rejoin the collector community in which it has so long been celebrated.

The Ice House cover was last offered at auction in April 1943, as lot 175 in the J. C. Morganthau sale that contained some of the Ackerman collection. The lot number is written in pencil on the back of the cover. Estimated at $1,000, the cover sells for $380 to Emmerson C. Krug. Krug subsequently returns the cover and it is acquired anonymously by G. V. Luerssen, a metallurgical engineer from Reading, Pennsylvania.

The letter was sent from a New England ice merchant to one of his ice warehouses in Calcutta, then part of Britain’s East Indies colony. It was franked with a total of $1.12, a large sum of money in those days, which paid the two-ounce foreign letter rate. Markings on the envelope reveal that it traveled across the Atlantic, by train through Germany and Italy, by ship to Egypt and again from Suez to Bombay, and then by train across India. Before the advent of the Universal Postal Union the next year, the sum reflected rates negotiated between the United States and Britain to encourage growing international trade.

The buyer on Saturday 13th June 2009 was Dr. Arthur K. M. Woo, who is renowned in philatelic circles for his worldwide exhibits of rare covers. He paid a total of US $431,250, including buyer’s commission.

Notes
1. New York Times (2009), $431,000 Paid for Envelope and Its Stamp. Consulted 30/Jun/09.
2. Robert A. Siegel (2009), The "Ice House" cover auction catalogue. Consulted 30/Jun/09.